The Doors 21st Century at Roseland on 4/24/03

by Glyn Emmerson  

The Doors took to the stage with the operatic Carmina Burana booming throughout the house as if a séance and calling to the spirit of Jim Morrison were taking place. From the opening riff of “Roadhouse Blues” to the closer, the Doors sent the crowd on a cosmic trip to the dark side of the turbulent sixties and back thru the grinder of time to our current crises and the band’s (they are being sued by original drummer John Densmore, Stewart Copeland of the Police and the Morrison estate over use of the name and tour).

At the Roseland original members Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek resurrected the Doors canon from what could have been a night of oldies hell, into a seething, breathing and ferocious unit that bit, spat and stroked the cock of time.

Singer Ian Astbury from the Cult funneled Morrison’s kindred spirit throughout the band's two hour plus set like a hired mercenary. His blood curdling yelps and grunts tugged at the Lizard King's legacy and badass-ness as Krieger and Manzarek countered musical high fives. They riffed off each other with a delicate interplay that interwove the blues, Indian raga and jazz into a sonic mix that peaked and slid itself into the subconscious.

The rhythm section from Robby Krieger’s solo band of Angelo Barbera on bass and Ty Dennis on skins put the punch into the songs that lacked original drummer John Densmore’s finesse but kept his primal thunder.

“This ain’t no Foo Fighters show” Ian Astbury quipped before the Doors 21st Century ripped into “When the Music’s Over”. The slow, whirling, funeral-esque drone of keyboardist Ray Manzarek put the crowd into a tightly wound trance that guitarist Robby Krieger unraveled with a screeching lead that twisted, weaved and shot its load at the climactic -We want the world and we want it NOW!-

Manzarek announced onstage that the band would be going into the studio to record soon and they did a new one, “Cops Talk”, with words by Jim Carroll who wrote Basketball Diaries.

On “Back Door Man” the band turned loud, lewd and righteously funky. Astbury’s claim to have “eatin’ more pussy than any man ever seen” was countered by the bands chunky grind that fused into “Five to One” as newsreels of sixties riots flickered onscreen.  Manzarek and Astbury rapped at the delights of recreational drug use, hardcore sex, dissed the Dixie Chicks and then dedicated the number to Jim Morrison,

-Wherever he is”-.

The band played “Crystal Ship’ unplugged with Krieger on acoustic and Manzarek tinkling the ivories like two aged lounge lizards in a chintzy Vegas dive. On “Light My Fire” they played off each other like old friends as the Brotherhood of Light Show’s onscreen blobs of fluorescent purples mutated and globbed like stoned out amoebas.  Krieger borrowed a few lines from Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things” and they segued into Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up”.

“I’m a Doors fan and I know where people are coming from” Astbury told the crowd before the band finished with “Soul Kitchen”.

read Ida's review of this show

 

  return to Ida's LA Woman Confidential home page   

 for more Doors news and reviews

5/5/03