Jeff Beck: Same hairdo, same white guitar (almost all night long)

Photo by Jules Ameel

It has been 45 years since British guitar god Jeff Beck made his Twin Cities debut (with the Yardbirds) at Dayton's auditorium in Minneapolis. It has been 10 years since he last performed here (at the State Theatre). His return to the sold-out State Sunday was a typical Beck performance.

He didn't talk much, didn't sing at all and didn't tune between songs (or change guitars very often). Most importantly, he didn't get too carried away with his music. Beck offered more emotion and commotion in a five-tune set last summer at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago than he did in his 20-song concert Sunday. Although he is more of a showman than Clapton, as I said in my Star Tribune review, Beck was more virtuosic than vital.

The evening could have done without opening act Tyler Bryant, a 20-year-old Texan who now lives in Nashville and was compelled to play a solo acoustic set even though he usually plays electric with a band. He can play guitar (though he's no match for Jonny Lang at 20), and his originals made him sound like a John Mellencamp wannabe.

By the by, Brian Setzer, who has recorded with Beck, was in the audience.

Here is Jeff Beck's set list:

Plan B/ Stratus/ Led Boots/ Corpus Christi Carol (Benjmain Britten)/ Hammerhead/ Mna Na Eireann (Beck called it MNE)/ bass solo by Rhonda Smith/ People Get Ready (Curtis Mayfield song) / You Never Know/ Rollin' and Tumblin' (blues standard, sung by Rhonda Smith)/ Big Block/ Over the Rainbow (yes the Judy Garland classic) / Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix, vocals by drummer Narada Michael Walden)/ Blast from the East/ Two Rivers/ Dirty Mind/ Brush with the Blues/ A Day in the Life (Beatles) ENCORE How High the Moon (Les Paul song, with taped lead vocals)/ I Want To Take You Higher (Sly Stone, sung by Smith and Walden)/ Nessun Dorma (Puccini aria)