Talk about birthday bashes!
Robert Randolph celebrated his birthday on Thursday with a dance party extraordinaire at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, with a little help from The Family Band and a highly energized crowd.
Robert is a dynamo, to put it mildly. He doesn’t play the pedal steel guitar; he becomes the instrument. Sort of like Doc Ock in Spider-Man…only a lot more tuneful.
It’s an athletic performance. No super-glue can hold Robert’s chair in place as he attacks the fretboard.
At one point in Thursday’s show, the man was doing scissor-kicks over his head…while strumming at warp speed.
The evening featured selections from the band’s rambunctious new CD, Lickety Split. But the set list was immaterial. This guy could play Yankee Doodle all night; he would make it move.
As it was, Robert slipped in nods to Stevie Wonder and Led Zeppelin, with a snatch of God Bless America that channeled a theremin from some ’50s sci-fi epic.
All that was missing from his red-hot Family Band was a cousin to play the fire extinguisher.
At Robert’s invitation, a bevy of ladies bolted from the audience to join the band onstage for a 21st-century version of Dance Fever.
He also plucked a guitar-slinger from the crowd for some solos that sounded too good for a random choice.
Big Sam’s Funky Nation jump-started the festivities. For all we know, the party’s still going strong at the Frog, where Robert, a former Morristown resident, said he was heading after the show.
Keep those candles burning, Big Guy.
MG INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT RANDOLPH
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