Washington Never Shredded Like This: Paul Gilbert Brings WROC to Life at Culture Room

By Joanie Cox Henry and Fernando Santomaggio

There are concerts that entertain, and then there are concerts that reconfigure your understanding of what a guitar can do. Saturday night at Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale fell decisively, rapturously, into the latter category. Paul Gilbert, armed with his latest studio record WROC and a setlist that careened from baroque medleys to Zeppelin and back again, delivered a banquet of six-string sovereignty that left the room breathless, buzzing, and thoroughly satisfied.

WROC, an acronym for Washington's Rules of Civility, is on its surface one of the more audacious conceptual premises in recent rock memory: a hard rock album whose lyrics are drawn wholesale from a 16th-century Jesuit etiquette manual that a young George Washington once copied by hand. Released Feb. 27 via Music Theories Recordings, the album is precisely as brilliant as you'd expect it to be. Gilbert, whose technique has long occupied a stratosphere most guitarists can only marvel at from a safe distance, turns out to be an uncommonly agile melodist when he allows himself the freedom of absurdist constraint. The hooks are real. The playing is sensational. And live, the material transcended its own charming novelty and became something genuinely stirring.

The evening opened with the Koch Marshall Trio, and what an opening it was. Greg Koch, the Milwaukee-born guitar institution who has established himself within six-string circles as a masterful technician and accomplished clinician, set the temperature of the room early and high. His son Dylan Koch on drums proved himself more than worthy of the family name, anchoring the groove with maturity and muscle well beyond his years. Toby Lee Marshall on Hammond B3 organ was the secret weapon of the set, his playing rich and full-bodied, filling the room with the kind of warm, churning sound that makes you feel the music in your cells. Together, the trio delivered the funk perennial "Funk #49" with swagger to spare and a gorgeous, aching rendering of Jeff Beck's "Cause We've Ended as Lovers," the latter a particularly poignant choice, a tribute as much as a performance.

The legendary Paul Gilbert "Maintains a Sweet and Cheerful Countenance" at Culture Room. Photo By Larry Marano

Gilbert opened his set with the "Crazy PG Medley," a sprawling, exhilarating tour through his own catalog that served notice immediately: this was not going to be a polite affair. The medley wove through pieces including "The Curse of Castle Dragon," "Eudaimonia Overture," "Godzilla," "Green-Tinted Sixties Mind," "Scarified," "Space Ship One," and a generous helping of other signature cuts threading together the full arc of a solo career that has never once settled into predictability. It was the kind of opening only a player of Gilbert's range could pull off.

His bandmates were there to deliver an unforgettable show too. Timmer Blakely on bass brought a low-end authority that gave every song a rock-solid foundation, locking in with the kind of instinctive precision that seasoned players make look effortless. Doug Rappoport on guitar proved himself an ideal foil for Gilbert, his playing clean, confident, and melodically intelligent without ever jockeying for the spotlight. Jeff Martin on drums drove the entire evening with energy and finesse, his command of dynamics as impressive as his raw power.

From there, WROC took center stage in earnest. "Let Thy Carriage," "Go Not Thither," "Keep Your Feet Firm and Even," and "Maintain a Sweet and Cheerful Countenance" were rendered with a conviction that stripped away any lingering sense of gimmickry. Whatever amusement the song titles might initially provoke, Gilbert plays these compositions with total commitment, as though Washington's rules of comportment and the pentatonic scale were always destined to find each other. "Orderly and Distinctly" locked into a groove that belied its staid title, and "If You Soak Bread in the Sauce," a fan favorite from the record, delivered the melodic payoff its Bandcamp buzz had promised. "Spark of Celestial Fire" arrived mid-set with the gravitas of a late-album prog centerpiece, tilting and pivoting in the way only Gilbert's compositions do, as though the song itself were perpetually discovering where it was going.

An acoustic solo interlude offered a brief but welcome moment of intimacy, with Gilbert alone in the spotlight, navigating the instrument with the ease of a man who has never once found its limitations interesting. We also thankfully got a taste of Gilbert's Mr. Big anthem "To Be With You."

Then came the covers, and the room shifted into a different kind of joy entirely.

The Aerosmith staple "Last Child" and ZZ Top's "Thunderbird" were both performed with Greg Koch rejoining the stage as special guest. Koch matched Gilbert measure for measure, and the two men together created a conversation between styles and temperaments that was as thrilling to witness as it was clearly joyful for both players. 

Gilbert's set closed on "Show Not Yourself Glad (at the Misfortune of Another)," a title George Washington could not have predicted would one day serve as a rock concert finale, and yet here we were, grinning ear to ear at the sheer brass of it all. Tri-corner hats off to Paul and his extraordinary bandmates.

[left to right] Jeff Martin, Doug Rappoport, Paul Gilbert and Timmer Blakley take a well deserved bow at the end of their epic Culture Room show in Fort Lauderdale. [Photo By Joanie Cox Henry]

Saturday night at Culture Room was a reminder that the guitar, in the right hands, remains one of the most alive instruments in popular music. Paul Gilbert's hands, specifically. WROC is the work of an artist who has stopped competing with his own legend and started simply delighting in what the instrument can do when pointed somewhere unexpected. Washington's rules, it turns out, translate beautifully to rock and roll. Particularly rule number one, implied if not stated: show up, do the work, and do it with everything you have. Gilbert followed that one to the letter.

Check out Paulgilbert.com to see where the tour is heading next and for the latest on Paul and his music.

Some pics from this unforgettable night and priceless VIP experience with Paul Gilbert: