Newsgroups: rec.music.folk
Subject: TEMPEST review
From: kaplan4@husc10.harvard.edu (Merrill Kaplan)
Date: 27 Aug 92 13:28:21 GMT
Keywords: we saw the wolf, too
Summary: very nice

TEMPEST appeared at Johnny D's in Somerville last night, with We Saw the
Wolf opening for them.  

The Wolves (for those who don't know) are drums,
bass, two voices (one male and one female), and guitar (switched often
with a bailalaika).  Unfortunately, that's also the order of volume,
descending.  The band's sound suffered greatly from the volume of the
percussion and the fervor of the drummer.  He appeared to have been lately
of some punk band, or else to have a serious feud with the drumskins...
They had some interesting material, including a very electric "Betsy Bell
and Mary Gray" and an unusual "Matthy Groves," but I wish I actually
knew what they sounded like with a decent mix.  The guitar/bailalaika-
player seemed to be quite good (although his voice was not to my taste),
but that's largely judging from what his fingers _looked_like_ on the 
instruments.

Tempest played two sets after We Saw the Wolf, both of which were 
excellent.  The band just picked up a fiddler on the last album (Michael
Mullen, if I remember-), and the rest of the band is comprised of Adolpho
Lazo on drums (incl. bodhran), Ian (forgot the surname) on bass guitar,
Rob Wullenjohn on lead, and Lief Sorbye on the double-necked electric
mandolin.  The Tempest sound gets up and runs around during live performance,
and is looser and more dynamic than the studio recordings.  This makes for
a great show, even if Lief's jumping about kept threatening to bring his 
head into contact with the ceiling.  
Actually, all the members of the band got to run around in front of the stage
at one point or another.  They were obviously having fun, and Lief         
reprimanded the audience until some dancers appeared.  ("Now in Idaho 
dancing's illegal, and they told me 'wait 'til you get to Boston."  
Voice from the audience: "But this is Somerville!")

             Several very hairy guitar solos from Rob, one involving Ian
stomping on Rob's reverb while Rob viciously attacked a chair with his
instrument.

             A few songs not on the albums made an appearance, all good.
Lief has remarked that the band has no lack of material, and that it's
just a matter of recording it all. 

            "Jenny Nettles" let everyone get in a mini-solo and an 
introduction for the band members and Lief's instrument....
"The Mutant Ninja Mando-Monster"

             One of the instrumentals (name escapes me) wandered off for
a few moments and became an exceedingly crunchy 'Peter Gunn,' to 
everyone's entertainment.  Lief took the opportunity to have a sit-down
and a cigarette before rejoining the lot.

Regrets:     They didn't play "Tom O' Bedlam."   -snif-

             We didn't get to hear Lief's flute, glimpsed during setup
   and not heard since the first album.

Good News for Tempest Fans (Tempheads? suggests Rob):
 
                Celtic Rock (1st album) due out on cd, with more tracks,
        in March.  Also, the band should be back around here then.

CALL FOR SUPPORT:  HEY!!  Anyone out there interested in a Tempest
e-mail list?!  Someone should set one up, eh?

-mk-
kaplan4@husc.bitnet

Xref: sparky rec.music.folk:5841 soc.culture.celtic:5600