WMNF music director Flee (Lee Courtney) has been throwing multi-band homages to rock's royals for several years now. Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and The Who have all been honored. Last Saturday marked the first time I didn't particularly care for the honoree: The Doors.
I don't hate 'em, exactly, but the idea of Jim Morrison as a — dare I say the word, poet — rankles me. In fact, "The End" might be the worst song in the classic-rock canon. I said as much to some musicians who were waiting to perform Saturday and seriously irked one of them. Oh well.
"Set the Night on Fire: A Tribute to the Doors," which took place at Skipper's Smokehouse, ran seven hours. I passed on the poetry readings and got there at 6 p.m. when the music started. Eighteen local bands each turned in roughly 12-minute sets. The talent levels varied greatly.
Skull and Bones kicked things off. They're a solid band that turned in a sturdy performance, but it sounded as if they were aping rather than honoring The Doors. Their singer has a deep, dramatic voice that sounds even more Morrison-y than Ian Astbury's.
I retreated to the backstage area and listened — waiting for an act to make me want to come to the front of the stage and cheer.
This finally happened around 8:30 — and the timing couldn't have been better. A band called Large Mammal, which was led by a burly howler who wore a black T-shirt with the sleeves hacked off, had just offered unimaginative run-throughs of Doors hits during a set that was plagued by a painfully long break for technical difficulties.
Next, out came the duo Acho Brother: singer/guitarist Hector Mayoral and drummer Zak Byrd. Up to this point, no one had done anything truly innovative or unpredictable. Mayoral changed all that. A singer in possession of a supple, demonstrative voice that sounds incapable of a flat note, he sang the words to "The Spy" but completely eschewed The Doors' sophomoric chord changes for white-hot jazz licks that left me and several other musicians picking our jaws off the floor. Mayoral's second and final number, "Wishful Sinful," dazzled with equal fervor.
It was cool to witness the same bikers, hippies, yuppies, college students and teens (the large crowd ran the gamut) that cheered wildly for the standard Doors interpretations also give it up for Acho Brother.
Not too long after the Acho set, I again found myself in the pit, screaming my approval during a performance by Hunch, a new quartet featuring The Vodkanauts' Mark Warren (guitar/vocals) and Ryan Arsenault (keyboards). The quartet executed a masterfully exuberant instrumental medley of "Light My Fire," "L.A. Woman," "Love Her Madly" and "Touch Me" that also managed to quote Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" and one of jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi's numbers from A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
As for the best non-Doors number of the evening, that award goes to Auditorium. Lead singer Joran Slane unleashed a throat-grabbing reading of "Desperado," written about Morrison, that sounded every bit as sinister and depraved as the Alice Cooper original from the 1971 classic Killer. Auditorium segued into a faithful, fiery rendition of "Five to One" (a Doors tune I do have a soft spot for).
For my money, the Mojo Gurus are the best straight-up, good-time rock 'n' roll band in Tampa Bay. Formerly the lead singer of the nationally signed hard-rock act Roxx Gang, Kevin Steele knows how to sell an over-the-top Morrison lyric better than most. He and his three bandmates closed the night with gloriously glammy covers of "Hello, I Love You," "Love Me Two Times," "People Are Strange" and the finale: "Break on Through," which erupted with a cluster-bomb solo by guitarist Doc Lovett.
Like the hundreds of others in attendance, I left Skipper's with a big ol' grin on my face — and eagerly anticipate what Flee will concoct for his next tribute show.
This article appears in Nov 14-20, 2007.