Arthur Lee is still kicking, and how. Apparently he was recently released from a 5 year prison term, and that was only for some kind of gun violation. Christ! Oh well, at least he's doing well now.

This was just the third show out of a limited 13-city North American tour. The turnout here in Portland was not packed, but full enough. The crowd was into it and Arthur seemed very happy (who wouldn't be after five years in the slammer). Of course it would have been fantastic to see him/them in their Sunset Strip days, but it was a great show nonetheless.

At one point Arthur announced that a new record will be coming out soon. I thought he meant with his new band. Later I wondered if he was actually referring to a rerelease of Four Sail, remastered with three bonus tracks (alternate mixes), but Torben Skoett has since confirmed that when he talked with Arthur in Denmark recently, the plan is indeed to record NEW SONGS.

Arthur wore Western attire, boots, shirt and fringed jacket, and a curvy cowboy hat, underneath of which was an American flag which became visible when he knocked off his hat at the climax of his "We're all normal and we want our freedom" chant. The timing for that was perfect, and yet it looked like it happened by accident. Later he put on Ray Charles shades, even acted a bit like Ray.

"Everybody's Gotta Live" was another highlight. Near the end of that song the band got very quiet and Arthur conducted the audience so it was mostly the fans that were carrying the song for three whole rounds of the chorus: "We all gotta live, we all gotta die, we all gotta live before we know the reason why."

Immediately after that during the introduction of the next song, a cover of John Lennon's "Instant Karma", some doofus yelled out "He's dead", to which Arthur replied, "Yes, but the music lives on." So true, and Love will, too.

[Kenric L. Ashe]