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MUSIC REVIEW
No strings attached - Beck a pro with electric guitar

By Steve Morse, Globe Staff, 03/22/99

new buzzword fits an old guitar god like Jeff Beck - and the word is ''fresh.'' Whether reaching back to his '60s blues or forward to the techno-colored style of his new album, Beck carved a cutting-edge impression for a sold-out 2,800 fans at the Orpheum on Saturday.

Beck's prowess on electric guitar remains nearly unmatched. It's easy to see why he's placed in the same pantheon as Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, because his range of sounds, and the speed and dynamism of those sounds, leaves only vapor trails for most contemporaries to follow.

Beck was in sensuous overdrive at the Orpheum, unleashing a vast arsenal of riffs that drew many standing ovations from the ravenous crowd, which hadn't seen him since he opened for Santana at Great Woods four years ago. On Saturday, Beck played with and without a plectrum, coaxing sounds that veered from gentle, pastoral lines, to crashing, whammy-bar crescendos.

It's hard to sustain a two-hour instrumental show at the Orpheum level, but Beck did it, save for a few repetitous stretches. With the help of skilled guitar foil Jennifer Batten (who once toured with Michael Jackson and has mastered guitar synthesizer effects) and the driving rhythm section of bassist Randy Hope and drummer Steve Alexander, Beck pulled it off.

He focused on his new album, ''Who Else!,'' doing nine tunes from it, spanning the torrid boogie of ''Psycho-Sam,'' the tech-spiced ''THX138,'' the Irish air ''Declan,'' and the accelerating ''Blast From the East.'' To these, he added older classics such as ''Pump,'' and passionate instrumentals of the Beatles's ''Day in the Life,'' and Stevie Wonder's '''Cuz We Ended.'' And the music was enhanced by an apt backdrop picture of a highway winding through the desert, with lighting effects that suggested flickering truck headlights one minute, then an airport runway the next.

Beck, dressed in a sleeveless black T-shirt and looking quite fit, hardly spoke, except to say: ''I hate the sound of my own voice, but I must say it's good to be back in Boston.'' And ditto for his fans to have him here. (Beck was planning to return this summer on a package tour with Sting, but Sting's keyboardist, Kenne Kirkland, died, and that tour is off. Beck might return with his own headline show instead.)

Opening act Paul Thorn, playing solo acoustic, was a delight. He evoked a '90s Kinky Friedman in his biting satire, taking roundhouse jabs at lifestyle quirks, whether in the bedroom, in trailer parks, or in strip clubs. He's fearless.

This story ran on page C06 of the Boston Globe on 03/22/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.