Jethro Tull Gives Energized Performance

Jethro Tull Monday, Nov. 3, Spokane Opera House

No question about it, Jethro Tull is the world’s greatest rock band led by a flute.

Of course, they’re the only rock band led by a flute, but after their performance Monday night, plenty of people in the sold-out Opera House would be willing to stipulate that they’re a great rock band, period.

Ian Anderson, as eccentric as ever, led his band through a wildly entertaining two-hour show that veered from Bach-like delicacy to heavy guitar thunder, often in the same song. Heck, often in the same bar.

Three of the band members are (relatively) young, but the core of Tull has remained the same since 1969: guitarist Martin Barre and flutist-vocalist-songwriter Anderson. Barre, looking like a distinguished professor of history at Cambridge, cranked out ear-splitting riffs such as the band’s signature “Aqualung” riff, occasionally sitting down to play something complicated and classical. Anderson prowled the stage like a modern-day Fagin.

Actually, his Dickens persona has been toned down over the years. He wasn’t wearing the overcoat and leggings, but he did have a swashbuckler belt holding up his black trousers.

He still declaims his songs like a Shakespearean actor, holding one hand high in the air, the other hand on his heart. And he can still do that stork routine, standing on one leg while his other foot beats time on his knee.

It’s all part of Anderson’s persona, and he has a good time with it. Once, while doing his flamingo act, he pretended to rip a tendon.

The set list included many crowd-pleasing old favorites, including a furious “Aqualung” as the first half closer. From that same album, they also did “My God” and “Locomotive Breath,” which included a nice sight gag. As if to poke fun at the song’s lounge-piano intro, a stage hand in an apron came out and handed keyboard player Andy Giddings a glass of champagne on a tray.

Giddings, in fact, was something of a clown all night, popping his suspenders in time to the music, and doing a lot of deadpan takes.

The band also played a high-energy “Thick as a Brick” suite, and a lively version of one of their earliest hits, “Nothing Is Easy.”

Energy was the operative word at this show. Even the band’s laid-back tunes, such as “Living in the Past,” were performed with surprising intensity (and volume). In fact, the band’s most lyrical and Bach-like piece, “Bouree,” included a ferocious mid-song jam, and a wild and manic flute-brandishing finale.

The band played a good selection of more recent material, including a piece from 1995’s “Roots and Branches” and from Anderson’s 1994 classical-themed solo album, “Divinities,” which showed off his newly improved flute technique and his gift for writing beautiful melodies and harmonies.

The band also played a swinging jazz piece that owed more to Hubert Laws and Roland Kirk than it did to rock and roll. This is a band that, at its best, can rival many jazz combos for complexity.

Yet, as Monday night proved, what really sets this band apart is its utter originality. Some bands are so original, other bands imitate them. Jethro Tull is so original, nobody even tries.

, DataTimes