The stereotypical mid-life crises for the male of our species is to go out and find a hot car and an even hotter young hottie who's impressed by things like hot cars and a large bank account. They'll dump their wife and family of umpteen years and go out and make themselves look ridiculous in an attempt to find something they think they've lost, but have never actually had.
So when John Hiatt talks about the period in his life in 1993 when he reverted back to his earlier form of full steam ahead rock and roll as his mid life crisis, we understand what he's talking about. Of course he's joking, but his album of that year, Perfectly Good Guitar was a departure from the mellower sound he had come to be identified with in the eighties.
Instead of finding the requisite bimbo to stoke his ego, John found three younger musicians, who would make him work for a living, to form his band, The Guilty Dogs (pronounced Dawags, of course). Michael Ward of School of Fish plays lead guitar, while the rhythm section of bassist Davey Faragher and drummer Michael Urbano came from the band Cracker. Together, the four of them made Perfectly Good Guitar so powerful the Los Angeles Times called it "the most boldly rocking record in more than a decade."
I'm sure there would be some who would dispute that claim, but judging by Hiatt and the band's performance on the newly released DVD Live From Austin Tx, we can see the basis for their contention. Hiatt starts the show off by saying, "Let's see if we can't turn this television studio into a Texas honky-tonk" and he and the Dogs do their damnedest to do just that.
After the opening solo number, "Icy Blue Heart", lulls you into expecting an evening of country blues performed by just Hiatt and his acoustic guitar, the band joins him on stage to make the studio lights shake. Not even one of Stevie Ray Vaughn's performances on this show raised such a ruckus as the power consistently generated by these guys. From the first slinky power chord hit by Michael Ward to the last piece of feedback he generates during the encore of "Perfectly Good Guitar," the action only rests momentarily.
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