Graham Parker Duo ~ 2017 May 5 ~ Bull Run Restaurant ~ Shirley, MA
Graham Parker, vocals, Gibson acoustic guitar, harmonica, kazoo; Brinsley Schwarz, Gibson electric guitar, vocals; Mike Gent, guitar and vocals, opening set
Set List
Graham played Gibson acoustic, Brinsley Gibson electric.
H indicates GP played the harmonica, K the kazoo
Watch the Moon Come Down (H) - Between You & Me - Stop Crying About the Rain - Fools' Gold - Devil's Sidewalk - Lunatic Fringe - Socks 'n' Sandals (H) - Disney's America - You Missed Again {Brinsley song, from his solo album} - Stick To Me - Heat Treatment (H) - Discovering Japan - Long Emotional Ride - Pub Crawl (K) - New York Shuffle - White Honey ... encore ... {GP by himself}; You Can't Be Too Strong - {Brinsley returns}: Don't Let It Break You Down (with a bit of "Sweet Jane" and "Here Comes the Sun") - Hold Back the Night
Mike Gent opening Set List
This Might Get Boring - Feline Blue - Canned Laughter {Graham Parker} - Blue Clouds - When Mandy Comes - Victoria {The Kinks} - Guitar Man (Vol. 3) {new song, co-written with GP}
Scroll to below videos for review of the show.
Videos
Watch the Moon Come Down
Between You and Me
Disney's America
Review
This is the sixth time GP has played this great venue, starting in 2004. He has played the venue solo, with The Figgs, and with The Latest Clowns. Tonight's show added the GP Duo with Brinsley Schwarz to the list of conFIGGurations he has played with here.
The show was significantly improved over the show I saw about twelve months ago at the Iron Horse GP Duo, 2013-04-13. At that show, there was hardly any audience banter, and the set list was comprised entirely of mid-tempo numbers from the albums recorded with the Rumour. But tonight both musicians seemed in a much better mood. GP bantered with the audience in the delightful manner of his solo shows, and even Brinsley chimed in with an occasional quip. And there was more musical variety to the set list.
One of the great improvements tonight was a stellar opening set from Mike Gent of The Figgs, who has recorded and performed with Graham over the many years. He got things off on the right foot by performing a very funny song, "This Might Get Boring," about a guy playing an acoustic set with just a guitar. He followed that up with "Feline Blue," another funny song -- yes, it's in very poor taste (it's about dead cats) but it was an instant crowd favorite. He played GP's "Canned Laughter" and the Kinks' "Victoria" (the latter had everyone singing along). He played a couple of other new songs of his, both very melodic, and finished up with a song he co-wrote with GP about a guitar store owner who once bailed them out with some last-minute equipment, but a couple of years later was arrested for killing his girlfriend with an axe. Mike's set made me wish that he, not Brinsley, would be GP's duo partner, but I realize I'm in the minority here.
GP and Brinsley did play three songs from the non-Rumours albums including "Disney's America," a song that makes it onto a lot of GP fans' top 10 list. Brinsley played it in the style of how it would have sounded if the Rumour had played on it in the first place. You decide how well this works. (Video above.)
Brinsley has put out his first ever solo record, and played a song from it ("You Missed Again"). I liked it.
For the past few years, GP has featured one song in each show where he plays the kazoo. Tonight's kazoo number was "Pub Crawl," from the most recent album (Mystery Glue). When they started the song, I was thinking this was no "Stick to the Plan" as a kazoo song, but they won me over with a Jimi Hendrix spoof toward the end of the song.
GP looked stylish in a pink t-shirt, a gray suit jacket, gray trousers, and not very dark shades with yellow lenses. Brinsley was mostly in black with a black-and-white patterned vest.
More Chairman
Here is a page with a handy list of links to all pages on this website with content relating to Graham Parker.
More Mike
Here is a page with a handy list of links to all pages on this website with content relating to Mike Gent and his band The Figgs.
Click for 2017 Concert Page with links to all 2017 concerts ... Click for Main Concert Page with links to all years