I expected the show to be good, even great. But Paul Weller was off the hook last night at the Nokia Theatre. It was a relentless musical assault with barely enough time to catch your breath between songs.
Touring behind his new CD and possibly my favorite record of the year, "22 Dreams," Weller and company looked as if they were having the time of their lives, with Weller dancing, jumping and windmilling through most of the performance. The album itself plays like a Paul Weller history lesson, with each song representing an influence on Weller--acoustic folk, northern soul and British psychedelia-- and last night's set drew heavily from this brilliant new release.
The crowd was more than receptive to the new material, with many singing along to soon-to-be classics like "Sea Spray" and the great first single, Bitterest Pill-rewrite "All I Wanna Do Is Be With You." An inspired "Shout To The Top" brought the crowd to it's fe....ok, we were already standing. But if we were sitting, "Shout To The Top" would have brought us to our feet. A slow grooving "Wildwood" and a revved-up "Come On/Let's Go" ended the set and made way for special guest Kelley Jones of the Stereophonics, who joined the band for the encores of "That's Entertainment," "Eton Rifles." and The Beatles, "All You Need Is Love."
A great performance from a great man with a great new album.
Click here to a listen to a great acoustic version of the great"Brand New Start," from the Wiltern Theatre last week. Uh...great. I thank you.
5 comments:
so...i guess that means you liked the show...and i suppose you and paul are best friends now, too...
i love paul. though i did not have the same enthusiasm for the show at the Nokia. it seemed like a bit of a routine performance. the sound the was lousy, really lousy and i thought the venue just a bit too big, which created some sterility.
i was lucky enough to go to last night's show at the Highline Ballroom. i was surprised how small the place is. this performance was sublime. way more energy and audience interaction. a fantastic show.
by the way, the warm-up band Rifles are quite good. never saw them before.
elisa
Well, it sounds like Mr. Yank Hatin' Weller has changed his Yank Hatin' ways. Glad you liked the show. But did Ty bring along a Zagnut for you to eat?
Didn't have a chance to share a Zagnut. Ty bolted after Weller said, "HELLO NEW YORK!"
OK, here's a thought. How about telling us what concert tickets you're buying this week? That way, when you post a review of a show and tell us how it changed your life, I'll feel forewarned when a month or two ago you told me, 'Hey, these tickets just went on sale and I would't miss this show for the world.' I'm not suggesting I would actually buy tickets myself, but at least when your rave review comes out I can only blame myself. (Similarly, I hate notices of concerts happening this upcoming week, because all the good gigs are typically sold out already. It onl helps to mention your interest when tickets first go on sale.)
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