Review: Hendrix tribute at Benedum a positive experience
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Vernon Reid, Doug Wimbish and Corey Glover of the band Living Colour relive the Jimi Hendrix experience with their version of "Power of Soul" as the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust presented Experience Hendrix at the Benedum Center, with various artists playing Hendrix songs.
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With the positive vibes from the recent Bob Marley tribute still lingering in the air of the Benedum Center, Tuesday night the scene changed to an earlier, more fiery musical icon: Jimi Hendrix.
Unlike with Marley, who played his last show here, Pittsburghers were never privy to the Jimi Hendrix Experience, or the Band of Gypsys experience, for that matter.
And so the star-studded, ear-shattering opening date of the Experience Hendrix fall tour is about the closest we can get. In this production, the role of Jimi Hendrix is played by nearly a dozen different guitarists and singers, most of them bona fide headliners.
Janie Hendrix came out to say of her brother, "He wanted you to feel the music, not just hear the music," before handing the stage to contemporaries bassist Billy Cox and guitarist Ernie Isley (plus drummer Chris Layton), who quickly demonstrated her point.
Mr. Isley, who learned from Hendrix firsthand, scorched the stage with the frenetic riffage of "Manic Depression," while sounding like his vocal double.
Living Colour, which carried the Hendrix torch in the '80s, attacked "Power of Soul" and "Crosstown Traffic," with a kind of punk gospel fury and that literally traveled up to the balcony.
Eric Johnson's voice isn't scuffed up enough for Hendrix, but he found that liquid guitar tone on the ballad "Drifting" and made "Are You Experienced" sufficiently druggy.
The still boyish Jonny Lang, with Brad Whitford, was somewhat overmatched by "Fire" and "The Wind Cries Mary."
The flashy Kenny Wayne Shepherd, with Jimi sound-alike Noah Hunt, brought his big-boy guitar and seemed more intent to blow people's heads off and then torch the place on "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)."
David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas, of the great Los Logos, packed a lot of feeling into a soulful "Little Wing."
The reason Steve Vai took top billing is that he was dabbling in a kind of sorcery, unleashing wicked sounds you rarely hear from a guitar in a mini-set that climaxed with him sparring with Vernon Reid on "Love or Confusion" and "Foxey Lady."
In the end, amidst all the star power on stage and deafening volume, the message reaffirmed in every lick, riff and warped melody was the wild and true genius of Jimi Hendrix.
First Published October 27, 2010 12:00 am
