arrogance @ 40 Re-Cap

Those reviewing music are supposed to be impartial. It's difficult to do that when the band you are going to see are old friends, and were one of your favorite bands before they were your friends! Of course if they sucked really bad, like Led Zeppelin did in '77 at the Greensboro Coliseum, I guess I could write some nasty stuff. But on their WORST night arrogance has never sounded that bad. On Saturday night at the Carolina Theater the guys turned in one of their best performances in years! It was a interesting show, which commemorated the band's formation in 1969 and featured a bunch of special guests. Each guest has made an impact to the Comboland Music Scene, and a few have had an even greater impact.

Up first was Debra DeMilo. She stole the damn show right up front!! That girl can still sing, and can still work the crowd!! Little Queenie and Mick Jagger tribute had that old theater jumpin'. Then she came out later to join arrogance in the Dogbreath portion of the show. Awesome. I, and others, wished she had done and old Knobs tune... but what the hell. Just seeing her on stage was good enough. I, and those others (of which there are many!) wish she would get on stage more often.


Dave Adams was next and played the Glass Moon songs "She's On" and "On A Carousel". you may remember that Rod Abernethy played with Dave for a bit in Glass Moon so it was cool to see those guys playing together.


Parthenon Huxley was up next. Originally known as Rick Miller his band "The Blazers" put out a fine LP called "How To Rock" and from that he and the guys from arrogance played "Country Girl", followed by an early solo effort, "Buddha Buddha" from his "Rick Rock" days. Both are killer songs and it was great to hear them performed. P. Hux is a damn fine guitar player and you got a taste of his playing in those two song, and again later in the free-for-all that closed the show. More on that later.


arrogance is my favorite Comboland band, I think that is obvious. In close second are the dB's. So a chance to see any member of the band perform is a real treat. To get Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey on the stage together, even if it is for only 2 songs (well 3 technically since one was a bit of a medley) would be reason enough for me to attend this show. They did a new song from a collaboration they are working on which was great! I was anticipating this new release anyway but now REALLY want them to get it done and out so I can play it on Comboland Radio.


Mitch and Shalini were on next. They used Scott on drums from arrogance as they had bassist Jon Heames (who rocked!), Mitch and Shalini on guitars (later joined by Chris Stamey) and Dixon on keyboard. Mitch has always been on of my favorite guitarists. He can truly play just about any type of music imaginable yet always gets stereotyped as this "jangle-pop" player. This is another artist who just doesn't play that many gigs these days so it was a real treat to see him on stage. Man... he rocked it during the free-for-all... but more on that later.

Next was a real treat for long-time arrogance fans as the original arrogance members, Dixon, Robert, Mike Greer and Jimmy Glasgow played their first single to close out the first portion of the show. Superb performance!! Mike and Jimmy sounded great! It looked like they were enjoying themselves too.

After a short break it was time for arrogance. No guests. Just arrogance. They nailed it! Many of those in attendance have seen them what seems like a million times. I mean this is the band that just won't go away. We don't want them to... they don't really want to. Before every show I can hear a few of the folks I hang with saying something like "why are we going to see them again?" "We just saw them in August for god's sake!" Then they start playing and it's like "oh yeah... this is why". Plus... Saturday night's performance was one of their best, musically, in years. Man they were on it!

Then the aforementioned free-for-all. After Debra got the crowd up outta their seats during the Dogbreath tunes Mitch and P. Hux joined in the fun for a few tunes.


It struck me that with Rod Abernethy, Mitch Easter and Rick/Parthenon you had three of Comboland's Best/Most Tasteful guitarists on stage together just wailing! Mike Greer and Jimmy Glasgow later joined in and it was loud, fun, still musical and definitely rockin'.


This was such a fun show. I really couldn't say anything bad about any of it. I am also not impartial where these musicians are concerned, it should be noted. Some are old friends and acquaintances. All of their songs are among my favorites. And with this particular show their musicianship was mostly spot on. You really can't ask for much more.