NE Performer Live Review

Link to the review
The Brett Rosenberg Problem / Eli “Paperboy” Reed and the True Loves / Yoni Gordon / Monique Ortiz
The Middle East Upstairs
Cambridge, MA
July 21, 2006
Those in the semi-restless Cambridge crowd stopped dead in their tracks when first act Monique Ortiz took the stage. This usually happens when an iconic performer picks up his or her instrument, but this first set featured not just Ortiz on her trademark fretless bass, but also Boston’s eminent baritone saxophone man, Dana Colley. Behind the two sat yet another distinguished performer, Larry Dersch. Almost as if an invisible, slow-motion fuse had just run out, the burn of the trio’s sound began to spread throughout the club. The members of the group melded together into a throaty mid-level growl, between the sliding quarter-tone notes of the bass, the distorted snarl of the saxophone, Dersch’s sizzling fills and Ortiz’s powerfully expressive voice. Ortiz displayed an impressive and expansive vocal range, from her cruising-level female baritone to a gritty howl. Wondrous things happened to the group’s sound when Ortiz pushed the vocal energy envelope. On the other side of the stage, Colley’s overdriven saxophone tone made it sound like his reed was on fire. Giving perhaps one of the more inspired brass performances that may ever have taken place (at least until he plays the Middle East again), Colley’s sax-afire perfectly complemented Ortiz’s dark voice and sinful bass lines.
After the set, a single guitar amplifier was placed on the club floor, a few feet in front of the stage. A skinny man with a beard ran through the crowd, clapping and stomping in rhythm, sharing his message with every member of the audience. “Oh yeah, oh yeah!” sang the man with such gusto that the crowd, which had grown to shoulder-tapping dimensions, was compelled to join in. At this time, the man strapped on his hollow-bodied electric guitar and started pickin’ up a storm. Yoni Gordon, it seems, doesn’t play “gigs” or “sets” like the rest of the world — he holds full-on, foot-stompin’, sing-songin’ revivals, and the crowd was signed up and sticking around for refreshments. Almost an entire circle of people stood around the lanky singer, fluctuating to make room for his energetic duck-walk style moves. In between songs, Gordon verbally whipped up the crowd with his almost evangelical interstitial talk. Everyone crouched obediently when he instructed them to “get real low,” and the smiles in the crowd were more visible than usual, thanks to Gordon’s plea to bring up the house lights. Gordon even threw in a few covers with inspired versions of Johnny Cash’s “Long Black Veil” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” to close it out.
The next band, the True Loves, thunked and thumped along, and Eli “Paperboy” Reed stood behind the horns waiting to make his big entrance. Sure enough, saxophonist Ben Jaffe leaned into his horn mic, calling out a James Brown-esque introduction for “Eli! Paper! Boy! Reed!” and out swung the Paperboy, already smiling his trademark squinty smile, shaking his head as he stepped up to his old bullet-head microphone. As tight as the seven-piece True Loves are, Reed’s vocal style is loosey-goosey and as free flying as his fingers on the fretboard. He has a downright magnetic stage presence, and any who may have smirked at his Johnny Cash wardrobe or James Brown introduction were sucked right into the moment as sculpted by the Paperboy’s dynamic vocalizations. Alternating big notes and high falsettos, all peppered with a few soul-screams, is a normal day at the office for Eli Reed, and the crowd was a mass of clapping, singing humanity — they were so eager to join in the Paperboy’s act that they would sing along to anything possible, at one point latching onto a four-count because they at least knew the lyrics to that. The rubber-voiced Paperboy delivered in grand style, an extra-special Friday night edition of the good news, the headline of which was called out during the initial introduction: Eli “Paperboy” Reed was here to show people what things were like in the primordial days of rock, when things were still linked indelibly with soul and free human spirit.
Next up, of course, was Brett Rosenberg and his duct-tape adorned Fender Stratocaster. The Brett Rosenberg Problem was also notable as the one band with the standard lineup of guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. The sound that came from the stage was straight-up, high caliber rock music. Rosenberg really brings each solo alive, making his Strat talk like he taught it to back home. As one of the strongest and most emotive guitarists around, he did not disappoint with this late-night Upstairs set. No quarter was asked or taken; the Problem even covered the Beatles’ “Day Tripper,” with Rosenberg offering a flip Lennon/McCartney shout-out. At the end, the band kicked and delivered a set of hooky rock, rife with rock ‘n’ roll poise, personality and plenty of pinch harmonics, courtesy of the man with the duct-taped Stratocaster.
-Review by C.D. Di Guardia; photo by Marianne Bolduc

Northeast Performer's Review of "I Sing the Hollow Body Electric"

Recording information for Yoni Gordon is non-existent. There is a CD-R with Yoni Gordon written on it in what looks like a silver sharpie. The CD is scratched up a little, like it’s been kicking around for a while before the packaging was ever even concocted. Right away I get the feel this was a CD that was recorded over months, late nights hanging around with a computer program, a mixer and a mike.

The tracks on the CD were all very raw, with at the most three-layered guitar tracks over up front vocals, strongly in the vane of Ted Leo. As the CD plays on, the Ted Leo style voice stops a little, as if you can feel his confidence in his songs grow. He starts with an almost direct imitation of Ted Leo but by the end of the CD, Gordon has grown into his own voice.

“Me & My Beautiful Electric Guitar” is a Ted Leo reincarnation, opening the CD and giving you an idea of what this guy sounds like, but by the second song, “Every Song is a Fucking Question,” the sarcasm makes the track as enjoyable as a good monologue.
Halfway through the CD, Gordon covers Weird Al’s “Dare to be Stupid.” It marks a bit of separation for the disk. “Buckets of Blood” follows with a raw song pushed easily and beautifully forward with flat line singing. “Body Count,” a cover from the band, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb and closer “Push or Pull” ends the album with a strong sense of what’s coming from Yoni Gordon. Every city has their singer, like Ted Leo in DC or Ryan Adams in New York, but Boston seems to have Yoni Gordon. (Self-released)

-Matthew Ozelius

Some Things that People Have Said on the Internet

Yoni Gordon is a local singer-songwriter with the DIY ethics of Minor Threat, the work ethic of James Brown, and the pop style of say, Ted Leo. We really are unsure as to how one could watch Yoni and not be stoked. For real.

-O'brien's Pub Website

Last night we went to see yoni gordon, bread and roses, and this bike is a pipe bomb, at the harvard radio station. the show was great. yoni gordon wowed everyone, despite being nervous that no one would be into his band (because it sounds like the jam, as led by elvis costello (according to matt smith)). bread and roses was full sing along and this bike is a pipe bomb was full-on country mosh (with some pass-the-guy, which i don't really approve of but whatever). there was a lot of dancing, and full smiles. this is going to sound weird, but i feel like i didn't have as great a time as everyone else because i'm not really into back-slapping camaraderie, drunken or otherwise. but i still had a lot of fun. me and dad smith and sourpuss mark and matt coe made a somewhat dour and imposing back row, and i think as a consequence (or maybe because they were both decked out in bike regalia) some girl pinched matt coe in the butt, after which he left the room. yoni and i were discussing this, and yoni said that if that happened to him he'd stick around, see what happens. not a minute later and yoni was similarly assaulted by a hovering eavesdropping crush, and he blushed, flustered. so that's what happens.

-Jacob Berendes

i don't have anywhere to fit this in but this bike is a pipe bomb is a really great band, and well over 30 so there.
Isn't it remarkable the pedestal Yoni and the Goods get put on from time to time, the standards we have for their shows, how high the bar is, and yet they never, ever disappoint?

-Zaxxon

I think it's safe to say that the Yoni and the Goods show last night embodied everything that is still amazing and captivating about rock and roll, and was a great reminder as to why kids still pick up guitars in the first place. i don't know how most folks on the board spent their Thursday, but it wasn't better than mine.

-Mikechumpchance

Yoni Gordon makes Bruce Springsteen look like a lazy upper class intellectual with no time for the
common man, and a codine addiction. The Boss played for like 23 hours straight once...big deal. Yoni
did 63.5 before he even checked the clock, which was by accident as he was really looking to a
woman just next to the clock to take her song request. This man is on fire. He will play anywhere,
anytime, to anyone. His self-released CD goes the full range, from songs about a man and his
beautiful guitar to a This Bike is a Pipe Bomb cover. I swear to god, he is going to be huge.

-Ben Sisto(From the Honeypump Board)