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Guitarslinger Jonny Lang, who's probably tired of being labeled a blues wunderkind, will play the low-down dirty blues (from the perspective of a 19-year-old) at 7 p.m. tonight at the Honolulu Zoo. Lang wailin’ blues
at the zoo tonightGate opens at 5:30 p.m., and Honolulu bluesmeisters Bluzilla will perform at kick-off. It's courtesy the Big Island's Blue Rooster Productions and Kona Brewing Co.
You might remember Lang -- who studied at the knee of "master of the Telecaster" Albert Collins, from the same stable of Texas twangers that produced Stevie Ray Vaughan and Gatemouth Brown -- as the 17-year-old riffracker who opened for the Rolling Stones at Aloha Stadium a couple of years ago. He's also been profiled on MTV; torn the roof down at Disney World; and painted the White House blue, performing with B.B. King as President Clinton shook his Mighty Booty in the front row.
While Lang has been bending strings and adding 7ths and doing all the dramatic pauses and minor-fills that make straight-ahead 4/4 rock sound bluesy, he has created a name for himself as primarily, and naturally, a blues musician, hammering out that existential angst with the best of the masters, who are primarily black guys in their 70s and white guys in their 50s these days. Lang isn't even 20 yet.
Has he paid the hard-travelling dues required of seasoned bluesmanship? Can blue men play the whites? It helps that teenagers take everything so seriously; there's conviction, maybe second-hand but nonetheless deeply felt, behind his vocals and Telecaster attack. Wait'll Lang's in college and views the world with disdain; and then by the time he's 30, he'll be objective enough to really tell that two-timing woman to hit the road.
In the meantime, before he's seduced away by higher-paying pop and techno, Lang's a young master to watch, thrashing in a genre that defines American music.
Admission is $25. Information: 808-326-9148.
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