The Dave Davies Band ~ 2000 August 6 (Sunday) ~ Maxwell's ~ Hoboken, NJ
Band Personnel: Dave Davies, lead vocals, lead guitar; Jim Laspesa, drums and backing vocals; David Jenkins, bass and backing vocals; Kristian Hoffman, keyboards; Jonathan Lea, guitar
Set List
Charity - Till the End of the Day - I Need You - Creeping Jean - Gallon of Gas intro / You're Looking Fine - Tired of Waiting - Mindless Child of Motherhood - See My Friends - Wicked Annabella - Unfinished Business - I Am Free - This Man He Weeps Tonight - Death of a Clown - Living on a Thin Line - All Day & All of The Night - I'm Not Like Everybody Else - Funny Face - Father Christmas
Concert Review
Tonight Dave played about three miles, as the gull flies, across the Hudson River from last night's show. This is the third time I've seen Dave at Maxwell's but it was by far the best impression I've had of this club. Everything seemed better this time around -- new management? The food in the restaurant was better. The sound in the club was much better (probably due to the presence of Pete, the soundman accompanying the tour).
The opening band, a three-piece called The Insomniacs, played pretty good rock that sounded a lot like The Who, and they played "Better Things" (always a treat when a warmup band plays a Kinks song), but they had a weird negative attitude -- they kept complaining to the audience that we hadn't come to see them. Well of course we hadn't come to see them (nitwits), but a friendlier stage presence might have won them some fans.
I decided to position myself on the Kristian side of the stage and got some really good pictures of Dave's photogenic keyboard player and his numerous entertaining facial expressions. Dave and he goof on each other during "You're Looking Fine," with Kristian playing a little tlink-tlink on his keyboard and Dave reacting in a show biz kind of a way. Of course, the intro to "Death of a Clown," where Dave makes his keyboard player play the opening notes twice, or sometimes three times, has become a Dave show tradition, and Kristian hams up the chance to play those notes over again. Got quite a few good shots of Jim, too; it's not always easy to photograph the drummer, so do take a look at the photo gallery.
Dave had a lot of fun tonight teasing the members of the band, as this particular show was being recorded for webcast on davedavies.com. He described what the guys were wearing -- completely inaccurately. He had Jim Laspesa in a tux, he described Kristian as wearing "chiffon."
As he had in each of the preceding shows, Dave played "Mindless Child of Motherhood." This is a song that Dave and his band have had difficulties with in the past. At the Big Kahuna, in May of '98, I heard Dave and The Ravens practicing this song for at least 15 minutes during the sound check, and they finally gave up. This time around, it sounded like he changed the melody on the chorus just a little bit. On the line, "mindless child of motherhood, you have lost the thing that's good," instead of the melody line going up and up, he was singing it in a way that it went up and down and up again. Maybe this small change was enough to help him conquer the part he may have found difficult to sing. In any case, it sounds great. Each night Kristian would start the song on the piano, and Dave would stop him and say "nah, I don't think we'll play that," and then he would tear into a rock and roll, guitar rendition of the song with the whole band. He did make one small change to the lyric: instead of "though we're far apart," he would say "though we're worlds apart."
This show ended with a four-song steamroller, "All Day & All of the Night," "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," "Funny Face," and "Father Christmas." "It's almost Christmas," said Dave, "so let's play this song for the children in the audience."
God Save The Kink.
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