The Shaming of the True Review by guest blogger Mark McCrite

First off, thank you Mark for taking the time to write this review.  I knew you were the perfect person for the task!  It makes me jealous I wasn't there.  (But let us not fret... I hear a DVD is in the works!)  And thank you Neil Finn and Crowded House for bringing together such a great group of longtime friends.  Now on with the review...

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Tribute to a Lost Masterpiece 
by Mark McCrite

I can’t believe Kevin Gilbert has been gone from this planet for over sixteen years now.  Actually, that’s quite an understatement – part of me can’t accept that he’s gone at all.  Kevin’s music is still largely unknown to the masses, but he has a growing cult of fans – largely musicians – who are about as devoted as you can imagine.  He left an astonishing legacy of music for a 29 year old, and the two significant projects he left unfinished – an edgy band called Kaviar and his rock opera called “The Shaming of the True” – truly represent some of his finest work.

In 2002, six years after Kevin’s passing, Nick D’Virgilio staged the first ever performance of Shaming… in its entirety, backed by the Mike Keneally Band and a host of other supporting musicians (including yours truly as a backing vocalist).  It was a triumphant performance, but tragically there were technical problems with the recording that kept it from being officially released. For years, Nick was continually asked “when are you going to do “Shaming” again?” and in the Spring of 2012 – a full ten years later – fans were thrilled to learn of a repeat performance!  This time it would be different for four key reasons:

• The musicians in the band would be key collaborators with Kevin at some point in his career.

• ·   The presentation would be more theatrical with actors performing dramatic sequences.

• ·   The band would perform an encore of other songs from throughout Kevin’s career.

• ·   The recording would be of paramount importance, and there would be numerous fail safes   and redundancy to ensure a releasable document of the event.

I was so looking forward to the show, and was thrilled when the day before it was to occur I had the opportunity to take my 13 year old daughter to a dress rehearsal.  We were completely blown away by what we saw!  The setting was exquisite – a very cool, extremely elegant little theater.  It reminded me of a miniature version of the Kodak theater, but much more charming – and the acoustics were amazing.  Of course the music was incredible, but we were shocked to see that it was such an ambitious production.  It was obvious that the music had been tight for a while, and by the time we arrived they were focusing on the lighting and staging cues.  My daughter thought it was really cool to have experienced such an inside view of how much work it takes to put something like this together – and the experienced raised my anticipation for the show even more.

 So how was the actual show?  In a word, amazing!  It was unbelievable.  Here are some highlights:

Atmosphere and emotion:  There was so much love in the room.  This was way more than a concert – it was a celebration of Kevin’s life.  There were a lot of people in the room in addition to the band, of course, that were a part of his legacy – i.e.: Jon Rubin, Gruno, Lyle Workman, John Cuniberti, Scott Smith to mention a few.  Gruno put together a moving tribute in pictures and video clips that was shown on the projection screen which had everything from very personal home movies that Kevin made to live Giraffe performances to Toy Matinee performances to a CNN appearance promoting Thud!  I had a hard time keeping my composure during Shaming, but this hit me on a whole different level.  It was quite an experience to directly experience Kevin with that crowd…  It made me relive what it was like to talk to Kevin and the band in the lobby right after his legendary “Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” performance from Progfest ’94.

Musicianship: My God – where to start? I really can’t imagine anyone other than Nick D’Virgilio pulling this all together, and stepping into Johnny’s shoes to boot!  It’s truly mind boggling what he has accomplished.

I’ve had a tremendous amount of respect for Dave Kerzner as a musician and sound designer since I met him in 1988 at music school – and his playing was inspiring this evening.  I introduced him to Kevin’s music, but he actually introduced me to Kevin and brought me into that world for a brief moment – and for that I am forever in his debt.  Dave’s style was such a perfect match for Kevin.

Brian Macleod is simply my favorite drummer in the world.  I had seen him many times with Kaviar after Kevin’s passing, but it was amazing to see him playing these songs live – he really has such style and character and brought such a cool edge to the songs he didn’t play on already.  As an odd note, Brian played on Toy Matinee’s studio recording of “Last Plane Out,” but had never played the song live until this show!

In addition to nailing the guitar parts, Stan Cotey had an amazing guitar rig and really helped to capture the vibe of the recordings. Stan was the band member who had known Kevin the longest.  He commented on how cool it was that everyone in the band knew Kevin at such different stages that it was like they each had a different piece of the Kevin Gilbert jigsaw puzzle.

Paul is truly a BADA$$ bass player and projects such soul and attitude – and this night was no exception.  Like Brian, I had only seen Paul in the context of Kaviar.  Paul told a great story about how he came into the band Kaviar (replacing Nick on bass) and they turned a riff of his into the completed song “The Sultan of Brunei” in only a few days!

I didn’t know guitarist Don Carr (he was the only band member who had never played with Kevin), but he did a great job with many of the solos – including some great slide work on “Best Laid Plans.”  His regular gig since 1991 has been the lead guitarist for the Oak Ridge Boys!

Imagery:  There were many cool images and videos projected throughout the show – the drop of water effects for Water Under the Bridge, the hilarious imagery for Smash (including an actual depiction of Elvis Jackson with the Blue Suede Glove), the cool usage of John Seabury’s imagery created for the artwork, and that’s just scratching the surface.

Dramatic sequences: There were some funny dramatic moments – Gruno was a convincing attendant at the Texaco. Suit Fugue was incredibly well executed by four suited sleazy A&R men.  One of my favorites was when Johnny sat down to watch TV and came across images of Kevin hawking Giraffe CDs and dressed as Rael smashing a ghetto blaster, Brian Macleod playing drums on Baywatch, and upon seeing Spock’s Beard Johnny declared “BO-RING!”  Also cool was the hair, nails and makeup routine during Imagemaker – featuring backup singer Kat Bowser and Nick’s wife Tiffany as his stylists.  The entire cast all brought the seedy and creepy party to life in “Fun.” Mark Hornsby was great as Mr. Delgado – the manager who seemed a little too interested in hooking Johnny up with Justin Bieber or in promoting the female backup vocalist/keyboard player in Johnny’s band (ouch). Throughout the performance, Nick’s wardrobe reflected the story, from the Bon Jovi rock star persona in Best Laid Plans to the suited industry guy in Smash to the disheveled hipster in Fun.

The encore:  As if the rock opera and the home movies/videos weren’t enough, the band came back again to play several other songs from all phases of Kevin’s career.  Songs: This Warm Night (Giraffe), Last Plane Out (Toy Matinee), Childhood’s End (an unreleased track that Kevin suggested Nick take as a cover song), The Sultan of Brunei (this Kaviar track was the highlight of the evening for me) and a very fitting climax/end to the show with Shadow Self from Thud!

All in all, it was a really unforgettable night. I know the DVD will be amazing, but it was really something in the room and I’m glad I experienced it live. The songs really came to life – and at times it was emotionally overwhelming.  If there was a dry eye in the house when the rain sound effect at the end of the album started to fade down, it didn’t belong to me…  I was struck by what a tragedy it is that there are so few opportunities to hear this amazing music performed live.  I couldn’t help but feel both incredibly sad and a bit angry that Kevin isn’t still here to perform it for us himself.  Ah well, all the more reason to be grateful to Nick and the gang for such a special evening!