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Music: Rock/Pop
The Nightwatchman

When

Wednesday Apr 9, 2008 (8pm)

Where
The Hotel Café (1623 1/2 N Cahuenga Blvd, 323.461.2040)
Price
$10
Details
http://www.hotelcafe.com/calendar_apr08.html
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Sure, as guitarist for Rage Against the Machine he generated a decade's worth of ass-kicking riffs, but Tom Morello's achievements since have been a bit more dubious: he sat in with the Dave Matthews Band, made a cameo on Star Trek: Voyager, and popped up in schlocktacular supergroup Audioslave. Perhaps to make up for the latter, Morello is now borrowing comrade Zack de la Rocha's soapbox for a solo tour as the Nightwatchman. He's replaced Rage's showmanship — not to mention the veil of effects pedals — with a nylon-string classical guitar and and a series of stripped-down acoustic sing-alongs. Ok, so Morello isn't the most impressive frontman and his über-populist lyrics often border on the insipid, but, between the bold-faced moralism and gravelly baritone, he does manage a pretty bad-ass imitation of the Boss.

Brian Skar