Graham Parker and the Figgs ~ 2010 April 1 ~ Q Division, Somerville, MA
Band personnel: Graham Parker (lead vocals, guitar, harmonica); Mike Gent (backing vocals, guitar, occasional drums); Scott Janovitz (keyboards, occasional guitar); Pete Hayes(drums, percussion); Pete Donnelly (backing vocals, bass)
Setlist
Chloroform - Turn It Into Hate - It's My Party - England's Latest Clown - Hole in the World (early demo) - Life Gets Better - Weather Report - Broken Skin - Sugaree (Grateful Dead cover) - My Love's Strong - Black Lincoln Continental - Head on Straight - Blue Highways - Bring Me a Heart Again - More Questions Than Answers - Bean Counter - Local Boys - Local Girls ... encore ... You're Not Where You Think You Are - First Responder - Mercury Poisoning
The Figgs' opening set is available at Setlist.fm, here.
Review
This was the first show of the tour in support of Graham Parker's new album, Imaginary Television, and since it was not widely advertised, was considered by GP and the musicians to be a "warmup show." That doesn't mean they slacked off or didn't put on a great performance; quite the contrary.
The Q Division is a recording studio located in an old factory building, a short easy walk from the Davis Square T station in Somerville (a suburb of Boston). The studio consists of four or five rambling rooms attached to one another by crooked corridors, located on weirdly twisted half-levels. The layout of the facility seems like something out of Harry Potter, but all the equipment in the control rooms is very impressive, sparkling. One or two of the rooms are lounges, with board games, books, and big comfy couches. The performance space is a big empty room; the "stage" is a carpeted section of floor lit by house lamps. There was one bit of stage furniture that Graham had brought -- a TV set tuned in to nothing, so it was showing static. It had rabbit ears! (Remember those?).
Not your usual venue. But it was a good place to see a show and I got my dearest wish -- a standing venue.
The Figgs opened up with an energetic ten-song set, with Pete Donnelly and Mike Gent alternating lead vocals, and one song sung by drummer Pete Hayes. All the great bands let the drummer sing a song, usually a novelty song. This one is "Play the Drums" and was written by Pete himself; it was sung a capella and includes the great line "I have a van - that's how I got in this band." After a few songs Scott Janovitz joined the Petes and Mike on keyboards. Several of the songs are from the Figgs' new record, due out in a few weeks, to be called The Man Who Fought Himself. The highlight of their set was their closer, "Casino Hayes," which is currently out on a vinyl 45 as a promo for the album.
After a brief interval the Figgs returned with Graham, who looked swanky dressed in a tweedy jacket over a green t-shirt. He played an electric Gibson guitar that I'd never seen before. He told me after the show that he has had the guitar for years and has played it on numerous records ("Depend on Me" was a song he mentioned) and that he felt like playing a different electric guitar than the trusty Telecaster that he usually brings along to live shows.
The show, despite being advertised as essentially an open rehearsal, went off pretty much without a hitch, with a handful of songs from the new album mixed in with older material. The new GP record is a relatively contemplative and quiet set of songs, and one might not connect that type of music with the Figgs, but the songs sounded great with the harder-edged arrangements that this band brought to them. As my concert-going partner put it, they "figged the songs up nicely."
One slightly awkward moment came halfway through the set when the Figgs all left the stage leaving Geep alone with his electric guitar and his kazoo. Now, I was a huge fan of the previous kazoo song -- "Stick to the Plan." It was fun and exciting and the kazoo was so nuts on the song it really worked. The new kazoo song, "Head on Straight," is a midtempo, acoustic swing number, and it's a pretty good song, but the kazoo on it is just silly and adds nothing. I hope Geep isn't thinking that now he has to have a kazoo song on every album (kind of like he has to have a reggae song, but that's another story).
After he played "Head on Straight" by himself, the band started to return, but in different "conFIGGurations" (pun courtesy of my GP buddy Jamie). The first conFIGGuration was Pete Donnelly on bass accompanying GP (just the two of them) on the beautiful "Blue Highways." Then for the next song, "Bring Me a Heart Again," Scott re-appeared but played guitar instead of keyboards, and Mike Gent sat down at the drums, with Pete Hayes crouching behind him ALSO playing the drums. Pete played a set of coconuts off to the side of the drum kit and occasionally reached forward to tap on the high hat or other piece of drum equipment while Mike was drumming away. It was a very funny visual to see the two of them playing one set of drums. Scott moved back to keys for the next song, "More Questions Than Answers," and after that was over the band all shifted back to their normal instruments.
During the rarely-performed "Bean Counter" Geep introduced the band. He claimed that the guys all had day jobs in addition to playing music. For example: "Mike Gent on guitar, glamorous musician by night, llama breeder by day." He said he himself (GP) is a "glamorous musician by night, quality control inspector in a sponge factory by day." It was pretty funny.
A few unusual songs were played. "Hole in the World" was an early, pre-Rumour demo, which strongly resembled "The Raid." "My Love's Strong" was very lovely. "Bean Counter" and "Local Boys" were unexpected treats.
The final song of the evening was "Mercury Poisoning," a song GP said hasn't been played with a band for many, many years. It was excellent.
More Chairman
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