It does happen now and then that an opening band turns in a much better performance than the headliner. Last night at the Bull Run Restaurant in Shirley, Massachusetts was such an occasion. The main attraction was Danny Klein’s cheesy, atrocious J. Geils Band tribute act Full House. Boy, did those guys fail to do justice to their source material. More on that disappointing experience later. Focusing on true art must come first.
Marty Nestor saved it from being a dreadful night. His 40 minute set provided serious well-crafted tunes that were executed by his fine acoustic rhythm guitar playing and his three top notch backing musicians. He opened the night with his original “The River Will Run Through It,” a number marked by Nestor’s smooth powerhouse timbre and his solid, folksie, amicable guitar strumming. Maintaining the balance between driving rock and folksie appeal was Nestor’s force of nature vocal approach. He carried the entire song up and down the story arc on the strength of his voice. His blazing band also set the song on fire with generous offerings of energy and talent.
On his next original “Tell Me What You Want,” Nestor got more raspy and the song got a solid backbone from the profoundly solid and tight rhythm section, bass player Jeff Root and drummer Kim Miller. These two didn’t just lock into a groove. They provided, deep, meaningful muscle for the vocals, acoustic guitar, and lead guitar to sail over. Speaking of lead guitar, you should’ve seen and heard Doug Vennard on his electric. The guitar wizard played with consistent, unusual power in every song.
Nestor put it across with a hearty vocal rasp and his hefty acoustic chords on “JimmyJohnJohnny,” a tale of a nasty young bully who gets his comeuppance. The song also came alive on the strength of Root’s hearty bass rumble and Miller’s adept drum fills. The electric guitar chewed up the scenery at points; Vennard’s phrasing was just a run a of endless energy.
Nestor took on some classic blues and rock and roll. He went into the old Bessie Smith number “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out.” He played some nice vintage style blues on his acoustic while a two-step beat compelled you to tap your toes to its thumpy ride. The electric guitar layered waves of fiery heat over the country blues rhythm. Yet, it was Nestor’s amicable delivery that made it happen at the microphone. He has a chirpiness in his timbre that keeps things earthy, real, and accessible.
Vennard’s lead guitar prowess let him whip up a phrase that rang in and out of the soundscape like the haunting twang in a western film score on “Sweet Little Angel.” That was only the beginning. Nestor gave this one a haunting, contemplative narrator vocal style. He sounded like a cowboy delivering his final soliloquy before a glorious gun battle. There was just an epic quality to this one that forced you to follow along and imagine your own dramatic scene to it.
Nestor and his men closed out with Elvis Presley’s first ht single for Sun Records, “Mystery Train.” The drums and bass kicked up quite a hootenanny, and Nestor dove right into this early rock and roll song with his earthy, aggressive vocalizing and hearty, assertive strumming. The band made you feel the train coming around the track while Nestor made you feel it pulling into the station with his personable voice and gentlemanly stage presence.
Danny Klein came on next with his God awful, sucks beyond redemption, J. Geils Band rip off, Full House. It doesn’t matter if Klein is one of the original members of the J. Geils Band. If he had more respect for his source material, he would’ve hired better players to perform it. Klein likely didn’t earn as much of the money pie as his Geils band mates so he probably does this routine so he can still make some. Sort of like Adam West picking up a few extra dollars by appearing at car shows with the Batmobile.
Klein and his cronies were off to a bad start from the first song. “South Side Shuffle” didn’t have the right groove. ‘Love-itis” lacked energy and felt strained, like the players were trying to keep up with each other. I felt uncomfortable watching the front man walk out into the audience. That is a privilege reserved for the famous, and as he isn’t that good a singer, I felt embarrassed for him. He should have served the song instead of serving his own ego.
On many tunes Full House played overly up tempo to compensate for not being able to work on subtle things. “Come Back” was one tune they played fast and probably hoped nobody would notice it was missing the true urgency of the original.
Full House had much difficulty when playing material from Geils’ later year. They just didn’t have any finesse on the pop-oriented stuff. “Love Stinks” and “Centerfold” brought back pleasant memories of senior year high school and freshmen year college. Yet, both songs felt way off. Klein and his pack of mediocre players were just muddied, not precise and pop energetic. Their rhythm in “Centerfold” was way off and unrehearsed. The keyboardist sounded clunky on his chords during “Freeze Frame,” like he wasn’t quite sure how to play it, and he had to think quickly where to land his hands.
“Give It To Me” was dull, plodding, frustrating the true Geils fan who’d like to get into the primal energy of the original. And as Full House is a tribute to a band named after their guitarist, it is strange that Full House’s guitarist was mediocre and unremarkable. His phrasing was horribly off during “Wild Man.” Where did Klein find this guy? True Geils fans would’ve went into mourning if they had heard his clumsy, abbreviated version of the lead guitar solo on “One Last Kiss.” Screwing that one up really made this personal. Get off the stage, jackass.
The only Geils song that came close to the original’s energy was “First I Look At The Purse.” Fitting, as that is probably Klein’s motivation for playing with a group of lame musicians. He doesn’t have to pay them much. This band did manage to give new meaning to the Geils’ song title “Must Have Got Lost.” They sounded lost and confused for the two and a half hours they played without a break.
Rosy Rosenblatt is this band’s harmonica player. He must have lost self-respect when he joined. His “Wammer Jammer” was unrehearsed and barely reflected a fraction of his true talents. He badly needs to cleanse himself by playing a lot of gigs with Erin Harpe. Immediately.
Sadly, the Sanctuary title track was delivered with no passion. The Full House guys failed to capture the chorus chant groove and instead shouted the word “sanctuary” like a bunch of angry drunks in an alleyway.
There were moments when Full House came close to acceptable. Yet, they were only close and those moments were too far few and in between. It should be a crime for a J. Geils Band tribute group to play these flawed, pale renditions anywhere in New England. It is hard to believe that the other former members of the now defunct Geils line-up actually sanctioned this posse of poor players. This is the kind of band they make you listen to in hell for all eternity.
Martin Nestor is available on Facebook.
Hey: Thanks alot I played drumkit for Marty last night, It felt good……….Kim
I must say I have been a follower of this band and have never heard but great reviews.. They never have an empty dance floor and patrons screaming for more !! It sounds like just maybe whom ever wrote this article is a musician that could only hope and dream of being on stage playing with the energy that I and so many saw Sat-night !!! Will continue to follow and enjoy Danny Kleins Full House Band….
The author of this article is only one person that truly is in love with Mr Nestor, I thought the warm up act was just that, a warm up…..drab and boring, should have stayed as a solo act. i am guessing Bill Copeland is either a lover or family member. of Mr Nestor. Any from the audience….it seemed “Marty” did not seem too appreciative to Danny Klein and his Full House band for allowing him to get on stage and back them up. Not very classy by Nestor at ALL
This just pisses me off cause people are such idiots like Bill Copeland!
I really hope no one is discouraged by this poorly-written, unprofessional review of Danny Klein’s Full House. I am also a follower of this band and I can honestly say it’s one of the most fun, and energetic shows I’ve seen in the New England area. Each member has his own style of getting the crowd involved with the show and up on their feet dancing. Not only are they a professional and talented group of guys, they are great fun! And the comedic banter between Danny and his keyboard player is an added bonus.
Trust me when I tell you, you will not leave this show disappointed by any means. Rather you will leave it completely knackered (if you’re a dancer), you will have a smile on your face, and you will be left asking when and where the next show will take place.
Having an opinion is one thing, but insults and individual bashing is another. What’s written above by Mr. Bill Copeland, is anything but a proper or an objective “review.”
I have read these comments and have to admit that a few are very classy, however to say that Mr Copeland is a lover of Marty Nestor is completely over the top. I have known Marty for many years and he is definetely not gay nor Bill. I have no interest whether a good review was given to either band but I do know that the following at the Bull Run that evening was just as much for Marty as for Danny Klein. Marty has put many years into his ORIGINAL music and he has as much class as any musician out there. He had no input in writing this review and I feel that he deserved it. I did enjoy both bands that evening and when I was speaking with Marty afterwards he did nothing but enjoy Danny Klein. I did stay for some of Danny Kleins set but as most people left early. If you enjoy dancing to a cover band then I am sure you enjoyed it. For me I enjoy the art of the music.
I gotta admit after reading this review I am absolutely speechless….. I have been following Danny Klein’s Fullhouse for many many years and they have never left anyone unsatisfied, fans are always left wanting more! Fullhouse is such a wonderfully talented group of musicians backing one of the greatest Danny Klein himself. It is so great to see a group of musicians come together as well as Fullhouse does to continue the music of The J Geil’s Band and Danny Klein is so amazing. In my opinion I thought they were on fire sat night. I didn’t want the night to end! Danny, Rosie, Dave, Steve, Jim, & Artie will never let you down! Always a class act leaving you wanting more!!
Typical..copeland hates anyone who’s made it. Look at the paperboy reed review, same schmaltz-if this dood reads at the same level he writes at he must need a dictionary to get thru the outsiders. serious loser
I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to read me and to respond. I’m always happy to receive feedback. It is especially good to receive feedback nearly a week after an article or review is posted. It seems puzzling to me that some people are so angry that their band received a bad review…one bad review out of a lifetime. The professional bands who play upscale rooms and get plenty of gigs, press, fans tend to ignore bad reviews. They also don’t pay much attention to good reviews. They read it once and say, “Oh, that’s nice.” Then they move on to the next gig or recording or whatever. If this band is a good as everyone says, then I am not sure why so many people are so bothered by it. If this Full House is such a top notch band, then they should be getting so many good reviews that my one unfavorable response shouldn’t matter much. And for the record, I will not be posting any of your comments that clearly libel something, especially without facts and evidence to back it up. This goes for what is being written about the musicians who like me and don’t like me as well as what is being written about me. A person named “Jimmy” just attempted to send a post about me that is completely untrue, and as he didn’t identify himself or the person he accused me of mistreating, his comment will not be posted. I’ve withheld posts about many artists who were called inappropriate names and or accused of doing things that could not be proven and had nothing to do with the aritcle and or review written about them.
Better late than never I suppose. Bill please take this for what it is(which by reading your responses in the comment sections you won’t) this is meant to be constructive and perhaps to make you better understand what’s happening. I read your site mostly because it infuriates me which is fine. Music like anything that has no right or wrong answer is subjective and everybody has a right to their opinion. The problem with this review which people have is not that it’s a bad review it seems to cross a line of review and seems more personal and vindictive than anything else. Now I know that you profess to give mostly positive reviews to bands on your site because you A)Like them and B)they asked you to come to their show to review them. That’s all fine and well, but since you have stated that fact publicly(I’ll refer you to the comments section of your ethics article) it calls this article into question maybe not for myself(as I take most of what you say with a grain of salt as I have my own ears and opinions) but for other people. The easy conclusion that can be drawn is that you’re a huge fan of Mr. Nestor and he asked you to be there. That makes the review of Full House suspect in peoples eyes as it would come off as you had an agenda to make Nestor be seen in the best possible light. Again I understand that this site is your opinion but when you state it publicly and then try to write off or seemingly act as if any negative comments are a conspiracy of sorts it just comes off as someone who can dish it but can’t take it. I implore you to go back and read your responses in the comments section of this site even of this article. You just try to brush aside anything in the comments section that calls you into question. I especially like the fact that you seem bewildered that people started commenting a week after you wrote the article(I fully understand that I’m very late to the party) but that says more to me about your site traffic than fans of the bands agenda. My guess is it took a while for someone to find or bother to read the article and then word passed around about it. I give you credit, while I may have found the off color remarks humorous they ultimately don’t have a place in what is essentially or should essentially be an intellectual argument and cheapens any argument. To make a long story short before you write a smug response, anything you may take as a dig at you or site probably was. Opinion works both ways. I also have a proposition for you. I know how you think that anybody who comments anonymously is afraid or is just out to talk and not back it up. I didn’t that’s my name and my valid e-mail. I think it would be interesting to do a reviews of two different shows. Someone I pick and someone you pick and we can review both shows and post them on your site. It maybe interesting to people to see someone critique the same show that you were at. That is if it doesn’t make you uncomfortable I would hate for you to have to post an opinion that perhaps is completely south of what you believe and hold dear.
Joshua,
I got personal when Full House did a lousy job playing some of my favorite songs from my favorite band from my youth. Secondly, I have a real problem with a band that weak charging as much as they do. Full House tries to pass itself off as something high quality in terms of having Danny Klein and Rosy Rosenblatt in the band and by playing upscale venues and charging $15.00 or more.
Full House come off like a mediocre cover band that might be worth $5.00 at a townie bar in some rural stretch of New England where people go to hang out and don’t care much about the quality of the band.
The Full House lead singer, guitarist, and keyboardist are so weak that they could practice something over and over again at rehearsal and still get it wrong at their live shows.
That is what I call ripping off serious music fans.
Rosy Rosenblatt, who co-owns Vizztone Records and whose band won the Boston Blues Challenge, is a leader in the greater-Boston music community. He should know better than to lend his name to some sham outfit in which a has been like Danny Klein fakes a tribute with mediocre players only to make a few bucks off of a legacy which he had far less to do with than the other members of J. Geil’s Band.
As for saying I’m vindictive, I can disprove that. I’m actually being generous and kind when I call those players “mediocre.”