The Tubes At Patriot Place May 30th, 2009

For Christmas my wife Katie bought us tickets to see The Tubes, one of my favorite bands from the 70's & 80''s.
Now I had seen these guys back in the 80's when they were HUGE, and the production was amazing. It was one of the funniest, most entertaining and musically satisfying shows I had ever seen. I remember people leaving that show, saying "WOW!"
Back in those days The Tubes had about 15 people on stage, elaborate theatrical sets and props, voluptuous dancing girls, and they kicked ass.

I was wondering if they could still knock me out like that now that so many years have passed.

The answer is YES.

Fee Waybill is the funniest most entertaining front man ever.

From the very beginning of the set, from the first note of the first song, I knew this was gonna be good.

Any fears that The Tubes might have lost it because of their age were bashed away by drummer Prairie Prince, who is truly one of the world's great rock drummers.
He plays with the precision and the skill of a fusion drummer, but he has the power of an angry caveman. His feet are as fast as his hands, and his hands are as fast as pistons. His fills never get in the way and he's got more chops than Bruce Lee.

Fee enters stage right, in a ripped up shabby three piece suit, a bad tie, completely disheveled, a large glass of whiskey in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He satggers onto the stage and immediately goes into a huge coughing fit, gagging and swaying, with smoke billowing out of his nostrils. He recovers. He stomps the smoke out on the stage, grabs the mike and starts singing.

He sounds amazing!
He rips those clothes off and underneath them he's got blue jeans and a T shirt. He throws his shabby suit into the crowd. they eat it up. This is fun!
He shakes his hair out and he's a rocker now. the band is kickin ass and he's all over the place.

A bit later they go into 'What Do You Want From Life."

What a great song.

The band brings it down a bit, and he goes into the crowd interviewing people, asking them what they want from life.

A woman replies, "Sex."
Fee points out her husband. He says, "With THIS GUY? I don't think so. Kinda looks gay to me!

Another woman says "Peace." He says "Well, keep wishin' sister cause you're never gonna F***in' get it."

He goes on like this from table to table. I'm laughing so hard my face hurts.
My wife is howling.

In between songs he talks about the previous gig they did in Shirley Mass, says he met a lesbian on a horse, walked over to say hello. "The horse farted, and the lesbian punched me in the mouth."
I can't remember every joke he did, but he was spontaneous as hell, a truly twisted man. I love him. He kills me.
...and that guitar player! Roger Steen? Jeeeeeezus! Can that guy play!
And the guy has great tone as well.

Yes they're older, and the production has been scaled down, but if you get a chance to see these guys you WILL get your money's worth. I promise you that. You will be entertained.

During the song "I don't Wanna Wait Anymore," Fee showed us he can really sing. This guy has power, and who is a better performer than Fee?

After the show, after all the laughs, and two solid hours of high energy music, the guys had a little "meet & greet," session and signed tee shirts etc...
They really took the time to talk to me. I was impressed with that. No airs, just regular guys who seemed to care about their fans.

I asked Prairie Prince, "Are you guys writing and recording any new stuff?"
He rolled his eyes and said talk to HIM. He pointed at Fee. I shook his hand and asked him the same question.
He said "No. Nobody gives a shit."
I went nuts.
"Whattayou mean, nobody gives a shit? We LOVE you!"
He said, "Yeah, you and ten other guys. Nobody cares about us anymore. they're just not interested."
God, I hated hearing that!
I went over to the guitarist and we talked about guitar effects and stuff. He's a really nice guy, and then I asked him about recording, and he too said that nobody would buy a Tubes record these days. fee heard him, and chimed in again, and I told him, "Man! With aband like this it's a damned SIN not to record it. fee, you are one of the best songwriters in rock music. Don't give it up! Write more songs, dammit! We still need you, now more than ever. You make us laugh. People need to laugh. They need clever songs like the ones you write. We're sick of hearing about the economy and the wars, and who needs another whining singer talking about his deep feelings? We wanna laugh and forget all that shit."

He seemed to genuinely appreciate what I was saying. He said, "I am writing songs for a solo album." the guitar player said he was too. I said "Good. Don't ever give up."

I thanked them, and because I was holding up the line, I said goodbye and walked away, carrying my autographed tee shirts, like some ancient version of a teenaged kid.

On the way home I felt glad to have met those guys. Maybe my pep talk might have helped them, who knows? They seemed like such nice guys.
But I also felt a bit sad.
It's such a shame, this lousy music business, the way it beats people up.
I don't care what they said, people do care. I do. I love those songs. I love that band.

See them while you can folks.
They don't make 'em like that any more.

Talk to ya later.




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And This Just In...from the Lowell Sun:

Rock band hit by theft in Shirley
By Robert Mills, Sun Staff
Updated: 05/31/2009 06:42:49 AM EDT

SHIRLEY -- The Tubes left their concert at The Bull Run Restaurant Friday night missing a few articles of clothing and more than a few dollars in cash.

The veteran rockers, who scored their first hit in 1975 with "White Punks on Dope," were on stage at the Great Road restaurant when someone apparently stole one band member's jacket and another band member's pants.

They told police there was $750 in cash in the jacket and $150 in the pants.

Police were called to the restaurant about 11:20 p.m., but no one had seen much.

It appears the items and cash were stolen between 8:30 and 10:45 p.m. while the band was playing, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Shirley police at (978) 425-2644.

The Shirley concert was part of a tour of the United States and Europe. The band was scheduled to head to England this week.