Blogging on Meds

24 hours is all the Las Vegas I can handle, so that is what we scheduled to catch The Verve on Saturday night. The show took place at the Pearl Theater in the Palms Casino, and while I don’t really care about the NBA, I still felt like a d*ck giving my money to the Maloof Bros - owners of the Sacramento Kings and purveyors of crappy fashion (that super-starchy long collared shirt untucked-jeans-dress shoes look that cut-rate mortgage brokers think passes for “dressed up”).

The Bros Maloof’s basketball team may blow, but their concert theater is incredible - possibly the best sound I’ve EVER heard outside of an opera hall, held about 1500, and no seat was further than 120 feet from the stage. It was literally impossible to have a bad/obstructed view.

Now the good stuff… while I wasn’t expecting Richard Ashcroft to be wearing tan Clark’s Wallabies, I was surprised when he walked onstage, took off his boots, and played the entire show barefoot. Great call “Mad Richard”!

Here’s the set-list:

• A New Decade
• Sonnet
• Space In Time
• Life’s An Ocean
• Already There
• Weeping Willow
• Sit & Wonder (new song)
• The Rolling People
• Velvet Morning
• The Drugs Don’t Work
• Lucky Man
• Come On (w/ maracas and tambourine)

• History
• Bittersweet Symphony (which I think he dedicated to Mavis Staples)
• “Love Is Pain” (new song)

The band played great - incredibly tight, great stage presence, and I’m not sure Nick McCabe played a single riff - just free-flowing aural noise, effects, and awesomeness. My only complaint is somewhat petty; I would have liked a few more druggy/noisy/early songs - where was “Gravity Grave”, “Blue”, or “A Man Called Sun”?

I’m still pondering my feelings about the last song - “Love Is Pain”. It had a dance-floor club-anthem vibe, most notably in its New Order-esque drumbeat which Darrick from Innaway described perfectly as a “cheater drumbeat” for its “obviousness” — if that makes sense. It’s a definite departure for Ashcroft and Co., although not necessarily bad - just unexpected. That said, the British “lads” and “birds” in the crowd (of which there were A LOT) were loving this song, so I expect the bubble-club dance floors of Mallorca to be raging to this by summertime - along with MGMT/Justice/Madonna mashups. Check that YouTube link above (or NYC’ers, tell me your thoughts after MSG).

Finally, it seems between Coachella on Friday and Las Vegas on Saturday, Richard Ashcroft found time to dye his blond hair brown again:

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Finally! Fucking mad fer it!!! The Verve announce NYC dates. Thank God. Now I don’t have to go to Coachella and stand around the desert with a bunch of 17 yr olds from Riverside on E.

“Yeah I let the melody shine, let it cleanse my mind, I feel free now…”—’Chard ‘Croft at Live 8.
Bowery Presents
WaMu Theater @ Madison Square Garden
Monday 4/28, Tuesday 4/29
DOORS 7PM / SHOW 8PM ALL AGES
$40 - $50 (ED NOTE: Cheap for an act such as Verve)
(PRICE BY SECTION)
ON SALE 03/01 11:00 AM

“Tell me what you see, was it a dream, was I in it?” On Your Own, A Northern Soul, 1995.

Oh, The Verve. Sweet, sweet Verve. Last time they played NY was in 98 at MSG. But they never quite caught on in the US like they did overseas. And I consider them the most underrated band of last decade and a half. They played their last shows in summer 98 at Slane Castle, Ireland, in front of 80,000. They’ve since reformed, and played Britain in December.

For many in Boston circa 98-02, The Verve were a soundtrack to living: sonic providers of transcendent albums that bridged Zep and Britpop with the Stone Roses, soul, and dream pop.

Driving Boston’s Storrow Drive’s riverside curves while listening to The Verve makes the Dropkick’s scenes in The Departed feel chump-ish and white trashy—and I love those scenes. No true man of taste would enter Boston from Chelsea listening to skinhead rock. Rather a Boston gentlemen, circa 98-02, would be cranking “A Storm in Heaven” and thinking about Mass Art girls (and grads), heading to Mod Night w/ DJ Vin in Allston (where the Verve was never played, oddly, because college kids only got into the Who but whatever, save that for another time…)

In 2001 I spotted Richard Ashcroft at an Oasis gig in London—it was a small show—wearing a fur coat and standing on his balcony chair hyping the crowd like a drunken gull. Mad Richard indeed…

When Ashcroft played a solo show in NYC in 2002, he sent a song out to “Jay Z and Biggie Smalls.” Since, every clip I’ve seen of ‘Chard has been whigger-fied. Brits can get away with being faux blacks easier than Americans (the UK never had that whole domestic slavery thing). And I hope Dick Ashcroft brings a gangster ritmo to NYC in April. Or at least wears an all white outfit like he did at Irving Plaza in 97.

(This poster, on silver paper, was up in my dorm in 1997.)

I guess it’s music day again.

“I feel accused just like you of being born without a silver spoon,” This Is Music, A Northern Soul, 1995.

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(Ray proclaimed today “music day” - who am I to disagree?)

(Hot Snakes, 11/04, Alex’s Bar - Long Beach, Photo: Chase Corum)

Rejoice fans of all things Rick Froberg & John Reis, the pair that brought you Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu, and Hot Snakes have returned - although, unfortunately, separately. NYC-based Froberg is fronting Obits, who have East Coast dates in March, or you can DL their first show (at NYC’s Cake Shop) here.

Reis in the meantime has re-recruited Hot Snakes skinsm’n JSinclair to form Night Marchers whose debut comes out April 22nd on Vagrant. Ben Goetting did the cover art which can be viewed at Phazerblast. Night Marchers played their first set of shows this past weekend - here’s the first song of their first show:

In all his ‘Chard worship, Ray failed to mention that the Verve will be playing California’s Coachella Festival this April. I avoid festivals - especially ones in the desert - at all costs, but the presence of Mr. Ashcroft & Co. may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. You can search the web for a DL of “The Thaw Session”, the Verve’s first recorded output in 10 years, or watch this video version:

Spiritualized are making a Coachella appearance as well, although you can avoid dusty heat and thousands of hipsters in white jeans & Ray Bans by checking out one of their “Acoustic Mainlines” shows which, when I attended in November, consisted of guitar and keys, along with 4 string instruments and 3 back-up singers. A different take on the Spiritualized experience (more smoke - less pills), but incredible nonetheless.

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