Graham Parker and The Figgs ~ 2005 June 8 ~ Middle East, Cambridge, MA
Band Personnel: Graham Parker, lead vocals, Washburn acoustic guitar; Mike Gent, backing vocals, guitar, lead vocals during The Figgs set; Pete Hayes, drums; Pete Donnelly, backing vocals, bass, lead vocals during The Figgs set; Brett Rosenberg, backing vocals, guitar
Set List (with guitars noted)
(no guitar) Don't Get Excited - Soul Shoes - Stick To Me - Don't Let It Break You Down - (Washburn) She Swallows It - Vanity Press - Nothing's Gonna Pull Us Apart - If It Ever Stops Rainin' - Worthy of Your Love - (no guitar) Brand New Book - Bad Chardonnay - (Washburn) Dislocated Life - Get Started, Start a Fire - Local Girls - Nothing on the Radio - Saturday Night is Dead ... encore ... Pouring It All Out - Hold Back the Night
Review
The Middle East is a merely average rock club. It's a dark rectangular room with a floor that slopes up starting about 10 feet behind the stage. The sound isn't all that good, which is really this venue's main drawback. The stage is plenty big, although it is very dirty and covered with bits of old duct tape and other detritus. Its main advantage is that it is a standing venue.
The opening band were The Figgs, Graham's backup band. They played a set of high energy rock featuring many interesting guitar riffs played mainly by band leader Mike Gent.
One advantage to having the backup band open for the headliner is the stage doesn't need to be reset between acts, and it wasn't long after The Figgs finished their set when GP himself bopped onto the stage with his four sidekicks. He was dressed in black Keds (his "soul shoes"), black trousers, and a short-sleeved gray concert t-shirt that said Ian Dury on the back and on the front had a picture of suspenders with little round circles like balloons. He looks like he's kept himself in shape for soccer. His hair is very short. He launched immediately into a few songs before he greeted the audience. He opened with "Don't Get Excited" -- but there is little chance of not getting excited in the presence of the Chairman!
Geep played a very pretty Washburn electric guitar. The body is an orange color with a striped pattern, surrounded around the edge of the guitar body with a darker red border. Graham played the guitar for about half the songs and did The Rock Star for the other half. This is quite different from Graham's solo shows; there wasn't nearly as much banter, and he didn't tell too many jokes or funny stories, but he was able to strike poses and prance around the stage, grabbing the microphone stand and putting his foot up on the monitor and leaning out into the audience. He seemed to really have fun doing The Rock Star -- he is a very versatile performer -- and, man, can he sing.
He introduced The Figgs -- Mike Gent on guitar and vocals, Pete Hayes on drums, Pete Donnelly on bass and vocals -- and he forgot there was another guitarist. Pete the bass player tapped him on the shoulder and nodded at young Brett Rosenberg at stage left. Graham corrected his oversight, referring to him as the "Figglet" and the "Figg Du Jour," and said that when his first album was released, most of The Figgs were toddlers and Brett the Figglet was just a "gleam in his father's eye." He seemed to enjoy playing with these young guys and he was more than able to keep up with their energy level.
Graham started the night chewing gum. He can sing, he can play guitar, he can chew gum, all at once -- what a genius. After a few songs he took out the gum and stuck it on one of the tuning pegs of his guitar where it remained for the rest of the night.
He played 18 songs, a completely satisfying mix of older songs, relatively newer songs, and five songs from the new album, Songs of No Consequence. These five were "She Swallows It," which he introduced by saying the lyrics were even worse than the title; "Vanity Press," which he introduced by referring to the government propaganda vehicles known as video news releases, made to look like 'news' and broadcast on TV stations; "Bad Chardonnay," which he said was about his life, with its fun Ramones-echo and thrilling "ba ba ba ba - ba ba ba ba ba bad chardonnay" singalong; "Dislocated Life" (no introduction -- I had to figure out later what I had heard); and the fabulous "Nothing on the Radio," also with a fun singalong. The superb "If It Ever Stops Rainin'" from my favorite GP album, Deepcut to Nowhere, featured exceptionally good backing vocals from Figgs Mike Gent and Pete the bass player (and, I fear, a loud screech from me when GP mentioned the album). Other songs that I particularly enjoyed were "Soul Shoes," the lovely "Worthy of Your Love," "Brand New Book" (one of the best songs GP has ever written), and "Saturday Night is Dead."
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