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Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company (source InfoTrac)
The Boston Globe
June 11, 1999, Friday ,City Edition
SECTION: ARTS & FILM; Pg. D13
LENGTH: 1273 words
HEADLINE: Freeze-frame; Boston's best R&B band revives its long-gone sound; MUSIC
BYLINE: By Steve Morse, Globe Staff
SOMERVILLE - Fittingly, the J. Geils Band is jamming in an unpretentious hideaway rehearsal space in a warehouse on the Somerville/Charlestown line. The dead-end road is potholed. The neighborhood is non-Yuppie. And as you approach the door, you hear cars thundering overhead on I-93. It feels like the perfect setting for a "Bladerunner" sequel. Once inside, you're embraced by the grind-it-out Geils sound booming through the walls - a mixture of R & B roots, sassy attitude, and true grit. "We're a blue-collar band," says singer Peter Wolf, who finishes the Geils classic "Give It to Me" and joins his bandmates to discuss the upcoming reunion tour that starts at the Tweeter Center June 23 and 24. It's the first tour in a staggering 16 years since the band fell apart due to internal differences that have never been fully explained and won't be this day, either. "We're looking forward and not looking back," says keyboardist Seth Justman. "We don't even think about whether we should have done this sooner," adds bassist Danny Klein. "We're doing it now and that's what's happening." "That's why we call him DK the philosopher!" says Wolf, as the rest of the group laughs playfully. There are no signs of tension, no signs of discord, as the group sits down and banters like long-lost friends in this windowless rehearsal space with no air conditioning. "It's the last year of the millennium and we're a 20th-century American band, so here we are," says guitarist J. Geils, whose former apartment in working-class Mission Hill was where the group first rehearsed in the late '60s, back when Justman brought in a Hammond B3 organ and Wolf said, "What's that? It looks like something from my grandmother's house." From 1967 to 1983, band members toured like madmen. They also released 15 albums, including such party favorites as "Full House," "Bloodshot," "Nightmares (And Other Tales from the Vinyl Jungle)," "Blow Your Face Out," "Sanctuary," "Love Stinks," and "Freeze-Frame," which went to No. 1 in 1981 and yielded the hits "Centerfold," "Freeze-Frame," and "Angel in Blue." The group peaked with three sold-out nights at Boston Garden, then a European stadium tour opening for the Rolling Stones. Then, bang, they were gone, lost in a muddled sea of infighting that was described as simply a "divorce." It was a divorce that cost Boston one of its most popular bands. There have been other Boston acts with devoted followings - Aerosmith, for one - but none with a more loyal, more noisy, fandom than the J. Geils Band. A night with Geils at the Garden was like a playoff game with Larry Bird's Celtics. The sweat would come early - and it wouldn't stop. "One of the things that marks us as different from many other bands is the amount of energy we put into a Geils show," Wolf says, peering through his trademark sunglasses. "There's a physical commitment to our music which is a lot more intense." Indeed, new Geils drummer Sim Cain is the first to agree. He has replaced the only original Geils member not to join this tour (Stephen Jo Bladd, who has elected to stay home with his family). Cain is used to touring with the hardcore Rollins Band, but he admits, "The first thing that struck me was how much stamina would be involved in playing with Geils." So much has changed since the Geils clan last strode the boards. On the band 's last official headlining tour, its opening act was none other than future superstars U2. (For the new tour, Geils has chosen reggae/ska act Toots & the Maytals to open.) In the intervening years, Wolf has made several solo albums, guitarist J. Geils and harpist Magic Dick have played Chicago blues in clubs together, Klein has played with Stone Crazy (featuring Babe Pino), and Justman has worked with Blondie's Deborah Harry and been writing songs for his own project he hopes to unleash one day. Attempts to reunite the band have been tried through the years, but all failed until now. "There have been various people who tried," says Geils. "But in my opinion, they were trying to produce too much at once." In other words, they tried to get the group to commit to an album, a new single, a new video, the works. Then along came John Baruck, a West Coast manager who has worked with R.E.O. Speedwagon, and he simply asked them to do a short tour with no strings attached. "We're committed to this for six weeks," says Wolf. "And right after the tour, we'll be committed to Bridgewater," Klein jokes. The band members took their first baby steps back in January at a secretive jam session at the Bull Run in Shirley - not far from where Geils lives. "We just took it over for a Saturday afternoon," he says. "We played 'Give It to Me,' 'Looking for a Love,' and a couple of blues," says Justman. "By and large, the sound of the band and the chemistry of the band re-emerged." "It's like riding a bike. You never forget how to fall off," says jokester Klein. By February they had agreed to a tour. "Like Danny says, one drink at a time," says Wolf. "But make it a double," Klein adds. Since then, the famed Geils Band professionalism has taken over. Band members may joke on the surface, but underneath they're deadly serious about reviving the Geils legacy. For the tour, they've enlisted the backing of the Uptown Horns and two singers, Catherine Russell and Andrika Hall. Fans can expect songs from all the albums. No promises are made about writing new material, but that may come later. "Basically, we're not doing anything different than what Bruce Springsteen is doing," Wolf says of Springsteen's summer reunion with the E Street Band. "Like him, we're gathering a fan base that pre-dates MTV and the pre-changing of a lot of rock radio, back when each disc jockey was his own programmer and when radio was far more creative, when disc jockeys played album cuts and weren't concerned about singles. There's still an audience that can relate to those bands. "Be it Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, be it Bob Dylan, be it Paul Simon - you don't hear Paul Simon on the radio these days, but a lot of people still find him valid. You don't hear a lot of James Taylor on the radio, but people still find him a valid artist. The same with Springsteen," says Wolf, adding that the Geils Band once recorded in the studio next to Springsteen at the Record Plant in New York when Springsteen cut "Born to Run." "You want to go see these acts because of the body of work they created," says Wolf. "It's the same reason we went to see Muddy Waters when we were starting out. We wanted to hear him do 'Hoochie Coochie Man' and 'I Just Want to Make Love to You.' " For the past month, the J. Geils Band has rehearsed six to seven hours a day in this dark rehearsal space. Clearly, this is not a half-baked reunion. "We're playing a lot of older songs, but we've really improved all of them, in a way," says Magic Dick. "There's been a maturation in everyone and the way we rhythmically attack our instruments." "If we were going to do it, we wanted to do it right. We're determined to have a good time out there," says Justman. As for Wolf, he has played Geils songs in the last few years with various touring bands, but now realizes the understandable limitations of those groups. "When you do these songs with other musicians, it can be good, but it ain't the real deal," Wolf says. "It's like a mistress on the side. I've played with a lot of different musicians and some of them are highly qualified cats from all different styles, but now I'm back with the people who really created this. This is the real deal."
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, Back on the road: Wolf, Geils, Klein, Magic Dick, Bladd, and Justman. / GLOBE STAFF PHOTO/SUZANNE KREITER
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