Josh Fix @ Arlene's Grocery, May 27, 2008
This video is a little rough, but it's a good example of Josh playing live. (The song is "You Can't Shake Me.")
As I said yesterday, Fix can be kinda cheesy, but it's fun glam cheese. Last night, I caught the last show of his month-long residency at Arlene's Grocery. It was quite a crowd, too. I suspect a lot of the people were on the list or personally knew Josh, but whoever they were, they were genuinely enthused to be there.
As was I. Besides being a fan, I was wondering how Fix's larger-than-life sound would translate, well, to real life.
To open the show, the band came out and vamped with a feedback-laden riff while the audience awaited Fix's appearance. He bounded on stage through the audience and started tossing T-shirts out to the crowd. (I didn't get one; they said "Rock and Roll Slut," not something I really want to proclaim across my chest.) He wailed on the vibraslap (a future installment of the Weird Instrument series, for sure), and we were off.
As expected, he sounds slightly different live than on CD, but still really present. The guitar sound is massive, and his guitarist and second keyboardist (he's the first) sing backup vocals so we don't lose that magnificent harmony (which I think is all him on the album).
A few songs in, he starts off on "Don't Call Me in the Morning," the first single from his recently released debut, "Free At Last." He picks up the vibraslap again only to cast it aside (literally), which is maybe appropriate for a song called "Don't Call Me in the Morning."
Later in the evening he says that he's often accused of having a sailors mouth, "but I was a sailor at one point," he says, tossing out an expletive and then going into a song he wrote about his time as an oil rigger ("Rolled in from the South"). Some of these songs betray a slight country influence, but it's ok. It's also at this point that I decide that he kind of looks like a mash up of Moby and Elton John.
more after the jump...
A guy next to me (whom I suspect of being part of Fix's camp) informs his friend that Fix played all the instruments on his album himself. A quick check of the liner notes this morning reveals that to be true.
In the mix at Arlene's the vocals take a backseat to all the rocking (the bass line is particularly prominent).
I don't know why, but I was fascinated by the audience last night. It was definitely an older crowd, and it seemed like it was mostly people who didn't get out to a lot of concerts. The following train of thought happened, make of it what you will: Can you be an ex-frat brother? When you're in a frat, is it that you're a brother for life?
But, just because they're not the type of people I normally attend concerts with (rhymes with snipsters, if you couldn't guess), doesn't mean they don't enjoy music. In fact, there was nary a crossed arm or cold stare in the place.
Fix asked the crowd: "Is there gonna be a next album?" The audience jubilantly responded in the affirmative.
Fix closed his set with "Whiskey & Speed," a track that I immediately liked the first time I listened to it on the album. The audience "woooo"-ed in recognition. I'm continually impressed by my own ear.
He played it up, adding an impromtu call and response with the audience, making a falsetto joke (you had to be there) in the process. Then he called it a night.
But then ... in a rare move for a band who is not the last on the bill, Fix and the band came out for an encore. It was good. You shoulda been there.
eh.www.amNY.com
