There are two bands that regularly feature in the finale to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The first, which everyone knows or could probably guess, is the Neville Brothers. The second, perhaps less obviously, particularly to outsiders, is The Radiators. The five piece band recently completed a quarter of a century of existence, and celebrated it in January 2004 (a year late!) by capturing their stint at Tipitina's on tape, which has now been released on CD and DVD.
The Radiators--prime exponents of fish head music--believe in doing things their own way, and set their stall out on the opener "City of Refuge," the first of four covers. This a band that believes in having fun, and try to make sure that the audience do too. This is not to say that they are a comedy band; far from it. As one of the band says at the end of their interpretation of "Junco Partner," "This is fun! Not too much fun; just enough fun." And that is the way you have to see this album.
There are no half measure when it comes to the Radiators. The majority of the tracks are at least six minutes long, and six of them rack up over 10 minutes. None of them ever sound like they are too long, however, which is largely down to the way that the band make their own particular brand of New Orleans music sound interesting. Stylistically the Radiators fuse together elements of funk (New Orleans style, naturally), rhythm and blues, jazz (Steely Dan style) and rock and roll. The end result is something for everybody, and music that will have you tapping your feet, nodding your head, and shaking your booty, or some combination of the three.
For most of the tracks the band are joined by the excellent Mark Mullins on trombone, sometimes in tandem with the rest of the Bonerama horns, so called presumably because all three of them play trombone. The band also tap into the services of saxman Karl Denson, while bass player extraordinaire George Porter Junior joins in the celebration on four of the tracks. Greg Allman contributes to a couple of tracks too, including his own "Midnight Rider." None of these line-up adjustments affect the band, though, and they invariably sound like they all play together on a regular basis.
A word of warning. This is a marathon, rather than a sprint. The first CD clocks in at 78+ minutes. The second is only marginally shorter, and includes a funky version of "Sitting On Top Of The World" (mistakenly credited to Chester Burnett), and rounds off in grand style with "Lovely You" which features some cracking trombone from Mullins. In spite of the length of both CDs, things never seems to drag, and it does offer a representative view of a Radiators live show, which brings us on nicely to the DVD....
The DVD (same title as the CD) features the whole show from 31st January, so you get a real chance to see how all the pieces of the Radiators jigsaw really fit together. It is only when you see the band on stage that you can fully begin to appreciate the great interplay between the band members. They know how to work an audience and give them what they want. They also know not to short change the punters who buy their work, so there is very little duplication of tracks between the DVD and the CD. And, once again, it is great value for money: the first set is almost 90 minutes, and the second just under an hour. As with the CD, Mark Mullin is present on most of the tracks, as is Karl Denson. George Porter Jnr also adds his weight to the engine room on a few tracks, and singer Theresa Anderson joins in the party for the middle of the second set.
There is little in the way of editing, so what you get is pretty much a straight recording of the band on stage. It would have been nice to have had the song titles shown, but, on the other hand, they do have a separate song index as one of the bonus features. The others include footage from some of the other gigs, a revealing and highly amusing interview, some backstage insights and a photo album.
All in all "Earth vs. The Radiators: The First 25" is something well worth having, either as a CD, a DVD, or both. The Radiators are a class act, and the CD and DVD capture the essence of their live shows. While it can never be the same, both act as a pretty good substitute until you get a chance to see the band in the flesh. It may be summer, and it may be hot, but here are a couple of very good excuses for putting The Radiators on!
www.image-entertainment.com
www.rads25.com
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