I knew we were in for an amazing evening as we literally ran into the Greek Theatre on this Indian Summer evening in LA. Jeff Beck had already taken the stage as we found our way to our nosebleed section seats. Luckily the Greek boasts not a bad seat in the house to go along with the blow-your-mind acoustics and perfect, perfect sound. Jeff Beck had set the tone for the evening, serving up all the favorites off the 1976’s Wired, like Come Dancing, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat and the exquisitely bittersweet Led Boots. Jeff Beck is truly an artist for which the music comes front and center. He’s complimented when someone isn’t able to figure out what instrument he’s playing! Shaggy haired in his patented black skinny jeans, his solos flashed and bubbled with utterly ageless style. His sound was tightly focused with fast vibrato when he launched into Star Cycle. The song was perfectly timed to an astronomical light show. In a “sky-is-crying” styled blues number, Beck’s excursions through the outer territory of free spontaneity in now way diminish his mastery of straight ahead fusion. His pliable style, which allow him to roam freely, with no registered break, from velvety chords to gloriously air tones, made each standard tune into an intimate experience.
When they took a 10 minute break, the concertgoers who packed the Greek already knew what to expect, having given him a giant group hug of a standing ovation when he stepped back on to the stage. He was joined then by a 14-piece string section that were there to perform material from the 1975 album Blow By Blow, in the manner it was originally recorded. The string section demonstrated killer chops but less brio mostly hewing to notes that replicate the original versions of such barn-burners as Freeway Jam and Scatterbrain. Those certified classics got the throng of singing which energized the band, the electricity trickling up until Beck himself gained another layer of rock star aura.
Throughout the set, his zephyr buoyant sense of rhythm brought subtle but urgent, propulsive swing to the middle tempo fusion songs. He produced remarkable harmonic and polyphonic effects. Today Jeff Beck’s band is; Beth Hart on vocals, Pino Paladino on bass, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums and Jason Rebbello on keys. His relationship to his band, always an autocracy, but now one that leaves a little room for his subordinates to relax, Drummer, Vinnie Colaiuta in particular seems to have grown toward something like equality to Jeff. Beth’s husky tenor has a bit of rasp to it as she belted out “Ain’t Superstitious”... she sang with exuberance and melancholy – but most of all resilience. Beck seemed aware that at this stage in his career, his gestures could seem hardened so he threw in a little emotional distance to epoxy the hits his way. In a rare bit of stage patter he introduced the string section.
They closed up what I thought was a perfect evening with the encore, “A Day In The Life” by The Beatles. I don’t think he’s ever done that before. All in all - Jeff Beck’s appearance at the Greek Theatre on Thursday night provided a rare opportunity to experience the eclectic musicality of this guitar wizard.
