Over a dozen musicians have played in NRBQ, but only founding member keyboardist Terry Adams remains in the lineup. It would be easy to write the band off as a shadowy tribute to its glory days, but that would be wrong. Consider Adams the beating heart, with successful hip, knee and elbow replacements.
Thursday, June 20, at Shank Hall, newcomers Scott Ligon (guitar), Casey McDonough (bass) and John Perrin (drums) demonstrated that the current version of NRBQ clearly holds its own.
On any given night, the Q might just be the best purely musical band on the planet. Adding the two-piece Whole Wheat Horns (Jim Hoke and Klem Klimek, both saxophone and harmonica), the band blasted through a history lesson that ranged freely from jazz to country to pop to R&B to early rock ‘n’ roll, inviting dancers up early in the evening.
Ligon, McDonough and Perrin all appear too young to claim such a pedigree, yet they are key ingredients in the musical alchemy. In fact, they just might be part of a secret mail order build your own NRBQ kit the Adams sent away for. If “Lucille” and “Shake, Rattle and Roll” are part of the canon, Adams and Klimek’s harmonica duet on “Hey Baby” came out of left field.
When Adams finally took his first vocal turn on, it was “Places Far Away,” a fine homage to Sun Ra with a moody falling down, lurching rhythm, covered by a sound tapestry. Ligon punctuated the improvised section with a violent Wes Montgomery-having-a-nervous-breakdown solo that lead to Hole’s squawking and crying sax fadeout.
Throughout the night Adams courageously battled with not enough volume in his vocal monitors. Considering he recovered from throat cancer in 2011, Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train” allowed Adams to let his fingers do the talking.
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With a band as wildly talented and equally eclectic as NRBQ, the spotlight shone on everyone. A few songs after Klimek strapped on an accordion for Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya,” he fronted the band, singing until the piano solo when he walked offstage to dance and mingle with the audience before returning to sing the final verse.
Obliging the audience with their near-hits, the pop confectionery of “Me and the Boys” and “Riding in My Car,” NRBQ also encored with the Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t it be Nice,” displaying Summer harmonies and a convincing wall of sound.
