Having never been a big fan of the various ‘aid’ concerts (though
I did get more than a little weepy when Pink Floyd reformed for Live 8), I’m
a little skeptical when musicians stage concerts to raise money or promote that
80s feel-good, hollow term “awareness.” Usually the music suffers
from hastily arranged sets (anyone recall Led Zeppelin’s reunion at Live
Aid?) or the musicians expound at length on the great big cause to the exclusion
of playing (how ‘bout Bowie’s recitation of the Lord’s Prayer
during his set at the Freddie Mercury concert?). For Rock Relief,
a concert held at Orlando’s Universal Studios in 2005, a host of older
dudes got together at the urging of concert organizer/guitar God Rick Derringer
to raise money for the Red Cross and Florida’s Hurricane Relief Fund.
After all the terrible weather anomalies of that year, Florida native Derringer
made some calls and enlisted the talents of artists as diverse as Loverboy to
Michael Bolton to Dickey Betts to Twisted Sister to raise some much needed bucks.
The resultant DVD is a bit of a hodgepodge, a little light on actual music
(Twisted Sister only have one song on this DVD) and pretty heavy on the relief.
Not that I mind the cause or the musicians’ sincerity, but I would have
simply liked more music in the nearly two hours that comprise the DVD. Much
to my surprise, however, is that what we do get sounds pretty damn good! Taking
into account that everybody ages and nobody should ever really wear leather
pants into their 50s, the assembled bands and solo artists perform to a level
I didn’t even know they were capable of anymore.
One of the stand-outs has to be the DVD’s opener, Loverboy. This Canadian
quintet is given the luxury of four songs here (no one else on the DVD other
than Eddie Money are afforded that many songs) and singer Mike Reno faithfully
recreates his vocals of old.. The aforementioned Twisted Sister (the original
line-up, thank you very much) were allotted one song so it’s hard to tell
what more of their performance was like. Betts played his competent guitar on
“Ramblin Man” and “Southbound.” Eddie Money, his voice
sounding a little rough, lumbered through a four-song ‘greatest hits’
set. Mark Farner of Grand Funk fame followed, fronting Derringer’s band
for two songs. Derringer himself played what you’d expect — “Hang
on Sloopy” and “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo” — but was
more impressive backing Michael Bolton. Next to Loverboy, Bolton is the real
surprise on Rock Relief.
I’m not and never have been a Michael Bolton fan. I have nothing against
the dude; in fact I liked that old “Fool’s Game” video of
his (anybody recall Bolton the rock star?), so on most days I can take him or
leave him — he’s just not my cup of tea. But between his interview
segment and startling renditions of “When A Man Loves A Woman” and
“Rock Me Baby” (the DVD also features him performing “Dock
of the Bay” as well, but I can never get behind anyone covering this song
as I am too attached to the original), Bolton comes across as a strong stylist
in his own right. Derringer provides some tasty guitar work behind Bolton. Sometimes,
I think this is where Derringer is best — backing a great singer, augmenting
and arranging his artful guitar playing into the overall tapestry of a song.
Check out what he does on Cyndi Lauper’s second album for more evidence
of this.
The camera work for Rock Relief is superb. I’m not sure
if they have ex-musicians directing these things nowadays, or if people are
just starting to come ‘round, but I was tickled pink to see the camera
stay on the musicians (on this DVD, they are right on stage, up close) and not
cutting to audience reactions like so many major network shows do when they
show concerts. I don’t need to see anyone else’s reaction to know
how I should react nor do I need to see some sap in the audience playing air
guitar — or even a bunch of kids in a cordoned off ‘pit’ jumping
crazily. So my hats off to the production team here for delivering on the visual
as well as the sound. Though Rock Relief is a little short
on the music, it is an entertaining chronicle of a night that hopefully brought
a lot of relief to some people in need.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
