The Dave Davies Band ~ 2002 April 23 (Tuesday) ~ Northern Lights ~ Clifton Park, NY
Band Personnel: Dave Davies, lead vocals, lead guitar; Jim Laspesa, drums and backing vocals; David Nolte, bass and backing vocals; Kristian Hoffman, keyboards; Brian Myers, guitar tech and second guitar
Set List
Till the End of the Day - I Need You - Susannah's Still Alive - Creeping Jean - Gallon of Gas/You're Looking Fine - Tired of Waiting - Set Me Free - See My Friends - The Lie {new, from BUG} - Bug {new, from BUG} - Dead End Street - Rock You, Rock Me {new, from BUG} - Death of a Clown - Fortis Green - Living on a Thin Line - All Day & All of the Night - I'm Not Like Everybody Else - Father Christmas - You Really Got Me
Concert Review
Dave Davies kicked off the American leg of the tour at Northern Lights in Clifton Park, NY outside of Albany. My Concert Going Partner and I got there early enough to be able to listen to much of the long soundcheck from outside the door, something I was interested in doing since the band were practicing songs from the new album, BUG.
The club was pretty nice, with a roomy stage, open dance floor with plenty of room for standing, and plenty of tables for sitting. The show was attended mostly by local regulars of the club and a handful of Dave fans. Someone told me the show was never listed on davedavies.com, and if this is true, this oversight might have contributed to the small crowd. Many of those who were there were extremely drunk, and I spent a good deal of the night trying to avoid getting trampled on. (This happened to me once before at a Dave show in the Albany area .... now, I am not drawing any conclusions here.)
The Ravens have changed two positions since last year. David Nolte, who formerly played keyboards and guitar in 1998/99, has replaced David Jenkins on bass and backing vocals. Jonathan Lea, 2000/01 guitar tech/second guitarist, has been replaced by a young man named Brian Myers who is credited on Dave's new album BUG with engineering and percussion credits. Brian is mostly the guitar tech and only played rhythm guitar on two or three songs a night. I missed Jonathan's excellent guitar playing, especially on "Creeping Jean." Jim Laspesa is back on drums and backing vocals and Kristian Hoffman on keyboards.
The band were rusty and although the new songs, the ones they had practiced, sounded very good, some of the old songs sounded like four guys not-quite-sure they were playing together, especially "Dead End Street." You'll have that in the first show of a tour, especially when the previous three days included about thirty hours of traveling to get from Los Angeles to Belgium and back to New York.
One technical difficulty occurred which had an effect on all five shows I saw this week, which was that Dave didn't have an acoustic guitar (apparently the one they had brought was broken). Thus, the "acoustic set" that is always a highlight of Dave's shows became just a few slower songs played on the same Fender guitar, or on the black and white backup they usually have along in case of an emergency. Although this did change the pace of the show, it wasn't a problem -- after all these years of playing music in front of audiences, Dave doesn't have a problem with something like having to adjust instantly to playing songs like "Death of a Clown" and "Fortis Green" on an electric guitar.
A highlight of the show was "The Lie," one of the tracks from the new album, which Dave was developing on the road last summer during the tour. Brian plays second guitar on this, and gets to do the "Sunshine of Your Love" riff. This one is destined to become a fan favorite. It is a great song and really fun for me to see how it has become so much stronger since I last heard it played last summer. Another highlight was Jim Laspesa's fab drumming on "Tired of Waiting."
There was one warmup band called Sirsy, a four piece fronted by a female singer/flute player, who played rock with a jazzy flavor. They were good.
While Concert Going Partner and I were waiting outside before the show, Dave's girlfriend/road manager Kate came out to say hi, and after a few minutes of conversation, went back inside and returned with complimentary copies of the new CD Bug for both of us. We were thrilled to receive this unexpected and generous gift and were very excited to show off the CD to other fans and even to members of the band. The CD is so new even the band members hadn't seen it yet.
More Dave
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