March 7, 2009
Digging Hall and Oates at Rams Head Live in Baltimore
Daryl Hall and John Oates perform at Rams Head Live! in Baltimore on March 7, 2009.
Belliveau's Music Blog rating:
Last night was "Karaoke Night with Daryl and John," oh excuse me, a concert by Hall and Oates in front of nearly 2,000 singalong fans in Baltimore, who knew just about every word of every song.
The place was absolutely jammed after a preview article in the Baltimore Sun, '80s superduo Hall & Oates not so out of touch, reminded folks about the huge hit catalog of the Philly soul duo and the injustice behind their lack of ever receiving a Grammy. The article turned the show into a sellout.
I scored a ticket to the show and looked at getting another for my sister Sharon, who has seen the group about six times. We've been fans since the "Abandoned Luncheonette" album came out in 1973 (!) and became a Belliveau family favorite.
For me, this was my first real look at the group. The only other time I'd sort of seen them was around July 2004, when I was riding my bike along the Inner Harbor when I heard ...
"... M-E-T-H-O-D O-F M-O-D-E-R-N L-O-V-E ..."
... wafting through the air.
That sounds like Daryl Hall's voice, I thought. Well, it was indeed. The duo was playing at Pier Six Concert Pavilion, and I'd accidentally stumbled on one of my favorite groups. I stood with the other free riders who gather in front of the Waterfront Marriott to get a distant glimpse of groups playing, for free, and enjoyed the music, arriving home hours after Lamont expected me.
"Where were you?" he inquired mildly.
"Hall and Oates were playing at Pier Six!" I said excitedly.
The Slipknot fan (see Slipknot for the middle aged) looked at my skeptically.
"HALL AND OATES. PHILLY SOUL. 'METHOD OF MODERN LOVE,'" I explained. "You shoulda come! You woulda loved it!"
"I would walk on burning coals for Hall and Oates," the sardonic fan of hardcore noted.
Sharon proved a much more reliably enthusiastic Hall and Oates concert companion. With the rush of interest in the Rams Head Live! gig, she had to score a ticket on the DC Craigslist, as "tickets wanted" to "tickets for sale" on the Baltimore Craigslist was running about 7-to-1.
She bought two tickets in DC and on arrival in Baltimore sold her extra ticket for what both had cost to the father of a family of big fans. Score! The night was off to a good start.
We entered the jammed venue, searching for somewhere to stand with something of a view for late arrivals, going upstairs and downstairs, left side and right side, and finally ended up on the downstairs level, right rear, with a friendly group of superfans.
Many asked me to provide the set list, so here goes, annotated:
- Maneater
The group appears with six backing musicians, all of whom I recognized, especially the long-haired sax player, Charles DeChant, and guitarist T-Bone Wolk, from their recent and rather beautiful high-definition special, "Hall and Oates: Our Kind of Soul," now in rotation for broadcast on Palladia, the upmarket cable concert channel. (Next showing: March 19, 1:30 p.m.)I turned to Sharon and said, "I don't really like this song," and she shrugged and said, "Hit from the Eighties!" I guess I had half-hoped the group would do a few of their soul and R&B remakes from the Palladia special or their underappreciated "Our Kind of Soul" album. We were clearly more likely to be going to Hall & Oates Hitsville for the night, which of course was what 99.9 percent of the crowd, which resembled a Class of 1978 Severna Park High School reunion, really wanted and expected.
- Out of Touch
Yay! They played my favorite song of theirs, from my favorite album, Big Bam Boom, which I listened to nonstop on cassette while traveling through Thailand and Indonesia in 1985. Of course the cassette was a Thai counterfeit, listing the artists on the cobbled cassette wrapper as "Dary Hall and John Oates." Sorry Dary, guess I still owe you $16 for that one on CD ... wait a minute, I may have the CD now ... gotta check. "It's karaoke night with Hall and Oates," I write in my notebook, as everyone sings every lyric and mimes Daryl's falsetto and squeak and howl.
- Everything Your Heart Desires
- Say It Isn't So
Daryl's voice remains amazingly strong, Sharon and I notice. He also is probably the world's most quietly sexy, or certainly beautiful, 62-year-old man, as the frizbo blonde in our little corner of Rams Head Live! makes constantly clear. "WHOOOOO I LOVE YOU DARYL!" she screams intermittently at lulls between songs. You know Daryl must still pull the groupies. I can hardly hear Daryl's between-song patter due to the roar of parts of the crowd yakking away, the crowd dynamic is bit tough to figure -- worshipful yet strangely inattentive -- though clearly swaying couples predominate during the songs, as well as some girls-night-out groups. - How Does It Feel to Be Back
- When the Morning Comes
Sax solo is nice, reworked from original. Sharon notes to her growing group of new friends, one of whom buys her a beer, "I've had this song on album, cassette, CD and now iPod." - Las Vegas Turnaround
So far Hall and Oates are playing sitting down on stools ... well I guess I might too if I were a rocker in my 60s ... and playing their superhits. I feel they are phoning it in a bit, which is understandable when a group has been going nonstop since the 1970s. At least they aren't openly irritable as they phone it in, as I saw when attending a Don Ho concert in Hawaii when he was obviously annoyed by having to do "Tiny Bubbles."Hall and Oates are just about to wake up and play, however.
- It's Uncanny
Hadn't heard this song before, but they did a super funky version of it and begin to smile a bit and interact with the audience. - She's Gone
Biggest singalong of all time, with a hallful of people trying to do letter-perfect karaoke. Paradoxically Hall and Oates finally connect with everyone there on what may be the song they have performed to death more than any other. It's a five-star version that leads to extended cheering. Truly the best so far, I tell Sharon. "After 30 years, yes they've perfected it," she says. - One on One
Great job on the vocals, the swaying couples are majorly swaying now and guys are rubbing cheeks with their girls. - Sara Smile
Another crowd pleaser of course. The giant shaven-headed black guy to my left begins chanting, "HEY DARYL HALL, TEAR IT DOWN!" He adds a "ONE TWO THREE FOUR" to foreshadow funky parts of all remaining parts of the show, and hollers unsuccessfully for "Wait for Me." - I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)
Daryl is no longer seated, he stands behind the electric piano and begins churning a nicely funked up version of this hit. I think, WHY no GRAMMYS? This song and many others are so obviously deserving. - Rich Girl
This is an encore. Becomes "BITCH GIRL" in the singalong by the giant shaven-headed black guy. - You Make My Dreams Come True
Too MOR (middle of the road) for my taste. Take that Grammy away again!
We've been standing for a while now, and I rock my ankles and dance a bit. The baby boomers -- with Social Security in a state, we'll never be able to retire, and with our Peter Pan focus on rock reunion tours, we'll never be able to sit down like mature respected elders and just listen to our music.
- Kiss on My List
We're in second encore territory. I'm not sure that this and the next song are the peak of Hall and Oates' talent, but I'm sure the crowd is happy enough. - Private Eyes
Sharon's notes after the concert:
All the songs took me back to weekends home when my Sarah was 4 and I'd play albums all day - she'd dance to Las Vegas Turnaround in her spinning dress (Sarah puleeze! - turn arouoouuund'.)Excellent points! And the "Maneater" on Youtube is a riot!The fans around us were reluctant to admit that the first time they'd seen or heard Hall & Oates was in the late 70s when they were spending summers in Ocean City after high school. But they sure knew those lyrics - doing their own long bluesy riffs of say, 'She's Goneononononone ohwwowoo mmyyyy' going up and down and all around the scales.
I truly enjoyed the riffs by the guitarists (T-Bone) and sax players - these mature musicians who'd been playing backup for 30 years getting some front and center time. Hall, Oates and the band did seem so relaxed and to enjoy doing the show. As a person who seeks chairs rather than standing these days, it was funny how they sat through the show.
Check out them dancing though Maneater 34 years ago!
Reply from Sarah, Sharon's daughter:
Abandoned Luncheonette was THE album to clean the house to when I was younger. And maybe now, when frank's not home & I can sing my own "she's gowowowowowowowowwone"s. Ok, sometimes it's "Tim" by the Replacements. Mom listened to them, too.The Baltimore Sun article also noted the rather amazing fact that Daryl Hall is now posting a monthly concert recorded at his New York home at this Web site: Live from Daryl's House. I watched the latest one, with Kevin Bacon, and found it thoroughly enjoyable.
A screen capture, above, from the Web site Live from Daryl's House.
Note to Boomers: The next concerts of interest at Rams Head Live! include Todd Rundgren (April 14) and The B-52's (May 13) ... friends and family, who's up for going? Ticket info here for Rundgren and here for The B-52's.
Hall and Oates discography on Amazon.com
