Graham Parker Duo (with Mike Gent) ~ 2009 September 25 ~ Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, NY
Band personnel: Graham Parker (lead vocals, guitar, harmonica); Mike Gent (backing vocals, guitar); Professor Louie on a few songs (accordion, piano)
Setlist
Professor Louie opened:
Ophelia - No Division Heart and Soul - Charlie Hawker's Blues - Next Time You See Me - Twilight - One More Day
Mike Gent played second:
Leave My Capo Alone - False Alarms - Paper Knives - Bungalow Bill - Stay Low
Graham Parker with Mike Gent:
Hard Side of the Rain - Ambiguous - Problem Child - If It Ever Stops Rainin' - Guillotines of Guadaloupe (with "Sugar Sugar" riff) - You're Not Where You Think You Are (new song) - Life Gets Better - Brain Surgery - Black Lincoln Continental - Love Gets You Twisted - Discovering Japan - Passion is No Ordinary Word - Temporary Beauty - Don't Let It Break You Down - Don't Ask Me Questions - Back in Time - Heat Treatment ... encore ... (with Mike Gent and Professor Louie) Last Stop is Nowhere - High Horse(with "Windy" riff) - Head on Straight (new song, with kazoo)
Review
In the movies, when the hero is driving somewhere he always finds a parking spot right in front of where he's going, pulls right in and hops out to be about his heroic business. But that never happens in real life. This time ... that happened. I pulled into a parking space directly in front of the Howland Cultural Center ... and I wasn't even particularly early, by my standards. I sensed the evening was off to a good start.
Got a panini at a cafe across the street and bumped into Graham and Mike as they were leaving after their soundcheck. There was just one other concert goer milling about so we went into the building and asked if we could go in and find a seat. The answer was "yes, but the show doesn't start for 45 minutes." I had to restrain myself from bursting out laughing; that person had no idea how LATE that is to arrive at a show.
Anyway, the two of us went in and found seats in the front row next to a handful of others that had been reserved for mysterious reasons. I ordered my ticket weeks ago and didn't get a reserved seat (maybe you had to ask).
The Howland Cultural Center is a Victorian structure on the National Register of Historic Places. It's a house that looks like it belongs in a horror movie spoof ... too tall, and topheavy, with windows sticking out at odd angles, and when you get inside the angles and shapes are all wrong, but somehow it all fits together to form a harmonious whole. The stage is average size but only about six inches off the floor, so an up-front seat is a necessity if you want to see. The seats were folding chairs arranged in about ten rows with about a dozen seats in each row. It is also an art gallery, and the walls were filled with various colorful paintings and art pieces. It made for an attractive backdrop to the performers. At one point in the show Geep quipped that he had come by the venue earlier in the day and did up a few paintings.
The opening act was the marvelous Professor Louie, who has played keyboards on some of GP's recent records. He played a fabulous six song set ranging from boogie woogie blues to tender ballads to folk, accompanying himself on the grand piano and, for two songs, the accordion. On the accordion songs he was joined on piano by Miss Marie, another member of his band the Crowmatix. They finished their set with an irresistable singalong, "One More Day." Since Beacon is the home of Pete Seeger, singing along is what the audience needs to do.
After a short interval Mike Gent came on stage and played a five song set featuring "Paper Knives" and two other songs from his new record (Mike Gent) and a Beatles singalong, and then he introduced Graham Parker, who came on stage wearing the beer bottle shirt that he had first worn at the funny little Bloodshot gig in Cambridge a few weeks ago. The other times I have seen Mike and Graham as a duo act, Graham has played most of the set by himself and was only joined by Mike for the last few songs, but this time Mike played the entire show. Mike played along on the guitar (he played acoustic the entire show), occasionally throwing in an unobtrusive lead riff or two. Twice he introduced a riff from a completely unrelated pop song -- "Windy" becomes a piece of "High Horse" and "Sugar Sugar" joins in on "Guillotines of Guadaloupe" (that is one weird juxtaposition, but it worked). Mike sang along beautifully. His singing along on "If It Ever Stops Rainin'" and "Passion is No Ordinary Word" really elevated those songs.
GP and Mike have wonderful chemistry on stage, sometimes reading each other's minds ... and sometimes not. Twice during the show Mike "corrected" Graham ... once when he accidentally mis-identified an album a song came from, another time when GP was skipping ahead on the set list, missing a song Mike particularly wanted to play. In both cases you could tell the easy rapport these two musicians have on stage. GP showed no hint of resentment that Mike was "correcting" him, making a joke out of it ("I'm used to playing solo shows and I can make it up as I go along"). Geep bantered with the audience a little less than in a solo show but there was still a good amount of joke telling. He continues to claim that the sunglasses he's been wearing recently are the same that he wore in the cover photo for Steady Nerves ... at one point when GP was skipping ahead on the set list Mike asked "are those prescription glasses?" It was great fun to watch and listen to the two of them together.
The two highlights of the Geep/MG duo were the completely unexpected "Life Gets Better" (from that underrated Parker album The Real Macaw) and a super-punky "Brain Surgery" (by "Brian Porker and the Debilitators," the punk character from GP's book of short stories, Carp Fishing on Valium).
At the end of the main set fans presented Graham with roses and Mike with a single rose. Graham re-introduced Professor Louie who joined in for the encore set. They started with "Last Stop is Nowhere," a particular favorite of mine which GP has been performing solo lately. With a second guitar and an accordion accompanying the song, it was breathtakingly beautiful.
The second encore was "High Horse," which changed the mood completely, put smiles on faces where tears had been standing in eyes, made feet tap where breath had been held. Mike's backing vocals and Prof Louie's accordion really enriched the sound of this fabulous tune. Those two songs sounded so good, it gave me the idea that I'd like to hear these three musicians perform Deepcut to Nowhere in its entirety.
Prof Louie moved to the piano for the final song, the new "Head on Straight," on which Graham played the kazoo, and the three of them made it into a music-hall toe-tapper (imagine a vaudeville rendition of "Not If It Pleases Me" and you get the idea).
It was a very full evening of great music from three outstanding performers in an excellent venue, and it made the long drive (for me) more than worthwhile.
More Chairman
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