Posted on February 26, 2010 by Greg

The UnRecorded | Concert Review: The Trews and Ace Frehley

SupernovaScotians and Smokin’ Guitars

The Trews and Ace Frehley

House of Blues Chicago

April 1, 2008

The Trews are one of a parade of Canadian bands who are big in their home country and virtually unknown in America. I discovered these hard rocking Nova Scotians years ago while listening to a Canadian online radio station. Their first album, House of Ill Fame (2003) is easily among my favorite records of the 2000s. They followed up with the very good Den of Thieves in 2005 and the fantastic No Time For Later in 2008. They have a deserved rep for putting on monster live shows (I’ve seen them 4 times) so there was no way I was going to miss them when they hit the House of Blues on April 1, 2008.

Here’s my review of that show:

I saw The Trews and Ace Frehley at the House of Blues last Tuesday. I felt a little ripped off, as the event was billed “The Trews with Ace Frehley”…made it sound like Ace was playing *with* The Trews, or they were co-headliners. No opening bands were listed. Turns out, of course, that The Trews were the opener and got 45 minutes while Ace played more than an hour and a half.

The Trews were great, though, and they won over some converts from the Ace crowd, who started getting into it a few songs into the set. They have a new album that I picked up at the show, No Time For Later. A lot heavier, and a good lead-in for Ace. Tougher sound, a little more political. Definitely worth seeking out. They were so commanding onstage that I kept shaking my head at their lack of arena status in this country. Theirs is a sound that could easily fill a stadium, but HOB is by far the largest venue I have seen them at, and this as an opening act. I guess that’s the eternal dilemma of the music fan…you want your bands to have a good crowd, but then if they get too popular, it ruins everything. Here’s hoping they headline HOB next time, though.

I stuck around for Ace, ’cause why not. I never really got into Kiss and definitely not Frehley’s Comet but I figured I’d see what all the fuss is about. Judging from the crowd, it seems that Kiss fans are rock’s answer to Star Trek geeks. The audience ranged in age from 30 to about 60, and there were plenty of middle-aged nerds wearing Kiss hats, Kiss bandanas, Kiss jackets, Kiss T-Shirts, Kiss patches on their jeans and jean jackets, Ace Frehley gear…everything. Lots of men with long gray ponytails coming out of the back of Kiss baseball hats. Air guitarists. Air drummers. Sing-alongers and high-fivers. Super, super geeky.

**Side note: has anyone noticed that air drumming has taken over air guitar’s throne as the official Embarrassing Fan activity at live shows these days?**

Suddenly, the lights dimmed and a goony green laser show started up onstage as a sexy chick voice cooed, “Airship Frehley, preparing for takeoff…thrusters engaged…” very Spinal Tap. Hilariously dumb. Ace came out looking like an old biker…leather pants, a black rock t-shirt, long graying hair, black sunglasses. He’s 56, but the rest of his band must have had an average age of 24. The drummer might have been late twenties and the rhythm guitarist and bassist looked all of 22 each. These 3 guys were all awfully good, and you could tell they were having the time of their lives playing with Ace. Jumping all over the place, playing to the crowd, doing the devil hands. It was really fun to watch, and the crowd ate it up. Nice move by Ace, picking a young hungry backing band rather than creaky old friends of his.

And Ace himself can still shred with the best. I was very impressed with his chops…he didn’t seemed slowed down a bit. His songwriting is kind of terrible, but the musicianship was great, so I gave it a pass. Ace did have a couple more Spinal Tap moments, though. Late in the show, he was on an extended solo and he went over to a roadie, who tried to stick something into his guitar. Didn’t work. They took his guitar and gave him a new one. Then they waved him back and handed him a smoking guitar. Smoke pouring everywhere from the fret board. The strap came undone and they kept trying to get it on him, and when they finally got it on, the smoke pot in the guitar was burned out and Ace was coughing.

Ace stopped playing and said in his NY accent, “The smokin’ guitar went out. It ran out of smoke. The guy (roadie) sez to me, ‘April Fools’! Yeah, April Fools on me. April Fools on everyone, I guess.” (It was April 1st)

Then a roadie gave him a guitar with strobe lights built into the body and Ace just resumed the long solo thing he had been doing as if nothing had happened. So funny, so Spinal Tap, so Ace Frehley.

–Greg

The UnRecorded | Concert Review: The Trews and Ace Frehley9.8106