[kj] (OT) The `Glers take NYC

Rheinhold Squeegee kjlist at live.com
Tue Jun 4 11:32:19 EDT 2013


Which you already note if I hadn't skipped over the last paragraph. My bad.




From: kjlist at live.com
To: gathering at misera.net
Subject: RE: [kj] (OT) The `Glers take NYC
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2013 10:31:16 -0500




FYI: Hugh Cornwell is playing the Highline in December:

http://highlineballroom.com/show/2013/12/08/hugh-cornwell/




From: vassifer at earthlink.net
To: gathering at misera.net
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2013 10:29:01 -0400
Subject: [kj] (OT) The `Glers take NYC

Sent this earlier, but it didn't go through...apologies if you're seeing it twice...




Hey all...

Okay, gotta say ... in advance of this gig, I was having my doubts. But in the end, I'm quite glad I went.

For a start, the venue: Highline Ballroom is a relative newcomer to NYC, and it feels a bit slick and antiseptic. This is the first time there's ever been a band I've given a fuck about playing at this venue. Most of the time it seems to play host to corporate events, acid jazz parties and cover bands. Also, the floor is ringed by exclusive cushioned booths. Tear those fucking things out and let people move around, I say. Still, I suppose, if you're normally hosting bullshit karaoke events, I suppose that doesn't matter. I will say this: the bars are easy to access.

Opening act: Ersatz honky-tonkster with cloying lap pedal-steel player name Luba Dvorzak. Honestly, I cannot remember the last time I witnessed an opening act who was so poorly matched with the headliner. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but his strenuously earnest Dwight Yoakam-meets-Bruce-Springsteen posturing really grated after a while. Kept hoping someone was going to throw something at him. Astonishingly, no one did.

The crowd: A odd mix, honestly. Lots of portly, "dodgy prostate punks" with silver in their hair (like, er, me), lots of folks who clearly only came to hear "Grip," "No More Heroes" and/or "Always the Sun" (and who stood staring blankly when the band ripped into "Nuclear Device" or "Straighten Out" etc.). Not many young'uns, which is fine with me.

For a while, i was stood behind a woman who insisted on taking pictures with her phone literally every other minute. Conversely, I took three (3) photos of the performance...and even felt that was excessive. Whatever happened to simply enjoying the moment instead of feverishly trying to document the moment?

The show: For all the talk of the band phoning it in in recent years, I can't honestly say. They were certainly in very high spirits on the comparatively cramped stage. Some fresh-faced young man who looked from my vantage point like Conan O'Brien sat in for the understandably absent but still sorely missed Jet "Fucking" Black. Baz on vocals/guitar is actually a funny, charming, chatty motherfucker (taking an audience member jokingly to task for yelling "you suck" and trying out his best "Noo Yawk" accent). JJ doesn't seem to attack the crowd as he once did, but still does the crouched duck walk. Looking less like the leather-clad thug of yore and more like a resigned elder statesman of yore, he did indeed seem to be enjoying himself.

Dave on keyboards looking a bit older, but still a fucking wiz on the organ (and doing silly things like drinking a pint of beer with one hand while playing the solo on "Walk on By" with the other).

Set list was pretty impressive. It really is remarkable how many great, great songs they have in their oeuvre. They opened with "Toiler on the Sea," which I like -- but never thought of it as a momentum-builder. "Goodbye Toulose" followed. Some pleasant surprises (for me) included airings of "Nuclear Device," "Bring on the Nubiles" (I was leaping about for this one, prompting many an agitated glance from people around me), "Who Wants the World?," "Straighten Out" (honestly, can you name a better song?) and fucking "Tank." Indeed, they dusted off the obligatory renditions of "Golden Brown," "Skin Deep," "Duchess," "Always the Sun," and only a few ones from GIANTS (the new one) and maybe one track from SUITE XVI. The only song from the Paul Roberts era was a rousing bash through "Norfolk Coast." Leery renditions of "Five Minutes," "Hanging Around," "Peaches" and "Nice 'N' Sleazy" brought the house down.

Notable omissions from the hits-heavy set: "Something Better Change," "The Raven," Mean to Me," "Go Buddy Go," "Strange Little Girl," "London Lady." They played nothing off of MENINBLACK (I was hoping against hope for "Just Like Nothing on Earth") and only "Skin Deep" off of AURAL SCULPTURE. Still, it was a beefy set that I can't complain about.

Though he's been gone for over twenty years, the specter of Hugh Cornwell still looms over this band, largely due to the fact that a good 80% of the songs they played were either originally written or sang by the man. In what could only be a bit of calculated irony. the room itself was peppered with flyers advertising an upcoming (well, December) gig by Hugh Cornwell. Wonder if the band could see those flyers from the stage. That must have been a bit weird.

That said, I have newfound respect for Baz Warne. He's a more-than-capable performer and is a charismatic frontman, and his enthusiasm was infectious.

There you have it. There are a couple of pics on my Istagram page, if fucks be given: http://instagram.com/alexinnewyorkcity

Alex in NYC










_______________________________________________ Gathering mailing list Gathering at misera.net http://four.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/gathering
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://four.pairlist.net/pipermail/gathering/attachments/20130604/e6b0407a/attachment.htm


More information about the Gathering mailing list