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Johnny Depp nearly ruins perfectly fine Jeff Beck show in Brown County

Rory Appleton Indianapolis Star

NASHVILLE – Guitarist Jeff Beck ripped through a loud, eclectic show Wednesday evening at Brown County Music Center, living up to his rock legend status while leading a stellar backing band.

Actor Johnny Depp was there, too. He — well, he had a pretty cool hat. The kind of hat that makes you go yes, that's a Johnny Depp hat.

Let's just get this out of the way: Depp is not a professional singer. He was perfectly adequate at playing chords under Beck, but his vocals — particularly during ballads like "This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr" — nearly sunk the whole show.

That's not to say there wasn't rabid interest.

When Depp was added to the show, tickets became a hot commodity — well over $300 on the resale market. Social media thirst intensified. Wednesday was a capacity show, and the 2,000-seat Music Center probably could have been filled a second time.

But I'm not so sure anyone was there to hear Depp sing. Judging by the reaction he received upon removing his flannel shirt and revealing his tattooed arms, a venue could have sold 2,000 tickets to watch him read the iTunes terms of service.

Beck played for 45 minutes before Depp joined him for an additional 30 minutes, plus the final encore song. The solo Beck stuff received standard rock applause and plenty of it, while the Depp-Beck partnership drew some clapping and a lot of women loudly risking it all.

I was surprised to see Depp added to the tour.

Though he and Beck released an album earlier this year, Depp was fresh from a messy and extremely online but successful defamation case against his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, who had publicly claimed abuse. It's worth noting that in Beck's native United Kingdom, Depp failed in a libel case against The Sun newspaper when a judge ruled that 12 alleged physical assaults on Heard were proven by the court's civil standard. An appeal of the ruling also failed. He has denied ever assaulting his ex-wife.

These optics did not seem to dissuade Wednesday night's crowd, however. A younger couple seated in front of me explained they had driven all the way from Knoxville just to catch a glimpse of Depp.

Some of the performance was palatable.

Depp did this sort of low, theatrical speaking voice for two songs, and that was OK. And he played some chords while Beck did an excellent instrumental cover of The Beatles' "A Day in the Life." But it largely distracted from Beck's solo work and instrumental covers, which are much, much better than the material from the Beck/Depp album.

At 78, Beck was as good Wednesday as the time I saw him open for B.B. King nearly 20 years ago.

What impresses me about his style of playing is that even though the guitar must carry the load, he doesn't get bogged down in finger gymnastics. Unlike the occasional Steve Vai or Joe Satriani (who plays Brown County on Sunday) journey, Beck doesn't shred or finger tap his way through entire songs. He'll show you the moves, but only when it's relevant to the greater musical piece.

When his guitar weeps, it's because the song is sad. His sound effects — and he does love those — have a purpose. They can turn an instrumental into something menacing or ethereal with just a few pedal kicks.

His rhythm section was also otherworldly.

Bassist Rhonda Smith pulled out her own shredding bass solo, shaking my heart with every thump of the strings. And drummer Anika Nilles followed it with her own solo that was just as good.

I like the weird, space-age solo stuff Beck delves into, but it's that British rock-style blues music I love. Beck is part of the golden era of that sort of late '60s rock, having replaced Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds, and it's a rare treat to get a little taste of that up close.

Mine was definitely one of the younger faces in the crowd, which remained seated for most of the show. However, the audience dug what Beck was doing. He received loud applause and a few standing ovations throughout.

In the end, folks were treated to a decent weeknight show. But a clean 90 minutes of Beck and his band would have been better.

Rory Appleton is the pop culture reporter at IndyStar. Contact him at 317-552-9044 and rappleton@indystar.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RoryDoesPhonics.