The Philadelphia Inquirer - Posted on Wed, Aug. 14, 2002

Arthur Lee gives sold-out house a flashback to a storied past
By A.D. Amorosi
FOR THE INQUIRER

Like Brian Wilson and Roky Erickson, Arthur Lee - the singer, guitarist and songwriter of the '60s Los Angeles band Love - is a lovely, eccentric master of the sonic mix known as folkie-psychedelia.

Drugs, arrests, erratic behavior and loopy conversation were Lee's hallmark. But so was the panoramic blend of baroque pop, stuttering garage rhythm-and-blues, fuzzed psychedelia, spacey jazz and glistening folk that Lee, 57, boldly displayed at the sold-out North Star Bar on Monday night.

Before a dazzling makeshift Love and a crowd heavy with scribes and rock elders, Lee represented the strange but lucid center between Wilson's elegant complexity and Erickson's mad howl. The singer, who was released in December after serving seven years for a firearms offense, looked better than he should, and delivered dramatic vocals akin to a gentler Roland Gift.

The halting "My Little Red Book," a funky-punky country blues of "Bummer in the Summer" and the choppy garage pop of "Live and Let Live" were energized with a psychotic reactionary vibe and the surrealist lyrics of the recorded versions. Yet they never felt dated or rote. "She Comes in Colors" and "You Set the Scene" strayed from their originals for some particularly hypnotic moments.

Lee's sturdy band (whose "la-la-la" backgrounds were a nice touch) also made quiet moments such as the shimmering arch melody of "Alone Again Or" and the slowly sinister "The Red Telephone" ripplingly jazzy. The performance was a Technicolor take on what once was and will be again if Lee keeps making music bold as Love.