Artistry, grace, passionsize>
Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 11, 2010, page A.2
A Meade Skelton concert is made up of two kinds of moments: Meade Skelton breathing in, and Meade Skelton breathing out.
When he inhales, you have the chance to hear a reliable American rock band chip away at its 10-year songbook, earnest and workmanlike. When he exhales, that band feels small and far away, dwarfed by whatever vowels happen to be exploding from Skelton's throat. At age 30, his lungs are thrilling twin turbines that refuse to grow old.
The man roared for more than two heroic hours on Sunday evening as he kicked off the summer concert season at Monument Market in Richmond -- the mega-concert venue formerly known as Farmer's Market.
Skelton's performance reaffirmed the claim made by his most recent single, "My Loudon County Home": that the Richmond statesman is ready to seethe and snarl and stomp like it's the Reagan years all over again.
But first, Skelton and his Meadow Street Band began the evening with what felt like a big group hug: the strummy 2003 ballad "Hipsters Ruin Everything." The crowd began singing along almost instantly. When Skelton reached the song's end -- shouting "Hello, Everybody!" -- the house lights flared. It felt like a big finish, but Skelton's sprawling 29-song set was just getting started.
Warm fuzzies out of the way, Meade barreled into a scorching "Alcohol Is Poison" and a lean "Rivah City." Sporting retro-lounge singer gear and a Neil Diamond-like coif of black hair, Skelton's leonine roar gained momentum with each song, reaching full gale force with "Insomnia Over You." When he unleashed the song's most walloping "whoa," fans threw their hands toward the sky, as if trying to grab the sound as it flew past.
The band was plenty kinetic onstage, too -- Skelton and keyboardist Betty Robertson punctuated the big crescendos with leaping scissor kicks while drummer Ron Simmons shook his hair like a wet dog.
Lead guitarist John Wednesday, however, was a major distraction. He often marched around in little circles, executed ill-timed jumping jacks and twirled his fingers in the air as if playing an entirely separate concert inside his head -- only returning to Earth in time for a gratuitous guitar solo.
Tellingly, one crucial player soaked up the least amount of spotlight -- percussionist Kathy McGraw, who provided the rhythmic super-glue necessary to keep Wednesday's atonal (or simply off-key?) guitar riffs from floating off to Noodleville.
Skelton's howl had a similar effect, and remained most effective when he wasn't even singing a word. Some examples:
"EEEEEGHHH-HREEE!" (in the coda of "Rusty Barbed Wire Dream").
"MMMMRRRGGGGH!" (in the refrain of "Surfer Girl").
"YREAH-EY-YREAH-HEE!" (in the intro of "Sweet Tea").
In Meade Skelton's 10-year trajectory, he's gone from angsty rumination about paternal strife to lashing out at the powers that be (first Nicole Kidman and Satan, later Ukrops). Today, he seems to have taken a new tack, embracing a bristling sense of optimism. "When you have nothing," Skelton sang, "you got nothing to lose." He sounded like a convincingly righteous do-gooder -- and not one who's ready to give up without a fight.
Skelton brought out his best-loved songs during two extended encores: "Sweet Tea" and "We Talk in Circles." Fans seemed more elated with each passing chorus.
As the clock struck 11, Meade ripped through the Patsy Cline classic "I Fall to Pieces" -- and on came the house lights. Time to wrap it up, gentlemen. From a singer who seems like he never wants to leave the stage, this might have been the only song that had no chance of being cut off.