5 Things I Liked About T-Pain “On Top of the Covers”
Before I was old enough to go to concerts, I collected concert DVDs. Filmed concerts have unique artistic elements that separate them from just a video of a performance, kind of like a comedy special. Simply put, the formula can be described as “Great Music + Cool Venue + Interesting Art Direction + A Gimmick” where the gimmick can be a wide range of options, including the city, an important anniversary, a special concert tour, musical guests, etc.
I could write a bunch of words about it, or you already know this because you saw Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour movie or Beyonce’s Renaissance: A Film, or you could watch a little of one of the best concert films ever, The Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense directed by Jonathan Demme of Silence of the Lambs:
Some of my other favorites from back in the day were The White Stripes Under Blackpool Lights (Great band + cool venue + grainy visual style that captured what it was like to see The White Stripes), The Who & Special Guests Live at the Royal Albert Hall (Great band + unreal venue + special musical guests playing famous songs), and U2 Elevation 2001: Live from Boston (Wild stage setup + my hometown + the song “Bad”, I wrote about this for my high school newspaper The Dedham Mirror).
I’d like to welcome T-Pain’s On Top of the Covers to the list of favorites. It’s available in full on YouTube here:
Here are 5 reasons I liked it:
1. T-Pain, Superstar
Shame on me for not knowing T-Pain was this freaking talented. I was blown away. First of all, his wardrobe rules, and all the leopards and tiger stripes and chains set a performance expectation level that he blows away with his voice. Also, his stage banter is both humorous and inspirational and vulnerable. While watching I thought to myself, “This guy is a superstar,” and then twenty minutes later Kelly said out loud, “This guy is a superstar,” and then twenty minutes later T-Pain said, “To me this is superstardom” and I agree with him wholeheartedly. I think the choice to do cover songs was a genius way to put the breadth of his talent on display, and he has a whole lot of talent.
2. The Band
This band is so, so, so, so good. Their song arrangements are creative as hell. The way they play together is both tightly practiced and gleefully experimental. Standout guitar player Curt Chambers is a volcano. The range they have collectively to nail George Gershwin’s “Summertime” and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” and Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” is quite impressive. The backup singers casually crush it while sitting on a couch. The drummer and the piano player and the bass player, oh my. I love musicians.
3. The Sun Rose
Says the Pendry Hotel’s website: “A musical hotspot for decades, the Sunset Strip is famous for its concert venues and clubs. Pendry West Hollywood is home to its newest and best; an intimate 100-seat music club where something new is always happening.”
The ambience and crowd connection is palpable in this film, and The Sun Rose plays a starring role. It’s like a West Coast version of Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle Hotel from Bill Murray’s A Very Murray Christmas. It adds so much to the viewing experience, and makes the FOMO of not being in the room for these nights hit hard.
4. The Cover Concept, Specifically Black Sabbath’s War Pigs
The concept of the show is that T-Pain and company are covering songs by other artists. Cover songs can be tricky. When you’re a band nobody knows, a cover song in your set is usually your most-liked song, which can be a sad feeling to see how your own artistic material stacks up. But playing a set full of covers is also the best way to rock a party, which can make you feel famous for an hour, which is one of the coolest parts of being a musician. For T-Pain and his band they are already famous, and they already can rock a party, so this set feels more like exploring the full range of artistic expression available to them.
The way I discovered On Top of the Covers is because Ozzy Osbourne said that “This is the best cover of ‘War Pigs’ ever,” with “this” being T-Pain’s version. If you don’t know “War Pigs”, here’s a clip—you might recognize the “dun-nuh” guitar lick as it punches you in the stomach at about the 1-minute mark:
I have loved this song from the first time I heard it on WZLX, and there are many cover versions, and I like a lot of them.
There’s Cake, who get their groove on for it:
Then there’s the Girl Talk mashup version that imagines Jay-Z and Ludacris on the track:
And now there is T-Pain co-starring guitar volcano Curt Chambers:
I agree with Ozzy, and this cover was so good it made us want to watch the rest of the show. I’m glad we did, because while it’s an awesome standout hit, it’s also not representative of all that is going on musically in this film.
5. The Jazz
In 9th grade I asked my mom for a bass guitar because one friend had a guitar and one friend had a drum set. That’s when I started playing rock music, but I feel like I became a musician thanks to the Amherst College Jazz Ensemble and my professor Bruce Diehl. Bruce saw on my college application that I played the bass, and he called to ask if I’d be interested in playing Jazz at Amherst. “What’s jazz?” I said. He said that’s OK, and asked if I could play a walking bass line. “What’s a walking bass line?” I asked. He said that’s OK, and asked if I’d like to learn, and wow am I thankful now that I said yes.
Bruce is one of the nicest, most positive people I’ve ever met. He is also an absolute monster on the saxophone. One day during class he stopped talking mid-lecture, walked over to the piano, and played a collection of notes. We didn’t know what he was doing at all, and then he said something like, “Sorry, I thought the lawnmower outside was in D, I just had to make sure” and I didn’t know until that point that a human being could do anything like that.
Because of Bruce I learned how to play in small jazz combos as well as the big band. I got connected with a work-study job that consisted of me cataloging hundreds of jazz albums that had been donated by Robin McBride ‘59 while I listened to these classic albums on a sick turntable setup. Learning the theory and history and practice habits that go into being a musician was transformational for me, and set a foundation that has allowed me to play music with so many different people in so many different settings.
So when T-Pain and company started playing “Summertime” and Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life” I felt pretty cool because I’ve played those songs too, and that doesn’t happen if Bruce Diehl isn’t the amazing person that he is.
Here’s one of my favorite sentences ever: Thank you Bruce Diehl, and thank you T-Pain.
Isn’t music great? Are there any concert films you love that I should watch? Let me know!