Randy Jackson of Zebra
April 27, 2018
Atlanta, GA – Jimmy’s Tequila and Carnes
42 years is a long fucking time to do anything besides breath but for 42 years, Randy Jackson has been making music with his New Orleans born, New York based legendary band Zebra. Growing up in New Orleans, Zebra was every bit as iconic as The Neville Brothers, Dr. John, or even The Meters. Zebra was a band that everyone in New Orleans loved and cherished (and still does). Hell, there used to be a running joke when I was kid where they said every kid born after 1983 was given a copy of the debut Zebra album along with the birth certificate.
Zebra was one of those bands that never achieved the commercial success of their peers yet they blew away everyone that they supported on the road. I mean, it’s not that hard to blow away Loverboy but Zebra was wiping the stage with acts like Sammy Hagar and even Aerosmith at one point. With their hybrid sound of technical Rush meets Zeppelin, Zebra was a unique band and over the years relentlessly toured until slowing things down a bit in the 90’s.
Lead singer/guitarist/Randy Jackson embarked on a solo acoustic tour this year that brought him to Atlanta for the first time in, well, a long fucking time. I never thought I’d get to see Zebra or Randy but thanks to Scoley Entertainment, my wish came true (thanks, Scoley)! This would be the first time I would be seeing Randy play in any form since 1987 or 88 so you can only imagine how excited I was. The show was going to be at this place called Jimmy’s Tequilla and Carnes and I honestly had my doubts. How was this going to work? Randy Jackson? Solo acoustic? In a cantina?
The venue actually ended up being really cool. It’s a huge Mexican restaurant with a separate music room so that the restaurant noise doesn’t bleed into the music room. It had an awesome stage and the sound system was one of the best I’ve heard in Atlanta. Randy took the stage to a roar from the sold out and packed room and opened things with “The La La Song” from the Zebra debut. Randy went right into “Lullaby” and then into “One More Chance” which sounded so fucking amazing.
It was so great to hear these songs live again and to see Randy really stripping them down to the core of just his acoustic and his timeless voice. There was one thing though that kept me from truly enjoying the overall experience: the audience. Seriously. Why would people pay to see an acoustic performance and talk at the top of their lungs, laugh, and clink glasses while an iconic artist is up there pouring out his heart and soul into a performance? I will never understand that but like the seasoned pro he is, Randy played his ass off to those of us who he knew were listening.
The set list was a great mix of Zebra classics like “Take Your Fingers From My Hair”, “As I Said Before”, “Bears”, and the obscure “Your Mind’s Open” which was so cool to hear live. Randy also did a great cover of “A Farewell to Kings” by Rush, “A Day in the Life” by the Beatles, and probably one of the most unique and amazing covers of “Stairway to Heaven” that I’ve ever heard where he sang the guitar solo. Randy did very little talking between the songs because I’m sure the audience was doing more than the fair share of the talking which was really disappointing. I would have loved to have heard Randy in a kind of storytellers setting where I could’ve heard the stories behind these songs that have been a huge part of my DNA for the last 30 years or so.
Randy played “Time” from the 3.V album which had me in near tears. There’s just something about that song that just strikes a chord with me. It was one of my dad’s favorite Zebra songs and he would often ask me to play it on the family stereo. Going right from “Time” Randy slid right into “Who’s Behind the Door” and I literally felt a tear run down my face. I was so moved but once again, even this majestically moving moment wasn’t enough to quiet the audience even among the variety of “shushes” I heard from around the room. Once the song ended, I felt as if I had been lifted. There was something about hearing these Zebra songs again that just channeled a part of my youth where these songs were a part of the soundtrack of my youth when shit wasn’t going so well. This may also be why my frustration level was so high about how disrespectful the crowd was.
I wanted so much to just get up on stage and say, “People! Shut the fuck up. Can you not see that there is an artist up here pouring his heart and soul out to you? Looking back on it, I feel bad for the people that were talking all through the show and not listening because it was they who truly missed out. They will never understand or maybe even care that they missed such an amazingly moving performance. Those of us that were listening got it and thank you Randy for playing to us that were listening. You cut through the chatter and you found those of us that truly wanted to be there and you gave us the best show you could’ve given us. I pitty the fools that didn’t get it that night!
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