GIG REPORT: Lee – the Revival Tour
October 25, 2011 Leave a comment
Wauw. It must be 7 years or so ago since I wrote my last concert review. Back then I was reporting on gigs for Cutting Edge, today one of Belgium’s top culture websites.
Reporting on the not-so-well-known gigs wasn’t always on top of our to-do list back then, but it came up every now and then.
When Lee invited me as a guest to The Revival Tour, I didn’t automatically go into reporter-mode. Instead I went to enjoy: I took it all in and at the end I said to myself „Respect to these guys!“.
So much respect even that I couldn’t resist writing up a personal view on one great entertaining night.
The gig was simply said „awesome“…
Why? Because it was raw music: acoustic guitars, whiskey voices and a lot of good vibes on and off stage.
I had never seen 2 young kids – around 10 years old – crowd surf for minutes after minutes, going around the concert hall in every direction directed by an artist on stage. The sight was so funny of the one boy crowd surfing with his arms stretched out in front of him. Crowd surfing director Dave Hause called it “Superman crowd surfing”.
That’s the kind of good vibe I mean. Artists doing their thing on stage, a crowd that’s having fun and enjoying the tunes, all the elements melting together… The whole concert made me dream of a town’s festivity held on a countryside estate, with a wooden barn and people sitting on the grass around the whole happening, breathing it all in.
Elements that Chuck Ragan probably had in mind when he and his wife Jo started the idea of bringing the Revival Tour to life in 2008.
It’s also very clear to why Lee is supporting the Revival Tour: the whiskey voices, the acoustical guitars, the true-American sounding violin and the Western folk whistle of the harmonica just made that whole gig breath authenticity. And if there’s one thing that Lee stands for undoubtedly, it’s that.
The boys themselves were just all that as well. Hours before the gig started at Trix in Antwerpen, I went down to the Lee flagship store in the Kammenstraat to watch them perform a living room acoustical session for a hundred or so culture vultures.
No crowd surfing 10 year olds here. Only proud ego’s and denim lovers, and 1 really cool looking dog.
Coming back to the coolness and simplicity of how Chuck and his Revival Tour friends are living through this experience. After the closed session, Chuck came up to me while I was taking some polaroid portraits of the band going through the Lee collection in the store. He had spotted me during the living room set and probably wondered what kind of freaky camera I was using, and why the hell I was pulling out these paper sheets from the back of the camera. He was about 2 meters away coming towards me, offering me his handshake and asking the obvious about the camera. I guess he liked the whole polaroid oldskool style when he said with his deep voice „I love this shit!“
Looking back at all these years of working with celebrities and covering gigs front and back stage, Chuck Ragan, Brian Fallon, Dave Hause and Dan Andriano left a mark.
Btw, you don’t need to be afraid of the men wearing the logger’s look well, addressing you with a deep whiskey voice. They are actually pretty cool guys and they don’t bite at all.
Oh… about the music. Well, I loved pretty much everything. The only one who couldn’t persuade me completely was Dan Adriano. He just didn’t make me feel it. But then again, that’s a personal view and slightly some favoritism for the more punk style of Dave Hause and the deep whiskey voice of Chuck Ragan.
Mind you, although we all have favorites, Brian Fallon scored probably with everyone in the hall. His humor, personal touch with the audience and the always there but acceptable „I don’t give a shit of what you think“ attitude was just so entertaining.
In all, everyone played great sets, inviting fellow Revival Tour artists on stage to play together and they all worked the willing crowd.
Chuck, Brian, Dan, Dave and the rest of the crew, thank you very much for this great experience! Oh, and Lee, thanks for sharing this experience of grass root authenticity.
If you want to find out more on the Revival Tour, then click-through to http://www.therevivaltour.com or buy the Revival Tour album on iTunes right here.
And a big congrats to Werner R. from Brussels, David D. from Brugge, Robin V. from Boom, Jana K. from Den Haag and Sven V. from Gent. You all will be receiving a Lee goodie bag soon with some Lee Revival Tour gadgets and your new Lee Denim Shirt!
What’s there to win?
Lee organized their first ever Bloggers Meeting this week in Antwerpen, Belgium: home of the first Lee flag ship store, and only miles away from the Lee International HQ.
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