- Two Tons of Steel
Transparent
Big Bellied Records
By Dante Dominick
 If
you're looking to get dolled-up with your kickers shined-up and
ready to swing all night than you should most certainly head
to a Two Tons of Steel concert. If you're not much the dancing
type and all you want is a great band to go with your cold beer,
you should still heed the same advice. Two Tons of Steel rank
among Texas' most enjoyable bands to see live. They are a great
band, no doubt about it, but it takes a certain attitude and
energy to make a night of great tunes into, "hooo-man, that
was fun!" Front-man Kevin Geil, with his hip-swaying, knee-knocking
antics, receives a lot of the credit for this status. Not to
detract from this attention, for Geil certainly deserves it,
but all around this is definitely a group effort. The boys in
the band do more than drive some great tunes; they too exude
excessive amounts of infectious, fun-loving energy.
Transparent, the band's latest recording, is their
best effort to date in bringing that exuberance across within
the confines of a simple stereo system and living room walls.
These confines sometimes suck the life out of great stage personas,
but TTS wouldn't have any of that. The ubiquitous Lloyd Maines
produced the record and he surely imparted some influence on
the ultimate success of Transparent. It would be terribly
embarrassing not to perform great with Maines at the helm --
you know, a put-up or shut-up type thing. (I mean, who doesn't
want Maines to work on their next album?)
The band swirls rockabilly, rock and roll, country and swing
with forceful direction to create a unique Two Tons sound that
bops and bounces with great aplomb. Geil lends the perfect lead
and Ric Ramirez (upright bass) and Chris Dodds (drums) are unbelievable
with their harmony vocals. The harmonies not only sound wonderful,
the intangible tact on when and how to use them is impeccable.
They sometimes chime in sparingly to provide subtle, non-intrusive
emphasis and other times play a lead role in the song's delivery.
"You Know," the closest we get to a ballad, exemplifies
the more sparing side of the band's efforts. It's a pretty tune
penned by Geil that reminisces the night he met his wife and
thanks her for making his life complete. Dennis Fallon (guitar)
and Denny Mathis (steel guitar) supplant the little touches;
wisely walking the song along and never stepping on its feet
with blazing solos they could easily muster.
Geil contributes to the enormous canon of murder songs with
"The Hammer." Murder tunes are more the home turf
of old folk ballads than western swing and so, perhaps in deference
to the integrity of their genre (Spade Cooley, the Godfather
of western swing, never sang about murdering his wife for crying
out loud -- he just went ahead and did it), TTS shakes things
up a bit and turns out a great little bluegrass tune. Hear,
if you will, three-part harmonies:
Tonight, tonight the hammer's falling
Tonight the hammer's going down
I found my pretty Delores
With that old dog Johnny Brown
But the real strength in Transparent lies with "Little
Pig," "Transparent Heart," and "Diddly Daddy."
These tunes more than others bring forth the aforementioned
good time feeling in all its romping glory. Geil's delivery
is perfectly cocky (not an ugly, arragont cocky mind you, but
a cool, we-all-wish-we-could-be-so-slick cocky a la Fonzarelli)
and the group vocals are audible gold. So pleasing during "Little
Pig" in fact that I swear the harmonies will tickle your
ear canals.
Remember Johnny Carson's impersonation of Jimmy Stewart?
That's how good Fallon is at doing Scotty Moore during "Transparent
Heart." A candid observation: when musicians, as opposed
to glamourtainers, speak of influence they frequently note the
inspiration of Moore and not his singer, Elvis Presley. It's
obvious Fallon was listening; the significance of filming from
the waist up may still be lost on him.
As for "Diddly Daddy," I'm not even going to touch
that one in print, and this from a fellow who has never been
accused of being short on words. Well, maybe one comment: I
think they're gonna get away with it.
There's no time for a tidy conclusion to this review. I've
worked hard this week and am greatly looking forward to popping
a cold one, sitting on the couch, turning the lights low and
the volume high. First in the chamber tonight is Transparent.
So there you have it.
www.twotons.com
dominick-at-rockzilla.net
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