God Johnson Unzipped @ Trocaderos 8/2

Although it had only been a week since I last heard God Johnson play a crowded Saloon Stage as the final band of the 10,000 Lakes Festival, it felt like longer. Since the end of the Wednesday night rock show a mere month and a half ago, GJ has been playing fewer shows in order to concentrate on throwing down these occasional outlandish productions to feature some kind of theme, like Unzipped. The idea was to cover the entire "Sticky Fingers" record and do it in an extravagant and entertaining way. They succeeded in that. Like God Johnson's recreation of Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" a few months ago, tonight's lineup was a bit different than the standard God Johnson and included a spot on lead singer.


"Squirms II" opened the first set, and the band sounded terrific. The epic "Wrath" followed, and the simply worded yet triumphant "Size of the Fish" was next. A funky as ever "Electric Shoes" and an enthusiastic Talking Heads number towards the end of the set met an enthusiastic response, and soon we were all looking forward to the spectacle of the "Sticky Fingers" set.

Rochester artist Chuck Hues, who beautified the 10K grounds even more this year and designed the kick ass t-shirts was in charge of decorating Troc's for the event. A great big banner reading "UNZIPPED" hung behind the band, speckled with Rolling Stones icons.



















GJ burst out of the gate just around midnight with a smokin "Brown Sugar" that really set the place off. That opening riff never sounded better. A fantastic pace was set, and the place was putty in the hands of the Mick Jagger sounding lead singer, Steve Davern. Davern, an old bandmate of Jason Fladager at Winona State University pre Big Wu, masterfully captured the cocky sway and vocal stylings of one of Rock and Roll's most prominent and feminine front men. As the music began, hundreds of balloons dropped from the ceiling and bounced around for most of the song. The set featured Kevin Sinclair of GJ on saxophone, and a couple other dudes with horns as well.


"Can't You Hear Me Knocking" was another highlight of dirty Stones rock, and as its studio version is seven minutes-plus long, this was the place during the set for extended improvisation, which the "Unzipped" band took full advantage of.

"You Gotta Move" was appropriately twangy and bluesy, and the horns on "Bitch" were dynamite. Of course everyone sang along a bit during "Dead Flowers" and before we knew it, they had flown through the 50 minute or so record. We still had another rockin' set of GJ to go.


God Johnson's next rock spectacular will be October 25, when they take on Led Zeppelin IV, complete with "Stairway to Heaven".