Technically not. But Friday's show at Amager Bio in Copenhagen proved two things: That the music and lyrical spheres of The Doors are still mesmerising and magical - and that British tribute band The Doors Alive come very close to the real deal.
Both in musical skills and stylistic imitation. But obviously, you can never incarnate a gem so rare to perfection. And here I am thinking of Jim Morrison.
Time travel: Friday evening in Copenhagen. Amager Bio. An intimate middle-sized concert hall. A very simple on-stage setup. Bass player invisible, incognito hidden behind the black curtain. Just like their prodigy predecessors.
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Like a vast majority of all bands, no matter what musical genre, it took The Doors Alive a couple of songs to really get warm, smooth, tight and fired up. Tonight’s critically acclaimed band sound resembles the real Doors impressively. Including Jimbo’s laid back and deep, sometimes brawling and howling voice profile.
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The singer also looks like Morrison, at least from a distance, on a stage discretely illuminated. He has a lazy, slightly arrogant, body language, just like the legend he imitates and pays homage to. But the wild energi was somewhat lacking a bit though.
Like a vast majority of all bands, no matter what musical genre, it took The Doors Alive a couple of songs – in fact three tonight – to really get warm, smooth, tight and fired up. But then that’s just what happened.
During the concert I discovered that the organist, Willem Vonhof, in fact plays the bass lines with his left hand on a separate keyboard. Impressive enough
They kicked off with “Backdoor Man”. Later we strolled down “Love Street”. Later on “Spanish Caravan” was delivered with real passion, including an elongated intro and amazing Spanish finger picking from the guitarist. Not easy on an electric guitar compared to an acoustic Spanish one with nylon strings. And while we are at the musicians: With regards to the invisible bass player, during the concert I discovered that the organist, Willem Vonhof, in fact plays the bass with his left hand on a keyboard. Impressive enough.
I guess “Light My Fire” is mandatory and impossible to ignore for a tribute band – and tonight it was served well and authentically too. However, I must admit that the very long jam part in the middle bored me a bit. An organ solo is demanding when aiming at flavouring a track interestingly enough throughout 32 bars or so.
“Riders On The Storm” was intense, dreamy and spherical. Like being in a desert, intoxicated by life and perhaps an amount of whisky, strong tobacco and other activators. Though not necessarily, cause the songs spirituality simply make you dream and fly, even when sober.
“LA Woman” was really cool and groovy. Basically, it’s just blues. But the art of doing a controlled crescendo in the tempo needs mastering here – and The Doors Alive mastered just that. And that’s essential for this particular song.
Is this the end?
I feel pretty confident that you can guess which track finished off the show at Amager Bio? Yes. And that song is still a timeless masterpiece.
The intro was hypnotising and patient, just like originally intended. The audience logically need to be held in a tight suspense, impatiently awaiting the first key phrase. A phrase that both functions as a motif-leading anaphor with shifting themes and lyrical tableaus, symbols and anarchist, apocalyptical riddles and mirages in this ingenious track.
In fact, The Doors Alive prolonged the intro with a pre-intro, their own congenial ouverture which fitted and added a spice to this anthem. When we got to the “hold your breath, soon the story will begin” intro, the singer pulled the elastic band an extra inch. A phrase that both functions as a motif-leading anaphor with shifting themes and lyrical tableaus, symbols and anarchist, apocalyptical riddles and mirages in this ingenious track
At one point when we thought he would articulate the hook, he surprised everyone, choosing a small but effective burb into the microphone instead. Guess he had enough of raspberry juice in his stomach at this point – because I don’t believe the whisky bottle he drank from several times contained any whisky. We are talking mere gimmick here.
A woman I chatted with on our way out found the burb a bit inappropriate and disrespectful. I disagree. It is very much in the spirit of Jimbo to do just that. So again: Very authentic.
Conclusion: The Doors are virtually alive
The Doors Alive is an exquisite and conceptually very convincing act. The only flipside of experiencing them is, for me at least. It instantly makes you miss a certain handsome, highly sensitive, demon-haunted young man who died tragically and way too early in his Parisian bathtub on the 3rd of July, 1971.
The brightest flames burn quickest, and the flame of Jim Morrison was both bright and dark
Like millions of other I have visited his tomb in Paris. I was born three years after he died, so obviously I never got the chance to experience him live – or contact him for a chat on life, music and poetry. But nevertheless I somehow feel connected to the guy, and I am sure a lot of creative and musical souls out there do too. His memory will live forever.
The brightest flames burn quickest, and the flame of Jim Morrison was both bright and dark. The fact that his longtime girlfriend Pamela Courson introduced him to heroine did not help, and perhaps just settling with the whisky could have given him another 15-20 years.
But that is pure speculation. Debauchery would probably have taken its gruesome toll on him anyway. Or? Well, we will never know and cannot use hypothetical grips in hindsight to bring the wonderful guy back.
