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B.B. King's Blues Club, New York January 18, 2001 By C. Bottomley Peter Frampton has the best upper teeth in the business, and the audience crowded into the posh Times Square club knows this because the guitarist flashes them often. He smiles as he opens with "Somethin's Happening." He beams at longtime associate Bob Mayo as the guitarist uses several blistering arpeggios to finish a duel with his boss on "(I'll Give You) Money." And the choppers come out once again when someone yells for "All I Want to Be (Is by Your Side)." Frampton doesn't play that tune, but for the next hour and a half he gives this audience what they're paying a buck per onion ring for: the chance to pretend they were there when he recorded Frampton Comes Alive! 25 years ago. Frampton isn't quite the chest-baring rock god anymore. His spectacles and cropped hair give him a professorial air, while the plastic trousers are just funny looking. Sure, he's played "Show Me the Way" far more times than anyone's ordered B.B.'s Cajun Meatloaf Sandwich in this newish joint. But in the last quarter-century he's pulled enough jabbering solos off the fingerboard to convince himself this is fun, and by the time he charges through Humble Pie's "I Don't Need No Doctor" you might want to ask him to undo a few buttons. He lets his guard down only twice. When he sings "Islands in the sun/ Wish I could buy one/ Out of season" on a beautiful rendition of "Baby I Love Your Way," the sentiment is as plaintive as it is real. It happens again on a blues called "Can't Take That Away," from 1995's Peter Frampton. The groove is ordinary, but the prosaic lyrics indicate how Frampton's priorities have shifted since Comes Alive was the best-selling record on the planet. In a warm growl he wonders about what he's lost in this lifetime. Then he gets everyone - including the table in "Frampton's Family of Friends" T-shirts - to sing along. Even the mammoth excursion of "Do You Feel Like We Do" has metamorphosed into vaudeville, complete with hand-clapping routines, a silly walk across the stage, band introductions, and a few bars of "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)" passed through the talkbox. But the band is comfortable with that. Bassist John Regen flips his guitar over to show the audience the sign he has stuck on underneath. It reads: "Applause." We do so dutifully. Because sometimes the familiar can be fun, too. |
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