Post by Smiley on Apr 4, 2008 23:40:46 GMT -5
By JASON MacNEIL - Special to Sun Media
TORONTO - As Paul McCartney has done for the last few years on stage, The Kinks' Ray Davies has also found a rather youthful fountain to feed from.
The 63-year-old singer and guitarist is currently touring behind his new solo album Working Man's Cafe. Yet while playing a few tracks off the record before a predominantly graying but highly enthusiastic near-capacity crowd at The Music Hall in Toronto, Davies and his young backing band rekindled the fire and energy of The Kinks' early (and later) nuggets.
With the sounds of Louisiana zydeco introducing him, Davies and his four-piece band opened the two-part, two-hour (including a 20-minute intermission) set of two dozen songs with I'm Not Like Everybody Else. Encouraging the crowd to sing along and be willing participants, Davies went straight into the early garage-meets-Brit rock track Where Have All The Good Times Gone from the album The Kink Kontroversy that garnered another standing ovation from the faithful.
"It's good to be here in Toronto," Davies said before asking if there were any sinners in the audience. Judging by the rowdiness of some, including one who apparently got tossed for wanting to pick a fight, the sinners were aplenty.
Although The Kinks haven't toured since 1996, rumors have the group reuniting at some point. Yet given the legendary acrimony between Ray and his younger brother Dave (still recovering from a 2004 stroke), it might be best to hear the oldies with the passion, intensity and flair they were meant to be played with, something these new musicians gave Ray Davies in spades on this night.
Following a groovy, Booker T. & The MGs-like effort entitled The Tourist, Davies, briefly returning to the stage with a Union Jack jacket, received the evening's only jeers when he turned the jacket inside out to reveal the American flag. The boos went away by the time Working Man's Cafe and A Well Respected Man (popular again thanks to the Juno soundtrack) arrived. The lean rocking 20th Century Man with Davies doing some quick jumps closed the 40-minute first half.
Part two started quite subdued, with a stool for Davies to perform some acoustic-driven songs such as One More Time and This Is Where I Belong, the latter covered by Ron Sexsmith (in attendance) for a 2002 Davies/The Kinks tribute album entitled This Is Where I Belong.
While the energy dissipated for the early part of the second half, all Davies had to do was toss out a Kinks ditty and the audience went gaga as was the case with the breezy, strolling Sunny Afternoon, Tired Of Waiting For You and the terribly catchy Come Dancing.
Thanking Dave Davies for his guitar work on The Kinks signatures, Ray Davies and crew lit into All Day And All Of The Night with plenty of punch as the audience leapt to their feet. Having played it literally hundreds of times could make such a tune quite stale, but all five nailed their parts with Davies doing a few more jumps, showing no ill effects of getting shot in the leg in New Orleans in early 2004.
Quickly returning for an encore, and delivering a snippet of Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, Davies dished out a couple more warhorses such as Lola and offering up a very unique roadhouse blues take on You Really Got Me before delivering it in proper Kinks style.
TORONTO - As Paul McCartney has done for the last few years on stage, The Kinks' Ray Davies has also found a rather youthful fountain to feed from.
The 63-year-old singer and guitarist is currently touring behind his new solo album Working Man's Cafe. Yet while playing a few tracks off the record before a predominantly graying but highly enthusiastic near-capacity crowd at The Music Hall in Toronto, Davies and his young backing band rekindled the fire and energy of The Kinks' early (and later) nuggets.
With the sounds of Louisiana zydeco introducing him, Davies and his four-piece band opened the two-part, two-hour (including a 20-minute intermission) set of two dozen songs with I'm Not Like Everybody Else. Encouraging the crowd to sing along and be willing participants, Davies went straight into the early garage-meets-Brit rock track Where Have All The Good Times Gone from the album The Kink Kontroversy that garnered another standing ovation from the faithful.
"It's good to be here in Toronto," Davies said before asking if there were any sinners in the audience. Judging by the rowdiness of some, including one who apparently got tossed for wanting to pick a fight, the sinners were aplenty.
Although The Kinks haven't toured since 1996, rumors have the group reuniting at some point. Yet given the legendary acrimony between Ray and his younger brother Dave (still recovering from a 2004 stroke), it might be best to hear the oldies with the passion, intensity and flair they were meant to be played with, something these new musicians gave Ray Davies in spades on this night.
Following a groovy, Booker T. & The MGs-like effort entitled The Tourist, Davies, briefly returning to the stage with a Union Jack jacket, received the evening's only jeers when he turned the jacket inside out to reveal the American flag. The boos went away by the time Working Man's Cafe and A Well Respected Man (popular again thanks to the Juno soundtrack) arrived. The lean rocking 20th Century Man with Davies doing some quick jumps closed the 40-minute first half.
Part two started quite subdued, with a stool for Davies to perform some acoustic-driven songs such as One More Time and This Is Where I Belong, the latter covered by Ron Sexsmith (in attendance) for a 2002 Davies/The Kinks tribute album entitled This Is Where I Belong.
While the energy dissipated for the early part of the second half, all Davies had to do was toss out a Kinks ditty and the audience went gaga as was the case with the breezy, strolling Sunny Afternoon, Tired Of Waiting For You and the terribly catchy Come Dancing.
Thanking Dave Davies for his guitar work on The Kinks signatures, Ray Davies and crew lit into All Day And All Of The Night with plenty of punch as the audience leapt to their feet. Having played it literally hundreds of times could make such a tune quite stale, but all five nailed their parts with Davies doing a few more jumps, showing no ill effects of getting shot in the leg in New Orleans in early 2004.
Quickly returning for an encore, and delivering a snippet of Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, Davies dished out a couple more warhorses such as Lola and offering up a very unique roadhouse blues take on You Really Got Me before delivering it in proper Kinks style.
