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The Dave Davies Band ~ 2002 April 25 (Thursday) ~ The Paradise ~ Boston, MA

... by Joanne Corsano ... joanne@picturelake.com

Kristian Hoffman, Dave Davies
Dave Davies gazes adoringly at the best keyboard player he ever had
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Band Personnel: Dave Davies, lead vocals, lead guitar; Jim Laspesa, drums and backing vocals; David Nolte, bass and backing vocals; Kristian Hoffman, keyboards; Brian Myers, guitar tech and second guitar

Set List

Till the End of the Day - I Need You - Creeping Jean - Gallon of Gas/You're Looking Fine - Tired of Waiting - Set Me Free - See My Friends - The Lie {new, from BUG} - Bug/Debug/Life After Life {new, from BUG} - Dead End Street - Rock You, Rock Me {new, from BUG} - Flowers in the Rain {new, from BUG} - Death of a Clown - Living on a Thin Line - All Day & All of the Night - I'm Not Like Everybody Else - Father Christmas - One Night With You - You Really Got Me

Concert Review

It was a rainy cold night in Boston, and there were even a few rumbles of thunder to remind us of last year's monsoon at the Harper's Ferry show. But the Paradise is a much better club than Harper's Ferry. The friendly staff let us wait inside until they absolutely had to make us go outside to start the line. The Paradise has all kinds of good features that Harper's doesn't. A balcony for those who want to sit and still be able to see. A coat-check. A long and storied history going back to Stompers gigs in the early '80s when fights would break out. (Those were the days.)

Opening band was the Deniros, a four-piece band fronted by John Surette who played the Spiv in the Boston Rock Opera's "Preservation" back in '98. They're a good band, only lacking a few tempo changes to make them a very good band. I requested "Big Sky," which is on the Deniros' album, and a few minutes later they played it.

The crowd wasn't as big as I thought it would be, and waiting in line someone told me that the gig had been listed as sold out for a while due to a computer glitch -- this might have prevented some from getting tickets. The crowd was very appreciative, however, as the Boston crowds always are.

Occasionally I have seen a female fan bring underwear to toss to Dave during "Creeping Jean" on the "dirty friends and underwear" line. But I have never seen this actually *help* Dave. Tonight he began the second verse (where that line occurs) and had one of those momentary lapses of memory. Up onto stage came the underwear (extra extra large bright red ones) and Dave said "now I remember the lyrics!" It was just perfect, Ellen.

The pouring rain outside was leaking in and there were towels all over the stage. At one point in the show a female fan ran up on stage, probably to kiss Dave, but instead fell arse over tip on the slippery floor. She recovered quickly but retreated to the audience.

On this rainy night, Dave sang two of his new songs that refer to rain. One was the wonderful "Rock You, Rock Me," a song that has simple but hypnotic lyrics. It starts with a soft keyboard and builds to a hard rock song. After the band finished this song Dave said "I might play something else that's new," I shouted out "Flowers in the Rain," he looked at me with a grateful look (translated to "somebody has the album"), and then he played it! It's not often I go two-for-two getting requests played. "Flowers in the Rain" is a song that makes me wish I had never used the phrase "stunningly beautiful" to describe anything else, because I wish I'd saved it for this song. It is a simple, pretty, heartfelt ballad, Dave's lovely singing accompanied by a gentle strumming on his guitar and Kristian's keyboard, and at least three of the fans in the front row admitted later to having cried during the song.

A musical highlight was Jim Laspesa's drumming on "Tired of Waiting," which is just extraordinary. Another great song was "One Night With You," always a treat to hear live.

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