SCOTT MORGAN'S POWERTRANE
FEATURING DENIZ TEK
@ Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland
April 12, 2002

SCOTT MORGAN'S POWERTRANEFEATURING DENIZ TEK AND RON ASHETON @ Blind Pig, Ann Arbor
April 13, 2002

Words: KEN SHIMAMOTO
Pictures: ALEXANDRE GIRAUD (1), DAVE DOMINIC (2, 4, 6 & 7),
KEN SHIMAMOTO (5), STEFAN PETERSON (3)

What can I say? It was wish fulfillment at its best, an embarrassment of riches, like an excellent multi course meal, a spiritually transcendent experience...without a doubt the greatest rock'n'roll show I've ever seen in my life. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I wasn't at the show the first time Deniz Tek and Ron Asheton played with Scott Morgan's Powertrane at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor last November, but I was sure there in spirit. More importantly, I actually got to hear three songs through the magic of Geoff Ginsberg's cellphone. It was 1:30 AM in Texas and I was blissfully unconscious when the phone rang three inches from my head. Surprisingly, the voice on the other end turned out to be not my daughter's boyfriend but rather my good friend Ginsberg, sometime I-94 Bar and All Music Guide scribe and Real O Mind Records honcho, calling from the dance floor of the Blind Pig. "Listen to this," he said, and the next thing I knew, I was listening to Deniz singing a song from "Outside," followed by two Stoogesongs sung by Hiawatha Bailey from the Cult Heroes, before Geoff apologized, "Sorry, but I gotta go - all hell is breaking loose here," and rung off. Surely, I thought the next day, it must have been a dream, but what a dream!

Thus, the news that Deniz (and, at selected dates, Ron) would be playing half a dozen shows in the U.S. and Canada with Powertrane in April was big medicine around my house. Especially since I knew I'd be venturing up to Noo Yawk to help my parents move house to New Joisey around the time the shows were taking place. Then my oldest daughter set a wedding date of April 20th - preferable, perhaps, to her original choice of the 8th (which would have been her mom's and my anniversary), but still problematic in that it fell on the day after the Tek/Morgan juggernaut was scheduled to hit the Warsaw in Brooklyn, and the same day when they'd be descending on the Khyber Pass in Philly.

"I'm really bummed I'm gonna miss you guys in New York," I told Deniz. "Guess I'll just have to catch you next time around."

"How many more next times do you think there are going to BE?" retorted the Iceman.

Then Geoff proposed an alternative. I'd fly up to Cleveland, where he (having driven up from Philly) would pick me up and we'd catch the Beachland Ballroom show there, then drive on to Ann Arbor for the triumphal homecoming at the Blind Pig. An idea with some potential, I thought. Sure, I couldn't afford it, but there are some things in life too important for such paltry considerations, authentic Detroit rock'n'roll being one of 'em. "It'll be the best show you ever saw," Geoff assured me. (And y'all know he was right, too.)

Flying for the first time since 9/11, I was surprised to see a friend's prediction about airport security validated; they always DO seem to select elderly/infirm individuals to be searched, while the rest of the passengers move through the metal detectors with relatively little inconvenience.. Curious. That aside, the flight to Cleveland was uneventful. Met Ginsberg in the flesh for the first time (although we've probably logged a hundred hours on the phone and yards of e-mail) and checked into a hotel in downtown Cleveland. After a splendid Thai dinner of pad thai (noodles with chicken, shrimp, and scallions), spring rolls, and dumplings (for this weekend was planned as a culinary as well as a musical feast) with that fine gentleman Howard Kramer, Scott Morgan's eighties manager and currently of the much-maligned Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, we headed for the Beachland, where the band was scheduled to be soundchecking at six.

Approaching the club, we encountered a crowd of black kids throwing rocks around. It felt good to be back in the north (well, the Midwest) where they actually have NEIGHBORHOODS - the local bar with the apartment over it in the middle of a residential area, etc. From the front, the Beachland looked closed, but walking around the back of the club, we found Scott Morgan sitting in his van, decked out in a Scott Asheton "Rock Action" ballcap and the same MC5 "Back In the U.S.A." T-shirt he'd worn at the Magic Stick in Detroit when the Rendezvous Band reunited there on 9/11/99. It seems that Deniz and Powertrane bassist Chris Taylor had gotten separated from the rest of the band on the highway and were now missing in action. Similarly, headliner Andre Williams' band was also MIA somewhere between Cleveland and the Canadian border.

I hadn't seen Scott in four years, not since SXSW '98, when he'd taken a detour to Austin enroute to L.A. (where he was recording the tracks with his West Coast band the Jones Bros. that wound up appearing on last year's "Medium Rare" compilation) to see the trailer for the "MC5: A True Testimonial" movie and attend the accompanying MC5 panel discussion, and to sit in with Wayne Kramer and the Streetwalkin' Cheetahs at Emo's. In the event, Scott wound up only singing two verses of "Kick Out the Jams" at Emo's, but I had a blast driving Scott around town while his girlfriend Maureen was busy arranging the repair of her van, and I even got to hear the rough mix of the Hydromatics' then-unreleased "Parts Unknown" one night in the van outside their hotel. Not to mention getting him to autograph my copy of the Rationals' LP.

Inside the Beachland, I met Willie Wilson, KDET radio personality. We discussed the resurgence of Detroit rock (the White Stripes and producer "Diamond Jim" Diamond, the Go, the Detroit Cobras, the Dirtbombs). Willie gave me the rundown on some (mostly power pop) names to watch for: Brendan Benson (new album "Lapalco" on StarTime); the Waxwings ("Low to the Ground" on Bobsled); the resurgent Romantics (minus drummer Jimmy Marinos but back in the studio cutting new stuff); the Sights ("Are You Green" on Fall of Rome); the Mood Elevator ("Listen Up!" on Roxbury, produced by Brendan Benson); They Come in Threes ("Blindsided, Part 1" on Fall of Rome); Denise James (S/T on Poptones); the Von Bondies ("Lack of Communication" on SFTRI, produced by Jack White from the White Stripes and including the drummer from Chris Taylor's "other" band, Mazinga).. Willie also hinted that there's a possibility of some U.S. Birdman dates, but we all know how that works. However, we live in hope...

Also on hand at the Beachland were guitarist Robert Gillespie, veteran of Rob Tyner's MC5, the Torpedos, and twenty years with Mitch Ryder, who provided the sting on Morgan's "Satisfier" single last year, and brash young drummer Andy Frost, who played with Scott Asheton's stepson in a Detroit band called the High Rollers before "bugging Scott [Morgan] into giving me a shot" and replacing Nick Royale on the skins for the second Hydromatics album "Powerglide," as well as the Hydros' most recent Eurotour. To these ears, "Powerglide" sounds like the best thing Scott's ever recorded, and much of that has to do with young Frost's contribution. When I told Andy that I preferred his stickwork on the new album to Nicke's on the first, he smiled and said, "Yeah, me too." (You can't be SHY and play the drums, after all.) As for Robert, he's an axeman in the classic Detroit mold of Jimmy McCarty, Dick Wagner, and Steve Hunter - soulful and precise, he lights up the strings, makes 'em sing real sweet, and never plays a wrong note.

The Beachland is a great room, beautifully wood paneled (a striking contrast with some of the toilets that pass for rock'n'roll clubs down here in Texas), whose management and staff treat musicians (and the people with them) with a level of respect and consideration almost unheard of here in the States. That meant putting on dinner for 20 and free drinks the whole night (and Erica the bartender is THE BOMB). It soon became apparent that the weekend would be an ALCOHOLIC, as well as a culinary and musical experience, when Andre Williams started pouring everybody shots of straight rum before soundcheck. A comedic high point of sorts was achieved when Andre noticed some of the neighborhood kids gathering outside the open door, attracted by the sounds of soundcheck. He shook hands with all of them, beaming beatifically and advising them, "No drugs. No guns!" before instructing them to "Wait here" and dashing back to the bar's refrigerator, returning with an armload of Snapple-type juice drinks which he proceeded to distribute to the kids (apparently thinking that they were wine coolers).

After timely pause (they drove almost 30 miles out into the country after making a wrong turn), Deniz and Chris arrived and soundcheck began in earnest. Besides handling bass duties in Powertrane, Chris Taylor also plays guitar in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti sci-fi/surf-punk outfit Mazinga. Offstage, he seems serious and businesslike, but onstage he's a dynamo, pumping out the most propulsive basslines imaginable, punctuating his playing with energetic leaps about the stage, hitting the microphone for an occasional backup vocal.

This time around, the Iceman left his Epiphone Crestwood Deluxe back in Montana, bringing his signature Robin and a borrowed 1964 Epiphone Coronet (single-pickup model). With Robert Gillespie playing a Les Paul Junior (although he's got a Perspex Dan Armstrong a la Keef or Johnny standing by in reserve), that means that there are TWO guitars with single bridge-position P-90s onstage - a good thing, I think. Simplicity. Both nights, Deniz uses a Marshall; in Cleveland, Robert goes through a Twin, while the following night in Ann Arbor, he'll use another Marshall. Scott plays the same '66 Telecaster and Super Reverb he's had since the Rationals.

The soundcheck includes two Tek items I'd listened to before leaving the house in Fort Worth - "Blood from a Stone" and "Hanging On." DÈj‡ vu all over again. The band is shudderingly powerful and remarkably tight, considering that they only had one rehearsal together for this gig Both nights, Deniz warms up with the "Hawaii Five-0" lick from "Aloha Steve and Danno." When I ask him why they're not playing that song in the set, he explains, "The songs of mine that we can do are limited by what these guys are able to rehearse before I get here. I'm trying to re-teach myself the Birdman songs for the Australian tour."

Against the possibility that the headliner's band will fail to arrive in time, Powertrane goes over a couple of numbers with Andre. "I guess I'll have to do all blues," he shrugs, but he also takes the band through his hit "Jail Bait" and the bar band staple "Mustang Sally." Robert and Scott are both walking encyclopedias of R&B, and they discuss the chord progressions to Williams compositions like "Shake a Tailfeather" and "Bacon Fat.." "It's a great-sounding room," says Scott, as they wrap things up, "but it'll sound a lot better when it's full of people." "You let ME take care of that," says headliner Andre. (In the event, the crowd's somewhat less than capacity, in spite of a favorable write-up in the local giveaway rag.)

Showtime arrives and the Powertrane crew - seasoned veterans and young upstarts alike - take the stage. Scott, Deniz, and Chris all wear shades. Scott starts the telegraphic intro to "Love and Learn," a Sonic's Rendezvous Band tune finally recorded in the studio for "Powerglide." Scott looks, as his girlfriend Maureen says, exactly like someone who's been performing for 35 years and feels COMFORTABLE with it. His stage presence is impeccable, and his voice has lost none of the power and soul it had back in the heyday of the Rationals or SRB. When Scott bends backward with his Telecaster, or holds it above his head to wring sheets of feedback from it, there's none of the stagey theatricality that you get from some of his imitators. As Ginsberg says, "There's no PERFORMANCE going on here" - just five musicians, saturated with the history and spirit of the music, doing what they do with absolute intensity and commitment. The power and drama come from within.

"R.I.P. R'n'R" is next, a highlight of the "Powerglide" album. This tune belongs to Andy Frost - he drives it and makes the dynamic shifts work. Deniz steps up to the mic for the first time for Birdman's "Hand of Law." I'm impressed that while as a concept, Powertrane seemed almost like a REVUE ("All together in one big show! SRB! Radio Birdman! The Stooges!"), in the flesh, it's really a BAND. Magnanimity is the order of the day. Leader Scott splits vocals 50/50 with guest star Deniz (in Ann Arbor when the Stooge set with Ron is added, Deniz will sing two Stoogesongs and they'll bring out Hiawatha for three more). Rather than indulging in volume wars, the guitarists listen to each other and give each other space; particularly in Ann Arbor, Deniz and Robert are clearly digging each other's playing, and Ron's. And when Scott takes a solo turn on Deniz' "Shellback," he reveals the truth in the Iceman's contention that "Scott can wipe the floor with any of us on guitar." (During the Ann Arbor soundcheck, Scott spins off some soul-jazz sounding lines that have a delighted Gillespie yelling, "Grant! Grant Green!") When Chris Taylor asked Deniz for guidance on how to play his part on one song, the Iceman responded, "Play it however you want." The Birdman mastermind isn't interested in recreating past glories; rather, he wants to see how his material can be made new and fresh. Thus, Gillespie's solos in the Chris Masuak slot on "Hangin' On" take the song to a new and completely different place. The Iceman himself looks like a coiled spring onstage, focused and intense, hunched over his guitar as he pulls snaky lines from it, emphasizing his chords with Keef-like arm half-swings.

Scott's back up front for "Runaway Slaves," the outstanding original from "Parts Unknown," and we've all "Got the long gone blues." Then "Ready to Ball," the lead-off track from "Powerglide." All three guitars lock into the mutated blues riff, which burrows its way deep down into my synapses, where it remains for most of the next day. Andy pours on the power while Scott does the blue-eyed soul Thang for which he's justifiably well known (which is more amply in evidence on this album than it's been in most of his post-Rationals work).

Deniz introduces "Blood from a Stone" as, uh, "Ken Shimamoto's breakfast song," and I'm real o mind as I listen to Deniz, Scott, and Robert's guitars in unison again on the "Big Ride" surf bridge. The young riddim boyzzz kick it hard enough to give Jim Dickson and Nik Rieth from the "Outside" version of the Deniz Tek Group a run for their money. Next comes one of the highlights of a set that's nothing but highlights - "Taboo," composed by Robert Gillespie and Rob Tyner for Tyner's "new MC5," a live version of which is available on Motor City Music's "Rock and Roll People" Tyner release (and the Japanese Captain Trip re-release). For this one, Scott sets aside his guitar to concentrate on his singing (no worries there, as Tek and Gillespie are more than capable of picking up the slack). You can almost imagine him working the crowd at the Hideout or the Grande back in the Rationals' R&B days as he busts out the falsetto "Woo-hoo-hoos" on this one, before Robert Gillespie, a marvelously emotive player, takes a solo that's a tour de force of controlled intensity. Another highlight comes during "Earthy," with all three guitars playing the bluesy riff in unison, then harmony...another musical fragment that's now indelibly etched in my brain.

For my money, Powertrane's version of "Shellback" beats both the "Italian Tour EP" and "Equinox" versions. Its Stones-like crunch makes it an ideal live number. Looking back, I wish I could have heard them do "Rough Slide Drag" and "Searching," but far be it from me to quibble with perfection. "What Gives?" follows and raises the intensity stakes, also begging the question, is the intro an intentional cop from SRB's "Dangerous," or was the influence subliminal? Only the Iceman knows for sure. As if to provide basis for comparison, "Dangerous" itself follows, with Deniz and Robert playing dueling/dual leads in the tradition of the Five's Wayne and Fred, then Robert takes the solo on the "slow" section. The energy onstage is reaching frightening levels, and peaks with "Outside," a song that's pure wrist action, an explosion of pummeling energy like a nuclear reactor melting down, the orgy of feedback and noise at the end coalescing once again into that same piledriver riff. And when you think there can't be anymore, there is - "New Race." Yeah, hup. 'Nuff said.

After Powertrane, Andre Williams, salacious old soul that he is, is almost an anticlimax. His band arrives and proves to be a competent but fairly ordinary rock band (although attired in matching shiny silver shirts). If I hadn't seen Andre Williams onstage, I wouldn't have guessed it was him they were backing. (He might actually have done better with Powertrane backing him.) He still wants to do the two songs he rehearsed with Powertrane at the end, but Robert needs to be back in Detroit to teach some guitar students starting at 10 AM the next day, so it's not to be. (Robert's nothing if not flexible. When Powertrane plays Philadelphia, he'll finish an early set with Mitch Ryder in a nearby town, put down one guitar, drive 55 minutes, pick up another one, and hit the stage with Morgan and crew. A trouper.) Erica the bartender is still serving the free beers to the band (and associated hangers-on), though, and thus fortified, I wind up talking to the prettiest girl in the bar (who informs me that she stays healthy by swimming in Lake Erie, which I almost believe) until Ginsberg informs me that it's time to split. Back at the hotel, we get a visit from Scott and a fan with a bottle of vodka, and wind up crashing 4-ish.

The next morning, we meet Andy Frost, his ex-High Rollers lead singer Keith, and Scott to get something to eat in the restaurant coffee shop ("Al's Again"), which inexplicably stops serving breakfast at 11:30. Then Andy joins Geoff and me for the ride up to Ann Arbor. He has some funny Scott Asheton stories (having hung out with Scott in Florida), and seems a likely successor to the Rock Action thumper throne. When Powertrane play their Stooge set on Saturday night in Ann Arbor, I notice that Andy plays the fill that Rock played on the original "I Wanna Be Your Dog" (which every other drummer I've ever heard play the song missed), and he has the patented driving "Funhouse" hi-hat and cymbal attack down pat. Not only that, but how many drummers do you know who would have the endurance to play an hour-and-a-half set with NO SLOW SONGS? Pretty impressive, I'd say. Memo to Iggy Pop: HIRE this kid! (And Gillespie.)

Andy gives us the guided tour of Ann Arbor. We see Pioneer High School, alma mater to the Stooges and Rationals (NOT Deniz, as Andy says; he went to Huron); Discount Records, where Jeep Holland once managed and Iggy once manned the counter; 1510 Hill, where the Trans-Love Energies commune had their house; and the bridge (just around the corner from the Blind Pig) where Scott Asheton wrecked the Stooges' equipment van. (Andy says that when he had a job delivering beer awhile back, he had a bud who pulled the same stunt with a beer truck, peeling it like a sardine can.) But wait, what's this? Waiting to cross the street to the Blind Pig, it's Ron Asheton, guitar case in hand, heading for soundcheck.
When I get a chance, I ask Ron about the All Tomorrow's Parties show at UCLA where he played Stoogesongs with his brother, J. Mascis, and Mike Watt. "It was hard for my brother, because those guys like to go OUT," he said. "The highest compliment we got was from the black security guards. Those guys all said it was the best music they'd ever heard, 'all that noise and feedback and shit.'" He also told an hilarious story about his brother almost choking to death laughing when he called from Florida looking for Ron and their mother responded, "He's at the Brown Pig." Before that, though, we dropped Andy off at the band's rehearsal space (just around the corner from the Blind Pig, near the Scott Asheton Memorial Bridge), checked into the hotel, then visited All Movie/Music Guide scribe Mark Deming's Ann Arbor pad to eat lobster bisque (meeting yet another culinary objective) and watch a video of the "10 for 2" John Sinclair benefit movie he'd just bought. From Deming, we learned Diamond Jim's secret for keeping groups focused in the studio: he keeps a collection of sixties Playboy mags in the control room.

The Blind Pig is more like what I'm accustomed to, rock club-wise, with a brick wall behind the narrow stage, although there IS a dressing room upstairs. Saturday's soundcheck was early because the show was to be recorded. The band ran through "Blood from a Stone," "Taboo," and "Down on the Street" (with Ron playing licks I don't remember hearing him do when he played the song with J. Mascis and Mike Watt last year), and I got to meet Motor City Music honcho Mike Leshkavich. Then we headed off to Zingerman's to eat insanely good deli sandwiches (I go for the #13, corned beef with coleslaw on rye, a lattke - Jewish potato pancake - and a Dr. Brown's cream soda) and meet photographer Melissa Le Furge (who turns out to be a petite Asian girl), who's doing the photography for the live album Geoff plans to compile from Saturday's Blind Pig show and the one from last November.

I deliberately missed the opening band, Rael Rean, and only caught a portion of the set by the Cynics, who are a good (but not great) garage-rock outfit with a very animated singer. Get Hip label/distributor boss Gregg Kostelich is the bassplayer in the unit, and his wife Barbara dances in front of the stage along with a handful of other aficionados. Anticipation runs high, and this doesn't seem like an audience that will brook much bullshit. Not that there's any forthcoming from Powertrane tonight.

"This is a Detroit revival meeting," says Deniz at the beginning of Powertrane's set, and you can tell the audience AND the musicians are feeling the spirit. It's an interesting crowd, young kids mixing with old hippies who remember the glory days of the Rationals, Five and Stooges, as well as old punks who came up in the heyday of Sonic's Rendezvous Band, Destroy All Monsters, and the Torpedos. "Tonight, we've got the home field advantage," Deniz had joked earlier. It's also a homecoming. His wife Angie (whose work with the Passengers and the Angie Pepper Band was reished on Citadel last year) is in the house, along with his youngest brother Karl and wife, and Ron and Scott's sister Kathy Asheton (formerly the makeup artist on the new "Avengers" TV series, she's now reputedly a NASCAR groupie and looking to put together a band; said Ron, "She even came over and borrowed my tuner the other day!"). Scott Morgan's girlfriend Maureen is dancing right in front of the stage near me.

I don't really have words to describe the Ann Arbor show. The set starts at about the same level of energy and intensity that the previous night's finished at, and continues to build steadily from there. In addition to the Cleveland set, we're treated to "City Slang" (in place of "New Race," which has been moved after the Stoogesongs), "1970," "Down On the Street," "I Wanna Be Your Dog," and "TV Eye." This is a set which peaks three times: the first time with "Outside" (which is so great it brings tears to my eyes), then again with "City Slang" and climactically with "New Race." Every time I think, "They can't POSSIBLY go any higher than this," they do. As I watch, amazed, I realize why I love this music. I can't believe that musicians can play so aggressively and energetically, and have it feel so ORGANIC. Again, there's no posturing here, no phony "attitude;" this is as pure as the Rock gets...a catharsis, a spiritually cleansing experience that leaves the participant (player or audience) drained but skying on endorphins and adrenaline and wanting MORE. (When it's all over, Chris Taylor tells me, "I didn't want to stop!" and Deniz says he could stay awake for another 36 hours.)

The chaos factor is necessarily high when a drunk kid in an "Iggy and the Stooges/Raw Power" leather coat (bought at the mall?) leans over the monitors and repeatedly badgers Scott Morgan to give him his Sonic's Rendezvous Band T-shirt. When Ron appears to push his sound into the night alongside Morgan, Tek, and Gillespie (after a short break for the band to "get a breath of air" after "Outside" and "City Slang") and the Stoogesongs start (Deniz singing "1970"), the kid and his friends start moshing. Things threaten to get out out of hand when Hiawatha (former Stooges roadie who was incarcerated at Lexington along with Wayne Kramer and Michael Davis, and a truly unique individual) takes the stage to sing "Down On the Street." The kid and another guy start grabbing one of the mic stands and trying to sing along. Finally, Willie Wilson pulls the mic stand back and pushes the other guy away (inadvertently stepping on Deniz' pedals, which require some repairs before he can continue). Hiawatha makes very direct eye contact with the kid to keep him at bay, but he's not going to be deterred. During "I Wanna Be Your Dog," he grabs at Morgan's shirt, his friends pull his own shirt and jacket down over his shoulders, then two or three people (bouncers? Other audience members?) pull him away from the stage and out of the room. There are more moshing idiots during the rest of the set, but their aggression is mostly directed at each other (and anybody around them who happens to get in their way), not toward the performers.

Later, I talk to Angie and Deniz' brother Karl about this. Karl is 12 years younger than Deniz and has never seen him perform. (I used to see Deniz' OTHER brother, Lieutenant Colonel Kurt Tek of the Arizona Air National Guard, copied on F-16 message traffic when I was still in the Air Force Reserves.) "What was going on up there?" he asks, incredulously. "This was nothing," Angie assures him. "In Australia, I've seen THOUSANDS of 'yeah, hup' fists going up in the air." I tell Angie how much I enjoyed the six tracks of her new material which Deniz sent me earlier this year. We catch up on things. Their daughter Hana just turned eighteen and got a Stratocaster for her birthday. Angie is amazed that her kids' friends come over to the house wanting to meet their dad. It seems awareness of Radio Birdman among American kids is growing. Perhaps the time IS right for Birdman to tour the States. Hana's planning to study tattooing from Art Godoy (famous skater and bassplayer with Deniz in the Golden Breed) to help support herself while she's in college. (My middle daughter was quite enthusiastic when she heard this.)

It also appears that once again, America's loss is to be Australia's gain....plans are afoot for Deniz and Angie to pull up stakes in Billings and head back to Oz. This raises other intriguing possibilities, but for this week, at least, one thing I know for sure: I have finally seen the elephant that is Detroit rock on its home turf, and I have walked away amazed. As I write this, Scott Morgan's Powertrane have already finished their set opening for the Hellacopters at the Magic Stick in Detroit. This afternoon, while I was flying back to Dallas/Fort Worth, they were mixing the live tapes from the Blind Pig shows. Hopefully we'll hear the results soon. Meanwhile, "I feel like I'm ready to ball..."

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