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Sounds Like:Terry Adams quartet debuts
By Michael Hochanadel(First published in the Daily Gazette of Schenectady, NY: Sunday, November 4, 2007)OK, NRBQ was a great band, and NRBQ pianist Terry Adams has now built another one. On Friday at WAMC’s Linda Norris Auditorium, he popped the cork on the Terry Adams Rock ’n’ Roll Quartet. NRBQ-shaped in its piano-bass-drums-guitar blueprint, the new band is more than just a younger NRBQ -- but it’s that, too.Adams took his time leading his cohorts back to Friday’s first NRBQ song, "A Girl Like That," and first came the wack rockabilly of "Boardinghouse Pie," the new proud-love ballad "Never Before, Never Again," the sex-comedy "You’ve Got to Know How" and the purely comic "Howard Hughes." Both "Never" and "Hughes" are on Adams’ new "Rhythm Spell" album, but his new band includes none of the players on the album.However, they hit a very strong NRBQ-like groove on "Hughes" that spread smiles throughout the crowd.Guitarist Scott Ligon played occasionally with the revved staccato phrasing of NRBQ’s Al Anderson, other times at a country lope.Drummer Conrad Choucron had perfect time, backbeat or straight rock, like the ’Q’s Tom Ardolino (who did play on "Rhythm Spell"), while Pete Donnelly of the Figgs played with a more aggressive and punchy impact than NRBQ bassist Joey Spampinato.Given Adams’ long history with NRBQ, comparisons are inevitable. But the Terry Adams Rock ’n’ Roll Quartet is a great band on its own terms.Adams is both the greatest pianist in rock ’n’ roll history and a masterly bandleader and ringmaster who knows how to give permission to everyone in earshot to have a good time.Adams was a one-man groove, and the band followed perfectly.His quieter solos had an almost overpowering melancholy or a seductive sweetness that sometimes flowed into each other.When he pushed them, the band responded with tremendous energy and force, and he never had to push twice.The highlights weren’t all NRBQ songs, though "Green Lights," "Rain at the Drive-in" and "I Feel So Good (And I Want You to Feel Good, Too" really soared.A strong-voiced, sweet-voiced singer, Ligon did a great job with the early NRBQ obscurity "Stay With We," singing at first with just Adams’ quiet piano, then riding the groove as the band surged in and singing even harder.The new fractured lovesong "One Shoe" and "Umbrella" as well as the unrecorded "Florida" also got good lift-off.The show served up its share of curveballs, including intense instrumentals -- one was a stridently dissonant hard-charging onslaught, another was "Dixie." Adams surprised the band with "Dang Me," soon revealing that he knew only one verse.Undeterred, he sang it again, again and some more. He said, "Take it!" at one point, but nobody did, so he grinned his way through another repetition.John Sebastian came onstage late in the 90-minute set as a surprise guest, leading the band into his Lovin’ Spoonful hit "Do You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind," hanging out for an electric cowboy campfire instrumental to swap licks with Ligon and later returning for a heartfelt encore of his romantic "You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice."For a first-ever gig, this didn’t have to be so good, but it was. It was purely marvelous.
Type of Label: Major