Tender-Fried Juicy Love Bits

Photos by Wild Don Lewis

BOB DYLAN, MERLE HAGGARD & THE STRANGERS
at the Pantages, March 21

In the middle of Bob Dylan’s Monday show last week (the first of a five-night stand), heavy red curtains parted, “stars” bloomed on a dark backdrop, and the band played “Moonlight” (from Dylan’s 2001 “LoveandTheft”) — accompanied by Dylan’s firecracker fiddler, Elana Fremerman, in a knee-length dress. Jesus Christ, this guy’s a soft touch — and, as demonstrated by his recent book, much more effective when he seems to let his guard down a bit, allowing us to observe our seduction.

In any case, the song’s ragtimey feel and nocturnal lyrics brought to mind a young Hoagy Carmichael — who once sat on a wall at night, thunderstruck with the melody to “Stardust.” Thank God Dylan wasn’t overpowered by his band on this song, and we could hear the lyrics in all their dangerous beauty. I won’t nag about Dylan’s voice or occasionally hilarious phrasing — at moments during “The Times They Are A-Changin’, ” his staccato delivery felt like gangsta rap. It was even okay that he played keyboards the entire time — kind of a nice change, actually. My problem with most of the show was that I couldn’t understand a goddamn word, a frustrating experience comparable to seeing a Picasso exhibit with dark sunglasses on. The band, while really, really good — precise, aggressive, sexy, fun and versatile — was just too loud. However, they did bring fresh energy to diverse arrangements — Donnie Herron plays pedal steel like a frustrated metalhead; “Highway 61” became a reggae number; “Summer Days” showed off Dylan’s lindy-hop potential. Obviously, Judas has never been afraid of tainting his own music, but the overall sound here — a glossy amalgam of country, jazz, blues, folk and rock & roll — felt polished, even cold at times. Fortunately, Dylan’s harmonica cut through the mix, and during numerous solos — especially his beautiful-ugly turn on “Just Like a Woman” — gave a peek into a fully realized inner world: that emotional wellspring that knows no age, where playfulness, subtlety, romanticism, outrage and willful dissonance live beneath words. He closed with two covers, sort of — a nod to Hendrix’s version of “All Along the Watchtower” and “Sing Me Back Home” by opener Merle Haggard. Haggard’s set was entertaining as hell — or troubling: full of false starts and stage banter, forgotten lyrics and a libertarian streak, just one beat away from rock & roll. As Haggard confessed, he and Willie have smoked so much, they can’t remember a damn thing.

—Kate Sullivan

ALICIA KEYS, JOHN LEGEND
at Kodak Theater, March 16

Some singer-pianists are born to be “legendary”; this night we saw two. The first Legend was John, his casually comfortable attire setting the mood as he crooned, “Relax, let me move you.” He got a bit naughty on “She Don’t Have To Know,” a song about cheating. Then he told the story of a call from Snoop Dogg, complete with Snoop impersonation: “Nephew, you gotta write a song about changing”; Legend’s response was the soulful “I Can Change.” When he sat down alone and hit the silky piano intro to “Ordinary People,” the women screamed in unison. We were lifted.

On a Cotton Club–style set, Alicia Keys looked like Billie Holiday in white heels, white pants, and a white top that showed more flesh than fabric and feathers. The hot, hot “Heartburn” had her dancing and shaking her behind “like a Polaroid” before she played a nice medley of “If I Was Your Woman” and “Walk On By.” “I usually don’t sing this song,” she said, and delivered the R&B-flavored relationship statement “Wake Up” from under a white fedora. “It’s time, it’s definitely time” — time, she meant, for the sultry “Diary”: “Your secrets are safe with me.” Keys turned into Gypsy Rose Lee — glittery headgear, silky white dress, long matching gloves — for “Fallin’,” and then got the couples slow-dancing with her “Baby, baby, baby” on “You Don’t Know My Name.” During “If I Ain’t Got You,” Keys and piano rose high into the air above the crowd, all white, like a cloud. Entertainment or dream?

—Ben Quiñones

GRAHAM COXON
at the Troubadour, March 19

MAXIMO PARK, GOLDIE LOOKIN CHAIN
at Cinespace, March 22

LOUIS XIV, THE DEATHRAY DAVIES
at the Troubadour, March 23

In South by Southwest season, L.A. is swarmed with acts who use that Austin schmooze-athon as an excuse for a mini-tour.

Graham Coxon has outgrown his “ex-Blur guitarist” tag over his five solo albums, which have gotten increasingly accessible and include some audience-acknowledged minor classics. The further Coxon gets from Blur, the closer he gets to the pop instincts that he brought to that band: While his early lone forays were perverse reactions to Blur’s sing-along stylings, his latest, HappinessinMagazines,is a comfortably shabby songwriting manifesto. Coxon’s laddish, sub-Cockney yap and his slightly stooping demeanor — an odd offspring of Rivers Cuomo, Paul Weller and Michael Caine — add a lovingly lived-in visage to his eccentric little chapter in Britpop’s story.

Cinespace’s tiny stage hosted the week’s most incongruous pairing, Maximo Park and Goldie Lookin Chain. In terms of songwriting charisma, Maximo are the most vivid of the current flock of U.K. guitar bands; their mélange of the Smiths, Buzzcocks and the Undertones takes melody and melancholy on irreverent twists into poignant splendor. Front man Paul Smith, soldiering through a fever, channels mucho Morrissey into his sensitive-young-man-adrift-in-a-grim-northern-town shtick, and both he and keysman Lukas Wooller have the Ian Curtis electro-shock shuffle nailed. But Maximo’s sonic poetry outweighs their rather self-conscious, besuited presentation. From unfashionable Newport, South Wales, Goldie Lookin Chain — already cover-story stars back in Blighty — are to rap what the Darkness are to classic rock: a semiparody. Yet their Ali-G take on wannabe Brit gangstas strangely resonates with the very Chav hordes it ridicules. With their leisure suits, headbands and faux-bling, these pimp-pretenders are much funnier if you can picture them in sleepy Newport. Out of context, GLC are eight Welsh blokes jumping around to backing tracks.

Dallas’ the Deathray Davies, possibly America’s hardest-working band, seem to play more L.A. shows than some local outfits. At the Troubadour, aside from a couple of theremin?-spiked whack-attacks, the ’Rays seldom overwhelm; instead you’re seduced by their understated charm — like gradually realizing you’re falling for that quiet, interesting guy from math class. Channeling ’60s Brit-invasion sensibilities through the Replacements’ ragged pop, their new TheKickandtheSnareis perhaps their definitive statement.

Louis XIV’s buzz sold the Troub out weeks in advance, and their swaggering arena potential is obvious. Their tunes are musclebound heartbreakers — expertly executed, but too T-Rex?-tinted, too faux-Anglo-affected, to be credible. Worthy, but not worthy of the dribbling hype.