Marshall Crenshaw Trio with Ray Mason opening ~ 2006 September 23 ~ Narrows Center for the Arts, Fall River, MA
Set List (Crenshaw Trio)
Fantastic Planet of Love - There She Goes Again - 2541 - From Now Until Then - Dime a Dozen Guy - Sunday Blues - Someday, Someway - Alone in a Room - Kit Kat Clock - Cynical Girl ... intermission ... 19th Nervous Breakdown - Long and Complicated - My Favorite Waste of Time - Will We Ever - Maryanne - Crying Waiting Hoping {Buddy Holly} - What Do You Dream Of - What I Didn't Want To Do - Valerie {Richard Thompson} ... encore ... Ain't It a Shame - Whenever You're On My Mind
Set List (Ray Mason opening set)
Castanets - I'm Not That Kind of Guy - Reverb & a Zip Code - Cats - I Want To Be a Holiday - Got It Right - Never Run Out - When She Walks By - When I Meet You on the Moon
Review
Marshall Crenshaw is a splendid writer of pop songs, a fine singer, and an extremely accomplished guitarist. His songs are melodic and full of hooks, power pop at its best. Concert Going Partner and I had seen him perform a solo show once before at the Narrows. We were not all that impressed with him as a solo performer, despite his musical skills, because his stage personality lacked in pizzazz. But his music is so good we thought we'd give him another try when he was playing with a band. As we suspected, the performance was more enjoyable with a band. His bass player, Graham Maby, who has played with Joe Jackson and many other top musicians, was just terrific, as was the drummer, whose name I did not record.
The set list consisted of a number of Marshall's better known songs along with a few well selected covers, including the fabulous "Valerie" by Richard Thompson, and "Crying Waiting Hoping" by Buddy Holly. It's to be expected that Marshall would cover a Buddy Holly song, since he played him in the movie La Bamba.
The show was opened by Ray Mason. At one point Ray asked if anyone had anyone requests and someone in the front row suggested "Reverb" (the full name of the song is "Reverb and a Zip Code.") But others in the audience thought the request was for "Free Bird," and that got a good laugh from the crowd.