The true caveat about live music is that you can never predict which shows are gonna rock and which shows are gonna spiral straight into the shitter.

I had been really excited to see the recently reformed and revamped Zero play at the Gramercy Theater as part of the Green Apple Music Festival on Friday night. Years have elapsed since I had last seen legendary guitar player Steve Kimock tear up a solo. Over the past few years I’ve listened to a bunch of Zero, and I really dug the band’s multi-layered compositions. So imagine how surprised I was to be so turned off by Zero’s disappointingly boring performance.

The Gramercy is a nice new venue that has a sloping floor for standees and seating in the back for the old fogies like me. I got to my seat and the lights went down at 8:25. Everyone around me was excited for the show to begin, but nothing happened. The lights were down, but the band didn’t go on until about 8:40. That’s professionalism at its finest: The night had certainly begun on the wrong foot. Read on for more on this unfortunately subpar show…

Finally, Kimock and his band graced the stage, and after about 10 minutes of tuning, the band started Anorexia. I have no problem with lengthy songs, as long as the music is interesting. Anorexia, however, would be the start of a parade of 15-minute tunes that left me…just bored. Kimock took forever to get to the point, and saxophone player Martin Fierro rarely even made a point. Fierro also showed off a dirty mouth, using the word “fuck” more often than Andrew Dice Clay. He often ranted in between songs, little of which I could understand.

Photo by Scarlet_Fyre

Many of the tunes Zero played that night were instrumentals, and the high points of the evening were when the lovely Donna Jean Godchaux came out to sing a few songs, such as Catalina. Donna looked and sounded great, and I’m happy to report she sang on-key.

Sadly her appearances were few and far between. Arnie Green did most of the singing, and he just wasn’t doin’ it for me. The drummer duo of Greg Anton and Kimock’s teenage son, John Morgan, was pretty good. Anton’s playing was ferocious, and he kept me throughly entertained with his effort. John Morgan Kimock kept up but didn’t add too much. It must be fun to learn on the job.

I enjoyed the second set a little more than the first, but I still found myself bored at points. Coming into the show, the two songs I most wanted to see were Cole’s Law and Tangled Hangers, so I was stoked to get both of them after the break. The problem was Kimock’s playing just seemed off. A few weeks ago I was blown away by his playing at the KVMW shows, but on this night his phrasings were uninteresting. He spent so much time trying to get his sound perfect in between songs that the night lost any flow.

Photo by Gammalyte

At about 11:30, which was only halfway through the second set, I left annoyed and disappointed by what I had witnessed. About 10 minutes later I got a text message from a friend that said “Franklin’s Tower.” I knew the band had been playing the legendary Grateful Dead number on this tour, so I wasn’t shocked. Then after 15 more minutes I got the “Worst Franklin’s ever” text message I had been expecting.

Zero played a set the next afternoon outside of Grand Central Station for free. Many people whose opinion I respect said that the band’s performance outdoors was much better than the previous evening. Sweet. I wish I had known, so I could have saved some money. That being said, I’m too big a fan of Kimock’s playing to let one horrible night ruin my opinion of the man and his band. I’ll catch him the next time, and hopefully the results will be different.

04-20-07 The Gramercy Theater, NYC NY

Set 1: Anorexia, Catalina, Pits of Thunder, Merle’s Boogie, Big Love

Set 2: Home on the Range, Cole’s Law, Tangled Hangers, Chance In A Million, Franklin’s Tower, Golden Road