Jethro Tull's performance in my hometown in November was their first here in twenty years and one day. Then they were promoting their new album, Under Wraps, while in 2004 they had no new album to push. Instead they were touring with the promise to play some songs that hadn't been performed live in a long time, if ever. The first set was to feature Tull's acoustic side while the second would see Martin Barre's guitar put to full effect. In addition, it would be my first time in the newly-built Overture Center and nice way to beat my post-election blues.
The show began with "Life Is A Long Song" from an EP released in 1971. Not particularly rare but a good performance nonetheless. After it was finished, Ian Anderson began with his usual stage banter. He commented on the Presidential election the day before and how the new President looks a lot like the old one. This elicited many a boo from the liberal Madison crowd which was loud and boisterous most of the night.
The show continued with the perennial favorite "Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day" from 1974's War Child album. More classics followed, including "Dun Ringill" and most of the acoustic songs from Aqualung. The set featured the second-ever performance of "Slipstream" as well as the live premiere of "I Raise My Glass to You" from Martin Barre's solo album, Stage Left.
While Anderson's antics have mellowed over the years, he still wandered the stage maniacally with phallic flute in hand. This line-up has been together for about ten years and it shows. Musically, they were tight and everyone seemed to be having a good time.
Each band member introduced at least one song and their comments lightened the mood and got the crowd laughing. A woman in the audience yelled "Hey, sexy knickers!" during the introduction to "Up the 'Pool'" which added to the revelry.
Keyboardist Andy Giddings may dislike "The Squeezy Thing" (a.k.a. - the accordion) but his playing on "Eurology" really warmed me up to the song. The highlight of the first set was Aqualung's "Mother Goose." Giddings and Barre added recorder and everyone got a chance to show off during the extended instrumental section. The first set closed with the latest arrangement of "Bouree" from their sophomore album, Stand Up.
As promised, the second set had the amplifiers turned up loud. Bassist Jonathon Noyce donned a University of Wisconsin hoodie and started out by playing the intro to "My Sunday Feeling" before Doane Perry's drums came crashing. "Cross-Eyed Mary" followed and showed the weakness of the set: it was weighted a little too heavily towards songs from Aqualung that have been live staples for most of the band's career. However, I can imagine that it isn't easy for a group that's been around for 36 years to devise a setlist that appeals to a crowd of mostly older fans but younger ones as well. Still, Tull's last two albums, Dot Com and Roots to Branches, are criminally underrated and it was disappointing that the band played nothing from either. Considering the results of the election and the wars on terrorism and in Iraq that were ongoing, I felt that songs such as "Roots to Branches" and "Valley" would have been highly appropriate in addition to being great pieces of music.
This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the second half of the concert. Towards the end, Tull brought out "Farm on the Freeway," a song about the loss of the family farm here in America. Many people in Wisconsin understand the situation all too well and perhaps some folks in the audience knew it first hand. Any political messages aside, the song stands as one of the band's best, with Barre's guitar sounding brash and loud while Anderson spits out plenty of licks from his flute. Hot on its heels came the most intense moment of the night, "My God." Probably Tull's angriest song, it is a classic with piano, flute, and acoustic guitar butting heads with the loud, acerbic electric guitar and drums. A shiver shot down my spine when Barre's electric guitar burst out after the flute solo in the middle of the piece. "My God," like "Farm on the Freeway," explored a political issue, in this case, the tension between the Islamic and Christian worlds today.
Tull brought the set to a close with rousing versions of "Aqualung" and "Wind-Up." The standard encore of "Locomotive Breath" followed. The band played an instrumental version of "Protect and Survive" from 1980's A, while Anderson tossed out balloons that were almost as big as he was into the audience. They were still bouncing around the theater as the band left the stage and the house lights came on. However, saddened one was with the election and the state of the world, it surely brought a smile to see two huge balloons caroming off of the balcony as Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" played softly in the background.
(This was originally published at The Green Man Review back in 2003-08.)
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