Dave Davies ~ 2003 May 9 ~ The Downtown ~ Farmingdale, NY
Band Personnel: Dave Davies, lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars; Jonathan Lea, guitar and prerecorded samples; Jim Laspesa, drums and backing vocals; Derrick Anderson, bass and backing vocals
Set List
Till the End of the Day - Who's Foolin' Who - I Need You - Creeping Jean - Gallon of Gas/You're Lookin Fine - See My Friends - Wicked Annabella - Dead End Street - The Lie - Flowers in the Rain - Death of a Clown - Picture Book - Fortis Green - It Ain't Over Till It's Done - Bug/Transformation - Living on a Thin Line - All Day & All of the Night ... encore ... I'm Not Like Everybody Else ... second encore ... You Really Got Me
Concert Review
Dave played here last year too, and last year it was great, a perfect standing venue with lots of room in front of the stage. But this time the club had decided they were going to have "V.I.P." seating, which meant you could pay $60 for a seat at a table in front of the stage, or you could pay $25 for standing room behind the tables. It didn't take much cerebral activity to figure out that, as Dave is a standing gig anyway, the standing room (which was only about 20 feet from the stage) was a better deal. Drummer Jim Laspesa came around before the show and asked me why I was so far from the stage.
The warm up band was the Nancy Atlas Project, a five-piece country rock band with a lead singer who was very good when she sang melodic, mid-tempo numbers, but not very good when she got all screechy and imagined she was channeling Janis Joplin. She wore this odd necktie that hung from her throat to her thighs; maybe that's her trademark. And they were loud! Way too loud. I bring two types of earplugs to rock concerts and for the first time this tour I had to break out the heavy duty, rated for 30-decibel ones.
Anyhow, the Dave part of the show started with a tape that is an odd mix of the murky electronica of "Transformation" with the familiar chords of "You Really Got Me." Dave and the boys blasted on to the stage and roared into "Till the End of the Day," and they were way too loud too. Tonight, the heavy duty plugs only came out for "Flowers in the Rain."
During the fourth song, "Creeping Jean" (a song I never get tired of, despite having heard it probably about 45 times, and which is enhanced by Jonathan's slide guitar), some latecomers came in and were seated at the V.I.P. tables (which were, by the way, only about half occupied). Dave stopped playing and said to them teasingly that if they cared so little about the show that they would come in late, well, he wasn't going to play. I think he was genuinely annoyed at them. Or maybe he was just annoyed that most of the real fans were standing 20 feet away from the stage behind a barrier and that the expensive seats up front were only half occupied, and mainly by people like Zildjian employees who probably didn't even know who he was.
Other than this one incident, Dave did seem to again be in a good mood and showed some real enthusiasm throughout the night. After having given "Wicked Annabella" a rest for one night, he put it back in the set, and sang it considerably better than on Wednesday night at the Sit 'N Bull. The ending of "Dead End Street," where he plays the original horn section on a kazoo, just gets better. He's turning into a regular kazoo virtuoso. "The Lie" was fabulous -- although there's some major keyboard gaps in that song, Jonathan's slippery guitar playing adds sonic texture. When he did "Death of a Clown," he ended it with a few bluesy bars, and it must have reminded him of that bit of Spanish guitar he used to end "Picture Book" with long ago, because the next song was "Picture Book." It was wonderful to hear -- it reminded me of when Dave's show was new, and full of enthusiasm and spontaneity, and when he used to do a real acoustic set with songs like "Picture Book" that added so much to the shows. He also did "Fortis Green" for the first time during my three shows, and it was great to hear it, but he cut it short. Ended it before the line about "sister's in the doorway ..."
Following "Fortis Green" was another favorite from Bug, "It Ain't Over Till It's Done," which features a line that is humorously appropriate for a rock concert: "I close my eyes, what do I see? I see thousands of faces staring straight at me" (I couldn't help myself from looking around at the *hundreds* of faces staring straight at him). It also includes that wonderful "is the cat too fat, is the dude too old" line where Dave sounds just like that older brother of his!
After "It Ain't Over" came my least favorite part of the show. "Bug" itself is a really good song. It's fun, and silly if you don't think he's serious about the subject matter, and last year during the spring tour the "Debug" section was also fun and entertaining. But Dave has removed the keyboard from last year's version and added in a sonically murky mix of a prerecorded backing track with an excessive amount of live noise. In my opinion, it's tacky to use a prerecorded backing track, and certainly doesn't substitute for having keyboards in the band. When the song "Bug" ended, the soundman boosted the volume (which, need I remind you, was already too loud), Jonathan engaged the prerecording, and what came out was a combo of drum machine and thumping electronica (think Purusha on steroids), and a few phrases sung by Dave. After a little while, Dave started to wail on the guitar and sing along with himself, Jim started to drum along with the drum track, Derrick became busy on bass, and Jonathan started to play his guitar with this unusual instrument called an ebow. It's a magnetic gadget that vibrates the strings of the guitar and produces a sort of violin-like sound (very neo-psychedelic), but the problem was you really couldn't hear it because everything was too loud, and the sounds were murky and hard to distinguish. After a few excruciating minutes of this the prerecorded backing track dropped out and the band continued being as loud as they could for another few minutes.
Having heard this already in two previous shows, I did something I never do at koncerts, and looked at my watch before, during and after the sections of the song. "Bug" itself (the actual song) was 6 minutes (already on the long side), and the "Debug/Transformation" section was 13 minutes. The whole song was 19 minutes. Ouch. You know, I do give them credit for trying something new, and maybe Dave is thinking this will appeal to a younger audience who are used to the kind of electronica you hear in dance clubs, but it just didn't work for me.
I have heard another fan say that he feels that the loss of the acoustic set that used to be an element of Dave's shows ruins the show. I won't go as far as to agree with that. There is still too much about a Dave show that is really great. But songs like "This Man He Weeps Tonight," "Love Gets You," "I Am Free," "Young & Innocent Days," "There Is No Life Without Love," "Strangers," and "Too Much On My Mind" that used to comprise that wonderful acoustic set, are now forgotten. "Flowers in the Rain" by itself is not a substitute, and even it would sound better with an acoustic treatment. That acoustic set that Dave used to use was a break in the tempo, and a showcase for his tender side, his singing ability, and the fact that he can do a lot more as a musician than just wail on the guitar. To my thinking the worst thing about the loss of the acoustic set is that it seems to have been replaced by the indulgent excess of "Bug/Transformation." If this is meant as an invitation to meditation, I think the quieter, more soothing songs of the former acoustic set were a more effective invitation.
Tonight's show ended with "Thin Line," "All Day & All of the Night," "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," and "You Really Got Me." The concert was about 1 hr. 45 min. and 19 songs.
The three shows I saw on this spring tour were very similar in their set lists and none of them contained any real surprises. The best thing about the shows were the number of songs from Bug -- it was exciting to hear so many songs from this new album, and it was gratifying to see Dave really making an effort to promote it. The album's very good and deserves to be heard! However, the shows contained some musical mis-steps and one can only hope that they will be corrected next time out.
God Save The Kink!
Editor's Note: When I wrote this review in May of 2003, I had no way of knowing that about a year later Dave Davies would suffer a debilitating stroke and would be out of circulation for a number of years. As I write this note in 2015, Dave has returned to live performing. There are some reviews of recent shows on the 2013 concert page.