Graham Parker ~ 2006 December 2 ~ The Turning Point, Piermont, NY
Graham Parker accompanying himself on Fender electric guitar, Gibson acoustic guitar, and harmonica
Set List (with guitars noted)
[Gibson acoustic]: Watch the Moon Come Down - Socks 'n' Sandals - Haunted Episodes - I'm Just Your Man - Other Side of the Reservoir - Suspension Bridge - Christmas is For Mugs - Misstra Know-It-All {Stevie Wonder} - [Fender electric]: Howling Wind - Can't Take Love for Granted - Discovering Japan - [Gibson acoustic]: Local Girls - [Fender electric]: Nobody Hurts You - You Can't Be Too Strong - Passion is No Ordinary Word - [Gibson acoustic]: Saturday Night Is Dead - [Fender electric]: Love Gets You Twisted - [Gibson acoustic]: Waiting for the UFOs - [with recording of GP with The Figgs] Don't Get Excited ... encore ... [Gibson acoustic]: Heat Treatment - Mercury Poisoning
Review
Graham Parker did something so delightfully surprising at the two gigs in New York on Dec. 2 and 3 that I hesitate to write about it, except that I doubt he will do it again, so I won't be ruining anyone's surprise.
The first of the two shows was at the Turning Point, that tiny club in the shadow of the Tappanzee Bridge where the Chairman has played many times. I have made several trips to this venue, starting with a trip to see Dave Davies (of the Kinks) there in 1998, but this was the first time the club's directions of what to do after coming off the Tappanzee made any sense, and I found Piermont without any creative detours. A good start to the evening.
This was an early show, starting at 6:00, so by 4:30 my Concert Going Partner and I were seated in the upstairs restaurant ordering a spicy Portuguese meal, waiting for my Manhattan friend Becky to join us. Eventually we found ourselves seated in the downstairs venue. The Chairman opened the show with my least favorite of his usual openers, the thoughtful "Watch the Moon Come Down" (I don't dislike the song, I just think it's more effective when he starts with something more lively). He went on to perform a mix of old and two new songs. The new "Suspension Bridge" sounds like a very good one at first listen. When he played it he looked over at ME and asked if he'd played it at Rosendale (he hadn't). The other new song was "Other Side of the Reservoir," with its unusual subject matter and very pretty melody.
GP had lots of merch to sell -- four CDs -- and he played songs from all four. One was 103 Degrees in June , the new live album on Bloodshot recorded in 2005 with the Figgs. He has also recently sweet talked two former record labels into actually letting him have their leftover inventory of his deleted albums, obtaining copies of Christmas Cracker from the defunct Dakota Records and copies of the Deepcut to Nowhere and 12 Haunted Episodes from Razor & Tie. To promote those CDs he played the laugh-out-loud funny "Socks 'n' Sandals," the lovely "Haunted Episodes," and the season-appropriate "Christmas is for Mugs" (he explained that "mugs" is English slang for "suckers"). This last song had my chum Becky laughing out loud, and since she was sitting about five feet from him, he started laughing too as she was laughing. He said he was joining in on the War on Christmas with the song. But then his actions proved he didn't really mean that, as he gave her a copy of Christmas Cracker.
Graham was wearing a very cool 1980s vintage "disco shirt" (his words). It was white with a multi-colored, quasi-psychedelic pattern that was vaguely reminiscent of communications symbols. A good song to wear while performing "Waiting for the UFOs." He also was wearing very cool blue sneakers with a yellow stripe; he showed them off after playing "Socks 'n' Sandals." He was wearing dark shades.
After the first dozen or so songs, Graham said that he had recently played a house concert in New Jersey, and that he had felt obliged to come up with a new format so that the audience, who had already heard him there quite a few times, wouldn't be bored. (Bored? The regular ol' Geep concert with songs and banter is far from boring, but apparently Geep himself feels the need to shake it up.) So, he came up with the idea of playing one of his classic albums in its entirety, from beginning to end, each song in order as on the original record. I didn't attend that house concert where GP debuted this format, and to be honest, when I heard about it I thought it sounded like a lame idea. He always plays at least one or two, sometimes more, songs from the chosen album (Squeezing Out Sparks, of course), and to play the entire album sounded forced and artificial. So, when Geep announced to the crowd that he was going to do one of his classic albums in its entirety, I yelled Human Soul but, as much as he apparently found humor in the suggestion (he repeated it himself the next night), he stuck to the plan, and started in on "Discovering Japan." This sure-fire crowd pleaser was followed by "Local Girls," with its sure-fire-crowd-pleasing sing-along; at the end of which you could tell he was getting into the feel of performing a hit album, as he did a bit of a "rock star leap."
I enjoyed hearing those two songs, but as I've heard them numerous times at recent GP gigs, so far it was nothing unusual, but then along came "Nobody Hurts You," and THAT was when it happened. Here was something completely different. I was transported as if by magic to a time long ago. It was a sultry summer night in Cambridge, Mass., the windows were open and Graham Parker was wafting into the hot city night. And all of a sudden Graham Parker had convinced me by the sheer excellence of the music that playing Squeezing Out Sparks in its entirety was a brilliant idea.
More songs, several guitar changes, back and forth from the acoustic Gibson with the pretty pickguard to the electric Fender with the well-worn neck, comments on the songs ("Passion is No Ordinary Word" is that "big fat thing in the middle"), criticism of the running order -- apparently he would sequence the whole album differently if he had it to do over. After "Waiting for the UFOs" on the Gibson, Graham put down the guitar. He told the crowd that the final song on the album was one he couldn't possibly do solo, and that rather than drop the whole idea after he'd spent so much time prepping it, he would "CHEAT .... BIG TIME."
And over the sound system blasted the opening notes of "Don't Get Excited" from 103 Degrees in June with the Figgs, and Graham sang along with the recording, instantly transforming himself into the Rock Star, swinging the microphone stand forward and back, striking Rock Star poses, throwing in a bit of air guitar while Mike Gent was soloing on the record .... and it was utterly brilliant. It was surprising, original, and just plain fun. The crowd went absolutely wild. Again as if by magic I was transported to another hot summer night, the GP and the Figgs shows I'd seen last year.
Encores were "Heat Treatment" and "Mercury Poisoning," which to my ear sounded like it was in a different tempo (3/4, maybe). It's all in the wrist action.
More Chairman
Interested in my other Graham Parker reviews? Here is a page with a handy list of links to all pages on this website with Geep content.