The opening night of the US tour, on the eve of the release of a new album. The 9:30 is a medium sized club, and it was a surprise to me that someone of Jeff's stature was playing such a small venue. I was a little concerned after reading in interviews that the music on the new CD was inspired by Jeff's discovery of Techno (or whatever that computer music shit is called.)
Jeff played for about one hour and 45 minutes, featuring quite a bit from the new album. Not to fear, though -- this was no soulless, sterile, computer-generated electronic pap. The rapid fire Techno inspired rhythms were wrestled quite nicely by actual, live musicians. He also played a few from Guitar Shop and Wired, and "A Day in the Life" from that George Martin retrospective. Jeff was playing a couple of identical, cream colored Jeff Beck Signature Stratocasters, except on "Cause We've Ended as Lovers", from Blow by Blow, when he pulled out an old Telecaster. This was the highlight of the evening for me, being one of my favorite songs, from one of my all-time favorite recordings. The Guitar Gods were smiling on me for this one, because I was able to watch both of Jeff's hands, uninterrupted, for the whole song -- the only time the whole evening there were no bobbing, weaving heads interfering with my view. It was really cool to watch him tweaking the volume knob and switching the pickup selector back and forth to produce an amazing range of squawks, swells, and squeals. Not to mention, for the rest of the night when using the Strat, the trademark Jeff Beck whammy bar abuse! Jeff's absolute mastery of the idiom of the electric guitar makes his simplest riffs resonate like cosmic truths, and enables him to reveal exciting, unique, cutting-edge soundscapes.
The band was super tight -- I don't know how many shows they've done elsewhere, but this was the first US show. Bass and drums, and Jennifer Batten on second guitar. She had an intensively customized guitar, set up to trigger a bank of synthesizers. Her intricate single note rhythm riffs provided the necessary foundation for Jeff's new explorations. She's a pretty hot player, had some great solos, and ripped off some pretty intense twin leads with Jeff.
My buddy Finnegan spotted at least one known stealth taper in the crowd, so your (and my) fondest desires may be met, in time.