Lightening in a Bottle: One Fan’s Story About Catching a Live Peter Parcek Gig
My friend, Peter Parcek is releasing a new album on Tuesday May 18th. I wrote a piece over on his facebook fan page notes blog. Peter is a phenomenal guitarist. He hails from the Boston area and has been blowing the roofs off joints in live performances there for near four decades. If you are lucky enough to be in the area when he is playing…GO! I have seen him 50+ times and he always gives me a case of the chicken skin.
The album hits street on Tuesday the 18th. You can sample the the tunes here on Amazon “The Mathematics of Love” (not an affiliate link).
Here is a video of Peter absolutely dismantling and rebuilding a Lucinda Williams cover and rebuilding it into a explosive display. Peter works up Lucinda’s country, hop-step-y, jaunt into a sinewy, muscular, guitar romp…without bruising it or sacrificing the root of the song at the guitar-hero alter.
Before you watch/listen to Peter’s version, have alisten to Lu’s original. Peter’s version is a country mile a part; true vision.
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Here is the piece I wrote for Peter’s blog:
Lightening in a Bottle: One Fan’s Story About Catching a Live Peter Parcek Gig
Hello, my name is Judd and I am a friend and fan of Peter’s. I have enjoyed his friendship and his music for close to twenty years. There was a period, when I lived in Boston and New Hampshire, that I would see Peter play at least once every couple of week…if not more. Those were the days.
I live in London, England now. I haven’t heard Peter play live since I left Boston back in 2002. I am crawling walls for some live Peter Parcek. Or at least I was until I heard his new album, “The Mathematics of Love”. As soon as I listened to the opening track, “Showbiz Blues”, I could tell that this album was going to bring me as close to those special live moments we shared…as a musician and fan do…way back when I was clapping and whistling for one more song so many, many times before. Peter and his band mates Steve and Marc, along with his producer Ted Drozdowski and everyone else who had a hand in this masterwork, should be extremely proud of this album. I could wax on with layers of superlatives and adjectives about it, but I think Peter describes it best: “My first album was called Evolution, but this album really is an evolution for me. It’s the most focused, emotionally complex and complete artistic statement I’ve made under my own name. Well said, well played and well done, Peter. I am not a musician. I am a fan. As a fan it is my role to inspire and support the musician to do what they do best…make the music. One way to do this is to attend the gigs. As I said, I have attended many of Peter’s live gigs. There was one in particular that has always rang true for me, and I’d like to share it with you… — LIGHTENING IN A BOTTLE… I was already exhausted. I didn’t play a lick, but I gave that three-plus hour performance everything I had. I cheered at all the right spots. I cajoled the band with standing-o’s, foot stomps and fist pumps. I clapped for every searing solo and storming crescendo they played. When the time came for the customary call for the encore…I led the charge. As a fan…a true fan…a heart on his sleeve, lost in the moment, sign on the dotted-line-fan…this…this,…was my end of the bargain. Little did I know, I was about to get more than I bargained for… The band came back up onto the stage floor and the place up and erupted at the first sight of the geetar-man pulling his axe up over his shoulder. Could he actually have more juice left in the tips of those fingers?!? Could he…the band…have any more guts left to spill on the floor? Hell, yes. I was twenty-one, then. That was seventeen years ago. When I think about that exact moment, I still get the chicken skin. Moments like that are never lost. They get bottled up in a time capsule and with every year that passes, that memory, like the finest of reds, gets better with age. Don’t get me wrong; my memory of that exact moment has not been diluted by time and hyperbole. What I felt then and what I feel now are as true as tomorrow’s sunrise. I am a music fan. I am a fan not just because of the sounds…but, also, because of the stories behind it and the significance that a single note or extended solo can have. As a student of music lore, I have read of many of these stories and moments: Dylan “going electric”, Hendrix’s Woodstock Star Spangled salute or Keith and Crew closing out the ’60′s at the Speedway in Altamont. These are all moments that will live on for an eternity…and if you were there, you were lucky enough to catch lightning in a bottle. I have always wanted to be part of a “moment”…to catch my own lightning. Little did I know that my moment would come as close to home and as close to the bone as it did.
