Jeff Beck and Thee Attacks- Amager Bio, København 11/11/10

This was the first time that Jeff Beck had ever played in Scandinavia I am told. This concert sold out in just a few days after being announced and it was the 2^nd to last of his 6 week European tour. I really liked his blues stuff from the late 60’s and his jazz fusion stuff from the early to mid 70s but was never much of a fan of his material the last 20 years but I did really admire him for being so willing to try new and different things and create a whole new sound for himself rather than just stick to the same thing, playing blues or jazz. That being said I did not have high expectations.

            It was great to meet my Swedish friends Mats and Anders and some of their friends and Jiri and Nick from the Univerzals and Anders and Freddy, etc.. I mostly hung out and tried to get a place in front of Jeff with my work colleague Nikolas. Anyway, a local rock band, Thee Attacks opened the show with a 30min set and they did not really turn the crowd on much and got a kind applause but little more. They play pretty much like late 60s rock and roll stuff. A very dynamic front singer but musically they offer little new or exciting.

            Jeff Beck and his band hit the stage right at 21 and the sound was amazing. This female bass player, Andrea Smith??, she is just awesome. The first 40 mins of the set was all pretty recent (last 20 years) material, except Stratus and all the songs were around like 4 mins and sort of different variation of quite similar stuff. He has a very impressive band with a great drummer, bass player and keyboard. Of course he is talented but his playing did not really excite me and he really seemed to be just going through the motions. It was all to easy and flowing and he did not seem like he challenged himself at all. The bass player, she laid down a totally killer solo (excited me and had my attention more than any of his guitar solos, which were all quite short). Rollin and Tumblin’, which the bass player sang, was a great change in dynamic and he played some very cool guitar. He did a really great instrumental version of the Beatles, A day in my Life. Higher was a great encore track and the longest song of the whole concert. How high was an old 50’s rock track. I did not know the last short song they played.

            I am glad that I went and there were parts that I really enjoyed but it was for sure not worth $100 and I would never pay that much to see him again. It will be interesting to see what other people think.

Set List: Plans, Stratus, Led Boots, Corpus Christi, Hammerhead, Mna na Eireann>bass solo, People get Ready, You never know, Rollin’ n’ Tumblin’, Big Block, Over the Rainbow, Blast from the Past, Angels, Dirty Mind, A day in the Life (Beatles). Encore: Higher (Sly Stone), How High (w/Les Paul), Nessun Dorma