The Dave Davies Band ~ 2001 July 27 (Friday) ~ Canal Club ~ Richmond, VA
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, harmonica
Set List
Till the End of the Day - I Need You - Susannah's Still Alive - Creeping Jean - Gallon of Gas/You're Looking Fine - Tired of Waiting - See My Friends - Nothing More To Lose - Living a Lie (new song) - True Phenomenon - Picture Book - I Am Free - Death of a Clown - I'm Not Like Everybody Else - Living on a Thin Line - All Day & All of the Night - Father Christmas - You Really Got Me
Concert Review
The Canal Club is an undistinguished looking place (from the outside) located by an old shipping canal which has an interesting tourist walkway where local artists have put up various humorous sculptures of fish. Once inside the club it was pretty nice. The stage is upstairs and although the stage is small, the room is fairly big.
Warmup band was Revelation Darling, a melodic 4-piece that reminded me of REM. They were listenable but boring (as I said, they reminded me of REM).
Dave's band was the same as last year -- Jonathan Lea on guitar, Kristian Hoffman on keyboards, Jim Laspesa on drums and vocals, David Jenkins on bass and vocals. I was told by a band member that they only rehearsed one song before the tour ("Nothing More to Lose") but they still sounded really tight. Jonathan is playing guitar on more songs than last year and it really rounds out the sound.
A highlight of the first show was "Nothing More To Lose", a track from Dave's 1980 solo album, the one with the barcode on the cover. It sounded great, although the transition from verse to bridge was a little rough. Another highlight was a brand new song called "Living a Lie," which I am relieved to report is a hard rocker with some serious guitar, not some new-age, touchy-feely thing.
It wasn't the best show I've seen Dave perform. He only did 18 songs and seemed a little tentative. Not surprising for the first show of a tour, I suppose. However, a "B" show from Dave is still better than anybody else's best show, so I went away pretty happy.
After the show, when Jim Laspesa came back on stage to pack away his drums, he got a round of applause from the fans who were still there, and was approached by several autograph seekers. I'm so glad to see the band members getting some credit -- these guys are a tight unit and deserve a lot of credit for Dave's success.
More Dave
Here is a page with a handy list of links to all pages on this website with content relating to Dave Davies and other members of The Kinks.