The Dave Davies Band ~ 2001 August 4 (Saturday) ~ Village Underground ~ New York, NY
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
Till the End of the Day - I Need You - Creeping Jean - Gallon of Gas/You're Looking Fine - Tired of Waiting - See My Friends - Unfinished Business - The Lie - Dead End Street - Picture Book - Death of a Clown - Fortis Green - Living on a Thin Line - All Day & All of the Night - I'm Not Like Everybody Else - Father Christmas - David Watts
Concert Review
After the Harper's Ferry show last night Concert Going Partner and I drove halfway back to NY and stayed in a motel somewhere in Connecticut, and continued the rest of the way today to Newark Airport to pick up the Michigan contingent, Leslie and Fritz. Whoever booked this tour really should have looked at a map first. The first seven shows were beautifully linear, starting with Richmond and ending in Boston, and then to have to drive back to NY was a real bummer. (I live on Cape Cod ... after the death crawl of the Tappan Zee bridge on a summer Saturday, I will NEVER EVER EVER complain about Cape Cod traffic, ever again.)
We parked in lovely Hoboken, NJ and took the marvelously convenient PATH train (Fritz even knew what those letters stand for) into Manhattan, where it was a short few blocks from the 9th St. stop to the venue. Frank Reda was all ready for his 50th birthday, which was to occur at midnight, and to celebrate the occasion he was giving out gifts -- he gave me a copy of the Kristian Hoffman 45 "He Means Well/Green Circles" which is pressed on green vinyl and features a wonderful cover picture drawn by the multi-talented Kristian. THANKS FREAKY FRANK!! You are a gem among Kinks fans.
Eventually we got into the club and assumed our usual standing spots in front of the stage. We stood on the hard concrete floor for what seemed like about 12 hours listening to three (3!!!) warmup bands. Proof of the existence of God lies in the fact that all three warmup bands were good. (Truly a miracle.) The first one was a wacky '50s/surf rock/movie music trio from Detroit called the Silencers -- if they'd had a singer they would have been fabulous. The second was Sit 'N Spin (who really need to play at the Sit 'N Bull sometime), a three-quarters female fast punk band. The third was Lava Baby, whose songs I was now merrily singing along with.
But the club was awful. They had horribly annoying strobe lights, and not only was there smoking, but there was cigar smoking (blech!), and they even had a SMOKE MACHINE! As many of you know, I run marathons, so I have, let's say, better than average endurance, but this was too much. It was too much for Dave, too, who played the shortest and worst show of the tour, 17 songs, no surprises, not too much banter with the crowd, and an acoustic set of only three songs.
Even so, there were some highlights worth writing about. Dave's singing on "See My Friends" was exceptionally beautiful. After skipping "Picture Book" the last couple of nights, it was good to hear it again. "Living a Lie," the new song, sounds better each time they play it.
There were apparently professional video cameras filming some or all of the show, so maybe one day there will be an official live performance video of The Kink Kronikles.
More Dave
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