Hot Rock (The Beauties, Flash Lightnin' w. Samantha Martin) Rolling Stones Revue

Hot Rock (featuring members of The Beauties, Flash Lightnin' w. Samantha Martin, Michael Johnson and Ron Sexmith) - The Dakota Tavern 03/24/10

After a hotly anticipated gig by Eric D. Johnson's Fruit Bats at the Horseshoe with an early show end a small crew of us realized we might still be able to catch Hot Rock at the Dakota Tavern, a Rolling Stones revue featuring members of The Beauties, Flash Lightnin’ and Samantha Martin. As it turned out we chanced into the entire second set which bounded from tastefully chosen staple to staple of the Stones repertoire. The Dakota Tavern has a dusky ambience and reputation for exceptional Roots music programming that precedes it. The Beauties and Flash Lightnin’ have both played legendary weekly residencies which were invariably three set drenching affairs for band and audience both. Both bands are possessed of the sort of chops and comraderie that flirts loosely with disaster but never veers too far from controlled chaos. They have the sort of human jukebox hatchetmen bravado that is perfect for the Rolling Stones repertoire. Whereas for instance members of The Golden Dogs, Zeus or Bahamas would be better suited to a Beatles revue as their brand of music nerdiness tends to lean towards knowing every little tricky flourish and lick in the most obscure of Beatles tunes. Basically The Beauties have the same chops with different inclinations, they could make a complete train wreck sound like a ragged symphony. And on this night somehow after a perfectly short wait at the door was ushered down the Dakota's breakneck staircase just at the start of what would prove to be an over the top second set.

Hot Rock - Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - The Dakota Tavern
Set II: Satisfaction
Honky Tonk Women
Loving Cup
Dead Flowers
Wild Horses
Tumblin' Dice
Under My Thumb
Let's Spend The Night Together
Miss You
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Gimme Shelter
Sympathy For The Devil

Hot Rock is basically a one-off revue of the Stones repertoire (it seems they've done 6 or 7 shows total wrapping up this Tues. 17 at the Dakota Tavern and Thurs. the 20 at Tatoo Rock Parlour). Those who have been fortunate enough to catch a night or more of this immense collection of musicians has been treated to not so much covers as evocations of the Stones chestnuts. Hot Rock is made up of Darin Glover from Flash Lightnin' on guitar, Darcy Yates and Chris Henry on bass and drums respectively also from Flash. The Beauties are represented by Jud Ruhl and Shawn Creamer with good mate and collaborator Samantha Martin coming in for the 'chick bits' and maintaining a precipitously unbalanced testosterone balance. On this night in particular Michael Johnson from the Skydiggers was on the keys adding a technical savvy flourish to the ensembles thundering sound. The band from the sounds of things didn't do much rehearsing outside of some Tuesday afternoon run throughs of the set that Darin Glover seemed to have pulled together. Both sets were really tastefully paced and presumably Darren on the onstage copy of the setlist made a really smart substitution in of Dead Flowers, the ode to Gram Parsons made doubly poignant by the Flying Burrito Bros. tee that Sam was wearing while wailing away- and Wild Horses. This made the run from Loving Cup, Tumblin' Dice (both off of Exile On Main Street) through Dead Flowers and Wild Horses parcticuarly poignant. These or, few of them, are not the sort of songs that the Stones play to stadiums themselves but would be definite fodder for their small unannounced club dates for their uber-fans. It's safe to expect a bit of a break from Hot Rock and The Beauties playing at the Dakota with any regularity with their brilliant self-titled release out June 1st on Six Shooter (accompanied by a handful of high profile dates including opening for Blue Rodeo at the Kee to Bala on May 24 - you can't get much more Canadiana than sharing a stage that has graced the likes of Goddo, Kim Mitchell, hell even George Clinton in the heart of cottage country). The Beauties have two other CD release shows May 28 at Call The Office in London, the 29th at the Horseshoe with big gigs at both the Broken Social Scene island festival and the pre-eminent Hillside later in the summer. Hot Rock - Tues., May 17 Dakota Tavern Hot Rock - Thurs., May 20 Tatoo Rock Parlour Samantha Martin and the Haggard - Fri., May 21 Dakota Tavern The Beauties opening for Blue Rodeo - Fri., May 21 Kee To Bala The Beauties - Fri., May 28 Call The Office, London The Beauties - Sat., May 29 Horseshoe Tavern