DANIEL LANOIS @ THE TROUBADOUR

lar_import — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:31:22 +0000

Being a music fan and living in Los Angeles can have its perks. Among them is the fact that we have such classic venues as the Troubadour, where multi-instrumentalist and Grammy-winning producer Daniel Lanois performed to a sold-out crowd. There’s also a downside, of course: this particular crowd was comprised primarily of stuffy (and odds suggest way overpaid) music executives and their dolled up dates. Judging by the amount of times I was asked where the bathroom was, most of them had never even been to the world-famous Troubadour before. Even Lanois jokingly referred to this mid-show. As it turns out, the night’s entertainment would not sound anything like dub music at all—as per The Black Dub album, named for Lanois’ fascination with Jamaican music and culture. Instead, it was more of an exploration of blues-y rock and emotive Americana. With a stellar backing duo already in place—the greatly talented Brian Blade on drums and the ferocious Daryl Johnson on bass—Lanois enlisted the sultry Trixie Whitley, daughter of the late Chris Whitley, to take on multiple duties throughout the hour-long set, including both drums and organ. With all the firepower on stage, I was a bit surprised to feel (by the end of the night) somehow underwhelmed. All the players had shining moments throughout, from Whitley’s stunning vocals on Lanois’ “Silverado” to Brian Blade’s deft moves during “The Maker,” but all in all it didn’t feel like they were jiving together as a unit. This could very well be because it’s a new effort on Lanois’ part, but it was noticeable nonetheless. One of the evening’s shining moments came when Lanois played a beautiful solo on his pedal steel guitar. His motions were held together by Blade via a hypnotic rolling rhythm to match Lanois’ sweeping chords; the crowd was dead still. The real knock-it-out-of-the-park moment came on a cover of Tenor Saw’s “Ring the Alarm.” All members began to really click on the reggae number—Lanois riffed out notes you’d never see coming. From the looks of the crowd—if you want to call them that—the night was a success. Lanois dropped a great quote as he left the stage, and it’s one that I may steal in the future: “The passion never goes out of fashion.”

—Greg Caruso

L.A. RECORD » greg caruso

DANIEL LANOIS @ THE TROUBADOUR