http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2004/06/28/music/music02.txtRe-light my fire

from Las Vegas' "City Life"     June 24-30, 2004 edition

The Doors of the 21st Century want to party like its 1969

BY JEFF INMAN

If there's one thing Robbie Krieger is acutely aware of it's the fact that some people hate his band. They hated the Doors when Jim Morrison was skinny and stuffed with stage fright, refusing to turn and face the audience. They hated the band when they transformed psychedelia into a sex-crazy bacchanal and made leather pants somehow cool and icky all at the same time. And they hated the group when it went huge and became bloated on its own fame, all manifesting in Morrison reconstructing himself as a human repository for illegal substances and kicking it in Paris.

Of course, now people have a whole new reason to hate the Doors. Nearly 40 years after the group released its self-titled debut and more 30 years since Morrison died, Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek have reconstituted the band with former Cult frontman Ian Astbury. They are touring regularly and are even planning a new album. Purists call it sacrilege. Others call it greed. Former drummer John Densmore even calls it illegal and is suing the band over the rights to the name, thus the "of the 21st Century" part tagged onto the back of the Doors name these days. Krieger says people can say whatever they want.

"Look, I know a lot of people just can't stand the Doors, and they're against us doing this," he says. "People have given us flack and said you can't replace Jim Morrison. John (Densmore) thinks it's such a bad idea he's suing us for the name, which is very difficult, because I don't know why he wouldn't want to play. The fans certainly want it. But the thing is, everywhere we go we sell out and the fans love it."

That alone would have been justification for Krieger and Manzarek to keep moving forward on their nostalgia trip. But Krieger says that there's more at stake than revitalizing his career. He believes the world needs the Doors right now -- what the group stands for, what it fought against, the message that meant so much to so many that has somehow become corrupted over the years by age, guilt, and politics. Not that Krieger has lofty dreams that he can recreate 1967. He knows that's not going to happen. He just believes that, like before, the music can make a difference.

"A lot of stuff that happened in the '60s is happening all over again," he says. "The damn wars, who's in power, why they're in power, everything the world is going through -- it's all happening again. So why not get back together and see if we can change something? The immediacy of music going into your head and staying with you can achieve something more than any article in a newspaper."

Whether or not the Doors of the 21st Century will have that kind of impact is still up in the air. Astbury is good, and he carries the mysticism of the band well, but he's not Morrison, nor does he intend to be. And though the new music the trio is writing doesn't venture far from the psychedelic blues the Doors mastered on albums like Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman, Krieger and Manzarek are well aware that the grand trash poetry of Mr. Mojo carried the weight of the band. To help keep that element alive, the Doors have enlisted everyone from The Basketball Diaries' Jim Carroll to John Doe of X. Warren Zevon even contributed some lyrics before he passed.

"We wanted to keep Jim's poetic tradition alive," Krieger says. And if that doesn't soften the doubts of all those haters out there, well, Krieger has this: "If we're not going to go out and play there are a million tribute bands that will do it. So why not see the real guys who made the music in the first place?"

The Doors of the 21st Century

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