Adrian Belew and Robert Who?
Sunday, June 8th, 2008
Adrian Belew is the musical equivalent of a character actor. Like that face you’ve seen in God knows how many films but you can’t place the name, Belew’s guitar has left its fingerprints from one end of popular music to the other. Whether you recognize the name or not, you’ve likely heard that distinctive sound on records by Zappa, Bowie, the Talking Heads, King Crimson, Nine Inch Nails, Paul Simon, Jaguares, Tori Amos, and others; if you’re lucky, you’ve also heard him on one of his many solo outings.
And if you were in the sleepy, overheated vicinity of Teaneck this evening, you could also have caught him live at Mexicali Blues with the other two-thirds of his Power Trio, the ridiculously talented Eric and Julie Slick, who play drums and bass, respectively. The club featured terrific sound, great sight lines, and a temperature that would likely have allowed anyone who was so inclined to make a pretty serviceable omelette on one of the speaker cabinets.