[dtxtremeiiispecial]

Portnoy Powers Yellow Matter Custard

“I’ve got blistahs on my fingahs!” shouted Mike Portnoy to close the hour and 45-minute set Yellow Matter Custard had belted out. Portnoy’s group rocked, playing only mostly faithful renditions of Beatles tunes on its second of three dates together, last Friday in Long Beach, Sunday Feb. 27th in Chicagoland, and Monday in The Big Apple.

Portnoy dressed the part, looking like he had just stepped off the Sargeant Pepper’s album cover. Plum-colored pants, an open, knee-length 18th-century blue French coat, a blouse with lacy French cuffs and breastwork, and royal blue lenses contrasted with Portnoy’s plain black chest-length hair, black beard, and black mustache. He actually looked a lot like Ringo.

Portnoy copied Ringo’s drumming style throughout the 25-song set; he was rock-steady, precise, infrequently explosive, and mistake-free to my ears. He was obviously enjoying himself. At one point between songs he made it plain that he admires Ringo. “It’s not how he played, it’s what he played. He played the right part on every song,” Portnoy said. Having listened to Beatles music for 40 years, Portnoy said he was surprised when he finally started playing it and listening closely to what Ringo had played, because some of the drum parts were very difficult to duplicate.

This wasn’t the first time Portnoy had performed Beatles songs with his own group. He did the same thing in 2003, playing the most popular Beatles songs in several gigs along the Atlantic coast. The playlist this time included no songs from the 2003 playlist, so these were more “second-tier” Beatles songs, including many off the White Album and Abbey Road. Perhaps the high point of the concert came at the end of the long set, with strong versions of Carry That Weight and Helter Skelter, the latter of which deteriorated and became a bit, well, helter-skelter.

Four or five minutes after the long set ended, Yellow Matter Custard came back onstage and did a 12-song encore. The place revved up high on Polythene Pam. And the bottom line is – Yellow rocked the house! Kasim Sutton played rhythm guitar and sang, Paul Gilbert played some mean lead guitar and sang, and Neal Morse played bass guitar, keys, lead guitar, and sang. Together, they produced quite listenable vocals and harmonies, although they lacked the copycat voices of a true tribute band. Portnoy did a tolerable job of singing Ringo’s parts.

For this show Portnoy played a standard 4-piece set of local Tama Imperialstars (with a Ringo figurine mounted on a stand), one ride, one crash, and a pair of hi-hat cymbals. The starter-level Imperialstars sounded terrific, which I found surprising. Of course, Mike Portnoy was playing them.

Durty Nellie's in Palatine, Illinois, was the venue, and it deserves mention. Put your back against the bar at the back of the room, and walk forward 11 paces to touch the front of the stage. No one in the place was more than 25 yards from Mike Portnoy, and I had a good view of all the band members all the time. It don’t get much better than this.

There were plenty of drummers there because the Drum Pad in Palatine sponsored the show. I enjoyed talking with a young (maybe 16 years) drummer as I left the show. He was with his mom, and he was beaming. Portnoy complimented Victor Salazar of the Drum Pad, who has a real knack for bringing world-class drummers to Palatine for clinics and shows, and many find these experiences inspirational. Tonight was.