Wednesday, January 31, 2007

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Michael, Nina and I went to the Paul Weller show at Irving Plaza last night. He was his usual self -- fantastic. That said, though, the whole billing of the show as a Style Council night was more than a tad bit misleading. He came out and did a handful of Style Council classics -- a rocking version of "Speak Like a Child," "Shout to the Top," and "Long Hot Summer" among them -- but then proceeded to perform for a good two hours without one other song by his former band. Don't get me wrong -- he's got a lot of great solo material, and the inclusion of Jam classics "That's Entertainment," "The Butterfly Collector" and "Town Called Malice" (as an encore) were appreciated, but the whole reason his three nights sold out in 5 minutes was because they were billed as individual nights of various stages of his career. During the 20 minutes he devoted solely to TSC I felt like I'd been transported back to high school and was 17 again. And it wasn't just me -- the whole crowd sang along with every one of those songs. It was a magical moment that, for whatever reason, Paul isn't able to fully appreciate.

Great show -- but left me wanting (way) more (of what we paid for) ...

UPDATE: It seems I'm not alone in my disgust. (Krucoff)
RELATED: The Whole Point of No Return (my preview)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I was there on Tuesday - I ran across your blog while searching for the setlist and was struck by how much it echoed my feelings. I have been in a literal fever about this show, and I have to say, when Weller sat down at the piano and started playing the super obscure "Its a Very Deep Sea" I thought I was going to pass out. And it sounded amazing, even without DC. The first 30 minutes of the show were surreal to me, seeing songs live that I never never thought I would. I would be lying if I said I didn't get teary eyed during Long Hot Summer! Suddenly I was 15 years old and locked in my room thinking everyone and everything was horrible EXCEPT Paul Weller and it was amazing. But I agree about the rest of the show being a disappointment. I mean, I love Weller solo, but I've seen that show plenty of times and would not have travelled from North Carolina to see it. I was there for Style Council, and the fact that he didn't even do a Council encore completely killed me. Do you think he just doesn't have any idea how many Council fans are out there? Or doesn't care?