 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Reviews
Richmond Music Journal August 1998
MORE REPTILE MUSIC
I'm walking down 18th Street in the Bottom on a Saturday and I see this big guy in a tux with a lime green tie and green suede shoes standing on top of a Jeep, wailing on a guitar.
After some staring and eye contact, he points to the door of the Cobblestone Brewery and tells me to go in, so I do. The rest of the night was an experience I won't forget. The big guy, Lem Roby, is one hell of a guitar player and showman. He walked around the bar talking to people while he played, strolled into the pool room, grabbed a cue stick, and played some of the best slide I've heard in a while. His band, Jack Salamander, covered everything from John Lee Hooker to Zappa.
But nothing was "standard" in the cover department. They even refused a request to play "Sweet Home Chicago"! I was most impressed with their original stuff, "alternative blues" Lem calls it. He brought three musicians with him from Chicago, a bass player, drummer, and sax. In addition, he asked two local musicians, Cy and Dave from Solid Gold Fishbowl to sit in on guitar and percussion. Hearing those two play makes me want to check out their band.
The show climaxed with Lem taking a bull whip to his guitar. The whip got caught in the low ceiling of the bar during the thrashing, and Lem hung his guitar on the whip and called it a night.
All in all, it was a great show. There wasn't a great turn-out, but the people who were there, stayed. I bought the CD, the T-shirt, and signed the mailing list. They say they're coming back in a couple of months, and I'll be there. Like the poster said, "If ya ain't seen Jack, you ain't seen Jack!" - EYESEARZ
Richmond Music Journal October 1998
So Jack Came Back! Jack Salamander from Chicago. Two shows in town this time! I told you guys it was gonna be a unique weekend. A (too short) Friday night show at the Cary St. Cafe opening for Whistler's Mother only whetted my appetite for the show they unleashed on Saturday at the Cobblestone. It was everything I remembered and then some.
Three months of touring has the band tighter, meaner and funnier than ever. Sure, The Guy in the Lime Green Tie was there jamming on top of people's cars and whipping his guitar again, but just when I thought I knew every trick in their bag, the big guy starts playing melodies just by waving his hands in the air! I thought it was a tape or some trick from an effects rack, but it turned out to be an instrument called a Theremin. I had never seen one before but then I never seen anything like this band.
My favorite moment in the show was the band sliming special guest Cy Taggart (ex-SGFB) after a particularly tasty guitar solo. They called it that night's award for "Technopyroflatulence." The only downside is now I gotta wait till April for these guys to come back. Anybody wanna roadtrip to Chi? - EYESEARZ