From the Viejas Ultimate Music Challenge Blog, written by Ed Decker. Ed is one of the most prolific writers in San Diego media and I respect him greatly. Thanks, Ed!

PHIL DIIORIO: Phil told me about a half hour before the set that their regular drummer, Bill Ray, couldn’t make the show because he was playing with legendary blues virtuoso, Coco Montoya (of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers fame). I was instantly disappointed by the news. Billy is one of the most exciting and proficient drummers in all of San Diego and not at all surprising that Coco picked him up.

Still, Phil sang the praises of Billy’s replacement drummer’s and I figured, Ah, what the hell’ it’s just the drummer, forgetting for a moment, the imperative of drums.

The loss was evident as soon as they opened up the set with one of my all-time favorite blues songs, “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Muddy Waters and Dixon. There are dozens of stunning versions of this song (Etta James, The Yardbirds, Memphis Slim, Bo Diddley, Stones, Kinks),  because the tune is iconic – it is bigger than the people who wrote and recorded it; in fact, they probably didn’t write it at all, more like they found it, in the same way Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay found the summit of Mt. Everest.

I bring this up because it’s a song that comes with high expectations when covered. There is a lot of history there. I wasn’t sure which version Phil was going for, probably Foghat, which is the best rock version; largely because of the extended, double-guitar solo-break, which Phil pulled off rather well with only one guitar (albeit a busy guitar) and got me to thinking that maybe when they came of the break and reenter the melody – the money-shot of the song – that all would be well again for Phil and friends.

But, when Phil came out of the break, the drag and the disconnect between the new drummer and the rest of the band overshadowed that all-important re-entry—that blistering riff–which is supposed to sound like an army of viking berserkers marching into battle, was more like the lumbering, dehydrated death march of a man who’s been lost in the desert for 5 days. Sorry to say, it never got much better.

(Just for fun, take a gander at this live Foghat version which contains an awesome dueling guitars intro, which is reprised later as the solo break. CLICK HERE to listen to the ferocity of when they come out of both the intro solo and break solo.