Live in Anvers

by Mark DemingWith the possible exception of Richard Hell, Alex Chilton may well be the laziest great artist in the history of American rock & roll. Sure, the man belted out some terrific blue-eyed soul with the Box Tops, and created three heartbreakingly good albums with Big Star, but what has the man done for listeners since, say, High Priest in 1987? Well, he's mostly been doing the occasional gig here and there where he plays two or three of his own tunes while filling out the set with old R&B numbers and the Italian pop songs he's inexplicably fond of; Chilton is invariably in good voice and plays some cool guitar lines that almost (but not quite) obscure the fact he's not terribly interested in what he's doing. Live in Anvers documents a gig Chilton played in Belgium in January of 2004 with a local pickup band, which sounds pretty good given the circumstances (they had one rehearsal with Chilton shortly before the show, and were reading some of the numbers off charts), though much of the time the bandmembers are not asked to do much but vamp behind their leader for the evening (and they don't always catch the cues for the endings). Things get off to a less than stellar start when Chilton gets a hyper-enthusiastic introduction from a local announcer, followed by 90 seconds of dead air as Chilton tunes up and fiddles with his amp. And after that, listeners get a pretty typical Alex Chilton solo set -- two originals, covers of soul hits by Ernie K-Doe, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, and Wilson Pickett, a few old standards, and something in Italian called "Il Ribelle." Chilton sounds solidly professional but not especially engaged here, rather like a lounge pianist or a guy playing a wedding reception, and the result is an album that will allow you to kill an hour of your time with mild amusement and a certain degree of casual enjoyment. But if you want to hear what really makes Alex Chilton an artist worth remembering, you're a lot better off with Radio City or #1 Record.