Oct 17 2009
Rory Gallagher at the Tower Theatre – December 5, 1975
Guitarist Rory Gallagher Emits Steam at the Tower
In their final concert production at the Tower Theatre, Midnight Sun inadvertently paired two highly respected but intrinsically different acts, pitting the volatile “live performance” energy of Irish guitar whiz Rory Gallagher aganist England’s 10cc and their disc-oriented, studio-sound approach. And it showed.
Gallagher won hands down with his blue-collar musical manner, pushing his workhorse band through a series of blues-based piledriving tunes — none terribly complex but all driven by the same straight r’n’r beat. He also puts his beat-up Stratocaster through quite a number of gymnastic paces with licks flying here and there and energy steaming out the amps.
An only fair-to-middling recording artist, Rory Gallagher still gives it all he’s got in a live situation and his open-ended attitude toward his audience contrasted sharply with the cooler-than-thou jive of headliners 10cc.
Having few if any peers in the studio, 10cc is justly lauded as one of the premier recording bands of the 70’s. Their Sheet Music, in particular, stands as a recorded classic in studio awareness.
But in attempting to convey that genius from the stage, they have lost that glossy touch and instead try to cover up with fancy staging (not all that impressive anyway) and a surprisingly cold approach to the music itself, long solos notwithstanding.
Depending more on the wit of the words than the mood of the music, the group went through its 90 minute set in a lackadaisical manner, while the tunes sounded a bit empty sans the studio refinement (“Baron Samedi”, “The Sacro-iliac”).
What really redeemed the group’s Philadelphia debut from general mediocrity was the unbelievably tight vocal harmony gracing “Old Wild Men” and the casting couch spectacular, “Somewhere in Hollywood.” 10cc easily possess four of the clearest and cleanest voices in pop and their ability to parody both doo-wop and choral music in one fell swoop is to their continuing credit.
David Fricke, “The Evening Bulletin”, December 5, 1975
