So Daniel Lanois played The Bowery Ballroom.  This has to be the most mixed review almost ever.  Ephman's still trying to figure it out.  BTW at least the Bowery was the same ;)

First off if you don't know who Daniel Lanois is that's cool.  Most people don't.  But they sure do know the music he's produced.  Remember that little known band from Ireland U2's record The Unforgettable Fire, or Joshua Tree?  Well Lanois produced them... Oh also he helped to resurrect Bob Dylan's career with Oh Mercy and helped win a Grammy with Time Out Of Mind.

Daniel Lanois' new project dubbed Black Dub played the Bowery Ballroom last night.  And it was SO BORING for the first 90 minutes.  It was excruciatingly painful.  Infact there were moments when all Ephman wanted to was poke his eye out, and rip off his ears.  It was really that bad.  And this isn't only from Ephman.  The audience had people screaming "THIS BLOWS", "where's the band?", "give me my money back", "stop the torture", and it went on and on.  OK here's 30 second of the garbage so you get the idea of what was going on.  Just want to thank Ephman's new Facebook friend Heather for helping to make it bearable. 

At around 10pm (not the 8pm on the ticket) Daniel Lanois' Black Dub hit the stage.  The band consists of Trixie Whitley, Chris Thomas, Brian Blade, and of course Lanois.  But there's a lot of history in this band.  And a great band they are...  Great surprise because for some weird reason this show was missed by Ephman's radar.  He only got tickets the other week.... Crazy it wasn't sold out.  Ephman's gain :)

Trixie Whitley might be a skinny skinny fair haired girl, but belted out the songs last night like a 300 pound black lady.  WOW, what a powerful voice.  Oh it's also nice that she's a local NYC girl.  Cool.  Her dad was Chris Whitley who passed away a few years ago.  See Chris was "found" by Daniel.  So now it's nice that his daughter is an amazing talent and fit in so well.  Ephman is awesomely glad to have seen her.   Oh by the way, she plays the drums, and the keyboards, and like Ephman says has a wonderful voice.

Chris Thomas is so talented.  Ephman was brought up to speed on him by Trix (see the comment below).  There's a really great version of Shelter that he plays with Ray Lamontage, you totally need to check it out on Youtube.  Also if you want a real treat, Ephman mean a real gem of a treat please search for The Soul of John Black.  He plays a nice bass.  Even though his back was turned a bit to the audience let Ephman say it was for good reason.  The way he and Brian Blades jammed together was great.  So glad Ephman was schooled by Trix on this.  Thanks!!! 

And on that note YIPEE YIPEE, Brian Blade was there.  Alright this cat is one of today's top jazz drummers.  He's also from a part of the world (Louisiana), that makes great jazz drummers.  Oh he's also a band leader.  Now this guy was able to put a note any place a note could fit, and make it sound like it made sense.  Most jazz drummers just wail away.  Not Brian.  And last night was totally no exception.  He put on a clinic the whole night long.

The show was basically a ton of new songs for Ephman.  Even though he's followed Lanois career since his Parachute Club and Nash The Slash days.  Guessing they were a lot of Black Dub songs.  Which were great.  And glad they didn't turn into Black Dud tunes.  The music still has those really simple melodies from him, but at the same time is very complex in the production.  And just the way the band played together on stage looked like they've been together for years.  A testament to their talent.

Daniel nicely shared the spotlight with Trixie (who deserved to be on that stage).  He did play some of his solo stuff like The Maker (see video below), and that instrumental slide guitar song.  So all in all except for the 90 minute torture treatment (thanks for nothing), this was a really great show.  Can't wait to see him come back.

By the way would love to thank Brad Gilley for some of those truly awesome concert photos.  You should check out his Flikr page for a lot more photos, and all of his other stuff.