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	HOT TUNA LIVE IN ARLINGTON

I’d never been interested in Hot Tuna until a friend cajoled me into seeing them at the Regent Theatre in Arlington last year. My only impressions of the band were from electric recordings I’d heard in the ’80s that seemed a little high on bombast and low on ideas and fire. Sure, I was aware that leaders Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, who play guitar and bass respectively, had a pedigree as Rock and Roll Hall of Famers for their charter membership in the great psychedelic-era band Jefferson Airplane and that both were still ace musicians, but . . . I was surprised and won over by that acoustic performance, which embraced country blues and a variety of other folk and old-time idioms with relaxed virtuosity and humor. Kaukonen and Casady played splendidly abetted by mandolinist, guitarist, and banjo picker Barry Mitterhoff, who met their virtuosity and maybe even upped the ante.

So when they played the Regent again, a week ago last Tuesday, I was eager for more of the same and even ready for the advertised electric second set. I was primed further by the recently reissued Live in Japan (Eagle), a digitally remastered version of a 1997 album that captures the on-stage warmth and grace I’d witnessed in exorcisms of "Walkin’ Blues," "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning," and other covers and originals.

That warmth and humor remained intact this time, though perhaps the material was a bit less compelling. The peak was an in-the-pocket version of the Leroy Carr classic "How Long, How Long Blues" that afforded some deft tempo changes and sparked some impressive flourishes from Kaukonen, whose overall restraint gave way to flashy arpeggiated passages and tastefully bent and sustained notes whenever the urge moved him.

Otherwise, Kaukonen deferred too often to Mitterhoff, who is a terrific mandolinist and banjoist but has a truly brittle electric-guitar tone. And the electric set — propelled by drummer Erik Diaz — seemed oddly alien to Hot Tuna, who have their roots in electric rock and blues despite their recent history of acoustic performances. Well, not Casady, whose deep round tone and fluid excursions were the night’s most consistent highs. But a bar-band quality cover of the overdone blues standard "Rock Me Baby" doesn’t do this group or their audience justice given the rich legacy of original electric music Kaukonen and Casady have on tap.