[atlantaprog] Belew review... spoiler alert!

<x-tad-smaller>This is a review of Ade's current touring act by someone on Progressive Ears. Don't know the writer or the city (he will be at Variety on Sunday, 9/25). I sent a note to Variety suggesting that MOF open for him - seems appropriate!
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The show was really good, IMO. On stage with him was a good powerful drummer named Mike Hodges, and a fantastic fleet-fingered and hyperactive bassist named Mike Gallaher (who also does a passable Rodney Dangerfield impression </x-tad-smaller>

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<x-tad-smaller>). The three of them grooved tightly, even when they all seemed to be flying off on a tangent - near-telepathic interplay at times. Ade's voice was as strong as ever, and of course his guitar playing was superb! Lots of his trademark off-kilter swooping and diving solos, with plenty of strange sounds being coaxed out of the ol' six string. On most (or at least many) songs, his MO was to start by recording a one- or two-bar figure with his footpedals, and use that as a looping "rhythm guitar" part throughout most of the song, so the sound was usually fuller than you'd expect from a trio.

Except for five Crimson tunes - "Dinosaur", "Elephant Talk", "Frame by Frame" (incomplete), "Three of a Perfect Pair", and "Thela Hun Ginjeet" - the last two of which the trio ripped through with much gusto - I didn't recognize much of the material. I know for a fact that he played both "Ampersand" and "Writing on the Wall" from </x-tad-smaller><x-tad-smaller>Side One</x-tad-smaller><x-tad-smaller>, and that he previewed a track from the forthcoming </x-tad-smaller><x-tad-smaller>Side 3</x-tad-smaller><x-tad-smaller>. Whatever it was had some Eastern flavorings, and to the crowd's delight he took the opportunity to work in a large amount of George Harrison's "Within You, Without You". He also played some track (kinda bluesy, IIRC) from an album he said he didn't have the chance to tour in support of due to KC's touring schedule. The first two encores were very good, relatively straightforward, pop/rock tunes (one even sounded a little punkish) that were well received; they sounded '80's-ish, so I'm guessing these might have been from one or both of his acclaimed first two solo lp's. </x-tad-smaller>

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