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Tonight was the Marcus Miller show at the Birchmere. I've been to the Birchmere a number of times; it's a great venue with good sound and a good environment.
Marcus, on the other hand, I've only seen once before. Marcus is an absolute monster player, massively influential (to me and legions of others). Seeing him play live is a near religious experience for a bass player like myself.
Miller's road band consists of Marcus Miller (natch) on bass guitar/alto sax/bass clarinet, Dean Brown on guitar, Poogie Bell on drums, Bruce Flowers on keyboards, Roger Byam on sax/flute and Michael "Patches" Stewart on trumpet/fluglehorn. These guys have been with Marcus for a long time and it shows. They have real chemistry on stage, play off each other's cues and seem to have a real good time in the process. They are also first class musicians in their own right. Poogie Bell is one of the better drummers I've seen play like (just a huge, deep pocket, no matter how complex the drum line), and Patches Stewart is probably the best trumpet player I've ever seen live -- bar none. Marcus is no fool when it comes to staffing his ship.
Mr. Miller is not as kinetic a player as other bass players I respect, but he's an amazing player in his own right. Not a lot of flash and tricks, but solid, undeniable groove. From some new material from a forthcoming album (a pretty straight ahead funky R&B tune with some rap/singing thrown in called Gonna Get Hurt and a very tribal feeling tune called Ethiopia) to some Miller standbys (Cousin John, Panther, Amazing Grace, and a medley of Power, Marcus' take on Jaco's Teen Town and Tutu) and quite a few covers (Red Baron, Frankenstein, Come Together). Not to mention some songs that Marcus has written for other people: Maputo for David Sanborn and Bob James (although I really prefer Marcus' take on it to theirs) and Da Butt for E.U.
Let me promise you, there has never been any rendition of any Beatle's song that ever grooved as hard as the Marcus Miller version of Come Together. No matter what was going on, you could not resist the power of that bass line. Just like Frankenstein -- I can remember that song from the 70's, but the Miller take would have had dead people up and dancing.
One of the things that I have noticed about Marcus' show is that it is very clearly his show. He usually starts the tune, he gives very clear direction to his bandmates (like mimeing how he wanted Poogie to play his drumline at a few points during the show) and calls solos as the song progresses (pointing to which member of the band is to solo and when their solo is to end).
During the encore of the show, Marcus took requests from the audience, played through a medley of his tunes (if it was rehearsed, they sold me on the performance -- it felt like there were just making it up on the spot) and then closed with Da Butt. That pick makes since, given that D.C. is the birthplace of go-go music. He even got Sugar Bear (the lead singer of E.U.) up to perform the singing.
I managed to get good seats to the show, and I took quite a few photos. I'll post them up tomorrow when I get the chance.
-- Update --
The photos are up.