Doors Live try to set the world on fire at the culmination of 28 songs picking the heart out of Rock Gods with a canny sense of humour.
This tribute band would be true EU based if the UK hadn’t pulled out recently.
Frankie Mac, drummer has a long pedigree in UK bands going back to the Seventies. Ben Hajar, bass guitar from Sweden. H (from Transylvania), guitar looks like Santana with moustache and black hat. Aaron Gott (Looking for Alaska) keyboards, I thought he came from Hamilton but was he born in Leeds?
The first thing to notice is that the bass guitar changes the dynamic of their live sound markedly. The Doors used session bass players on their studio albums (including Larry Knechtel of the Wrecking Crew) but on stage the bass sound came exclusively from Ray Manzarek’s left hand on the keyboards.
The show starts with a declaration. You can’t petition the Lord with prayer!
It is a misdirection as instead of the long-piece Soft Parade, they launch into Changeling, opening track of the classic L.A. Woman.
Immediately the bass rhythm propels the sound with greater heft. The classy trash keyboard riffs are still there.
A clue to their popularity and a pointer to the unwarranted backlash from certain music critics at the time. Of their studio recordings at least.
Back Door Man. Written by Willie Dixon and a Fifties Blues classic which the Doors added a psychedelic overlay and the vampire on guitar takes one of several hot solos.
The Doors were like Zeppelin in widening the sonic palette of the Country Blues.
Also had considerable Jazz chops from Kreiger and Manzarek, and this is highlighted in the klezmer carousel sounds of Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar).
Let’s swim out to the moon… The liquid glass-toned guitar makes Moonlight Mile special.
It is really the drums and bass which manhandle the groups legacy, trying to tear a few new orifices whilst keeping true to the originals.
Drummer takes over and thunders away in fast and furious Keith Moon style as Jimbo intones… Aristocrat in a top hat/ That’s crap. Another misdirection as it charges into a radically different arrangement of Break on Through (To the Other Side).
One of my personal favourites is Peace Frog. There’s blood in the streets/ The town of Chicago/ Bloody red sun of fantastic L.A.
The Doors were political and mixed it with the mystic and psychedelic as the responded to the zeitgeist of America in 1968.
In many ways the country is at that point again, as the world has come through another rebirth of a nation with the US Presidential election of 2024. The incumbent having dodged a bullet to secure the victory. 1968 carried two, MLK and RFK. Current Kennedy carries on the legacy of murdered father and uncle.
L.A. Woman is super-charged on the cymbals.
The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat) is expansive, stoned immaculate Blues in similar fashion to Captain Beefheart. Edgy humour.
Soul Kitchen. I was seduced by the fast take that LA Punks X did under the production of Ray Manzarek. This goes back to the original louche tempo. Work up a good groove as they speak in secret alphabets.
Instead of doing The End, they play When the Music’s Over, which is just as good.
Of course, they trot back to give a definitive Light My Fire, which the drummer leads with a different tempo.
Bonus to throw in Gloria which seems to channel the original Animals of Newcastle with the singer phrasing like Eric Burden.
Quite a gourmand feast for die-hard Doors fans, like the members of Doors Live and all of us present tonight.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Greg Haver
