By personal request from Steve, here is my review of the show:
On July 21, 2003 at B.B. King's in New York City, I attended my first ever Ak & Zuie show.....and it blew away my expectations!! I attended the show with my friends Rachael and Blaine, and also saw a bunch of familiar faces in the audience, some of which I haven't had a chance to talk to since the Scissors tour, and some of which I have never had the opportunity to meet face to face before. BB King's is a small basement club/restaurant, although there is no required cover. Rachael had already gotten a great table right in front of the stage, which worked out great for me as I rushed there right from work and the place was almost full when I arrived.
The performance started at 8PM, with Steve Jay on 8 string bass and vocals, and Pete Gallagher on a very wood-looking drum kit and vocals. They performed for about an hour and 15 minutes, playing tracks from Steve's solo albums (in very interesting drum & bass arrangements) as well as some other (new?) stuff. I didn't write down or memorize the exact setlist, so I'll leave it to someone else to post that. I must say, I was impressed from the very first song. Although I was familiar with Steve's solo albums and very aware of his talent, this is the first time I have ever seen it showcased in this way. I've seen Weird Al 15 times in concert (14 of those with Steve playing bass), and although Steve always put on a fabulous performance, Al's style of music really doesn't allow him to show off his full talent, and is too tightly scripted for any form of improvization (I mean c'mon...a 3 note bass solo? It's funny stuff, but...) and I was just amazed at how talented he was in a more serious, open format. I was also pleasently surprised with how musical a bass and drum duet show could be. These are usually thought of as the rhythm section of a band, but these instruments really led the melody (along with occasional vocals from Steve and Pete) and kept it going. I didn't get bored for one minute of the entire set.
After closing the set with a cover of Hang On Sloopy, the band took a half hour intermission. I used this time to chat with some of my friends I saw in the audience and catch up with them. They then re-took this stage, this time with Weird Al guitarist Jim West. Remember what I was saying about Steve's complete musicianship being held back in a way when he plays with Al? ... well, Jim proved that he could hold his own just as well. I've seen both Mike McCready and Kirk Hamlet perform within the last month, and Jim blew both of them away with his performance during the second set! Jim was playing with chord sheets for most of the songs, but he could have fooled me into thinking that he'd been playing with Ak & Zuie for years. The second set was about 45 minutes long, and was more material from Steve's albums, including some LOOOONG solo jams during the middle of some of the songs. They threw a cover of Wild Thing into the middle, which was good enough to fool me into thinking that they wrote it. Maybe it was just me, but they seemed to get louder and louder in the last 20 minutes, to the point where it was starting to get uncomfortable, but otherwise the performance was wonderful.
After the second set ended, the band left the stage and immediately went into the audience to greet us. I sat down with Steve at Jay Levey's table for a couple of minutes and chatted with them. Steve agreed with me that the New Hampshire show last weekend was one of the best ones that they've done. Since I was just about the only person in the audience who WASN'T going to the Westbury shows, a conversation started up about them. Steve said that although that's a neat place, it's one of the more annoying venues for him, due to the rotating stage. He said that he tends to lose his sense of gravity, which throws him off. Before I left, Steve asked if I was going to be writing a nice positive review for the internet audience to read....is this good enough for ya, Steve
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Ever since I first heard Sea Never Dry, I have been interested in seeing Steve/Ak & Zuie perform. Up until last night, they have only been performing in California, so I was SO happy when I found out they would be doing a NYC show, and I am VERY happy that I was able to attend it. If by chance they ever get to perform in the New York area again (or if they're in town wherever I happen to be), I will not hesitate to see them perform again.