Music Review: New York Dolls - Live At The Filmore East - Page 2

So the band who released the 2006 studio album, One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This, and the recently released (June 17, 2008) Live At The Fillmore East under the name of New York Dolls, could be said to be the band in name only.

It's been more then thirty years since the band was put together and there's only two of the original band members left - just because they call themselves by the same name, does that make them the New York Dolls?

After listening to Live At The Filmore East the answer is a resounding yes.

Sylvain and Johansen have chosen musicians who may not fill the shoes of those they're replacing, but they do a damn good job of bringing the same energy and attack to the music that the original band was famous for. Of course it doesn't hurt that Johansen's vocals still drip attitude, and he sings with same amount of passion that he did thirty years ago, or that Sylvain hasn't forgotten what it means to play rock and roll guitar.

They come out of the gate flying with a searing version of "Babylon" and they never let up. It doesn't matter if they're playing fast or slow. The intensity and the energy are never turned down from the moment the first note on the guitar rings out to the last echo fades away on the final notes of the medley of "You Can't Put Your Arms 'Round A Memory" and "Lonely Planet Boy".

This isn't some nostalgia tour, with some guys looking to regain some lost glory, these guys are intent on still playing great rock and roll.

It doesn't seem to matter whether they're playing an up-tempo tune like "Jet Boy" or one of the slower songs like "You Can't Put Your Arms 'Round A Memory", they still maintain the same level of intensity. I've always felt a special type of revulsion for rock and roll power ballads. There is nothing more insincere than some guy whose spent twenty-five minutes screaming himself hoarse about chicks and whatever, while all of a sudden trying to show he's really a sensitive guy underneath. There's none of that pretense from Johansen as his level of emotional honesty doesn't change no matter what the song's tempo is.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the forthcoming book What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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