Previous concert (Dave Davies, Iron Horse) ... Next concert (Dave Davies, Northern Lights)

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

Dave Davies, Kristian Hoffman
Click on the picture
for a photo gallery of the concert

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

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 - The Lie - Unfinished Business - Dead End Street - Strangers - No More Mysteries - Death of a Clown - Young & Innocent Days - Phenomenal Cat - Fortis Green - Living on a Thin Line - All Day & All of the Night - I'm Not Like Everybody Else - Father Christmas - David Watts

Rock and Roll Love Letter - Listen to the Band - American Fun - Ride the Ferris Wheel - Arlene - You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You - Teen Idol - The Remember Song - You Are My Sunshine

It's good for Dave to play the final show of a tour at the Sit 'N Bull in Maynard, Mass., a place the whole band and all the fans seem to think of as home. Dave has played there over a dozen times. Despite the small stage and the heat Dave always steps it up a notch for the S'nB crowd.

Boston music legend Sal Baglio opened, as he did last summer, with an acoustic set of nine songs. It always seems to me as if Sal decides spontaneously what to play. His set featured one tune by The Stompers (The Stompers are to Sal as The Kinks are to Dave), "American Fun." He also did the wonderful "Rock and Roll Love Letter," the very funny "Teen Idol," a lovely ballad called "The Remember Song," an a capella version of "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You," a very fast bluegrass version of "You Are My Sunshine," and a very funny "Listen to the Band" (there wasn't one but we can pretend!). The Sit 'n Bull tickets are expensive, but you get two great shows for the price!

Dave's set was a little shorter than other times he's played the Bull, 21 songs. In the past Dave has done some really goofy things at the Bull, ranging from "I'm On An Island" to last summer's "Some Enchanted Evening," but tonight the only unusual song was "Phenomenal Cat." Dave "introduced" the stuffed toy cat that usually sits on Jim's drum platform and had her "sing" a few bars of the song. Add ventriloquism to Dave's lists of talents!

For the entire tour I'd been trying to figure out who Jonathan Lea reminds me of, and I've decided he looks like a young Dr. McCoy (from Star Trek).

Tonight Dave introduced the new song as "The Lie," instead of "Living a Lie."

On "Fortis Green," superfan and rabble-rouser Rafaela wanted the fans to bleat like sheep instead of meowing like a cat (on the line scared to put the cat out). I think next time around we all need to be quiet on that line, and instead scream like we're scared on the frightening all the kids line.

As the band was playing the opening to "Living on a Thin Line," Dave turned his back to the audience and pretended to conduct the band, with an imaginary baton.

After "Father Christmas," the band went off-stage (downstairs) and I thought the show was over, but the crowd was persistent. Chants of DAVE-DAVE-DAVE turned quickly into singing of FA FA FA FA FA. How could he refuse? The guys came back on stage and fired through their version of The Jam's cover of "David Watts."

Now that the tour is over I have some thoughts on the tour in general. It was great fun for me to attend all eleven shows on this East Coast tour. In some ways this was the best tour yet, simply because the band is the best they've ever been. Kristian Hoffman is not only a stylish and talented keyboard player in the tradition of Nicki Hopkins, but his heart-on-his-sleeve personality is really quite fun. Jim Laspesa's drumming has always been the rock of Dave's band, but his singing seems to improve with each tour. Having a second guitarist of Jonathan Lea's caliber has really rounded out the sound on a lot of the songs. David Jenkins on bass has always been another rock of Dave's band, but David has become more outgoing with each tour and has gotten to have fans of his own. For the second year, Pete Magdaleno accompanied the band to do the sound, and his skill and familiarity with the music helped to make the music sound great. (Just out of curiosity I looked up Pete Magdaleno on www.allmusic.com, and he has more recording credits than anyone else in the band.)

However, in some ways I think Dave's peak as a solo artist is behind us. The shows were, on average, a couple of songs shorter than in previous years. His brother has come under some criticism from fans for shortening shows as his solo career has progressed, and Dave can be criticized for the same. Also he has performed fewer of the songs he wrote himself (or that he sang originally). I wonder if he still, after all these years, lacks confidence in his own songwriting. The tour also lacked anything really silly or outrageous -- other years' "King Bee," "Please Help Me I'm Falling," even that silly "Psycho Lounge" that was a weird mashup of "Lola" with other bits of songs. Dave has a recent CD release -- a disk of demos called Fragile, and he has only played one song from that release ("No More Mysteries"), and he didn't even play that at every show.

To Dave's credit, he introduced a new song that hasn't been recorded yet (called either "Living a Lie" or "The Lie," depending on which night you heard him introduce it). What was especially good about that tune is that it's a rocker with a real "Kinks" feel. But he didn't do that one at every show either. Personally, I miss the quality of the earlier years of Dave's solo career, when he was playing longer shows, there was more going on along the lines of silly or goofy moments, and he was playing more of his own compositions.

Note: This review originally appeared in the Kinks Preservation Society mailing list digest, Number 1633, in which I went into more detail on my thoughts on the tour. Anyone who wishes to read the unedited version may visit the above link.