Pynchon

Let's try this again, shall we?

Happy Summer Solstice to all you all. Sadly I have been unable to book a dwarf to dance naked around a rock in my back garden at sunrise, but I hope to manage it next year.

Where was I? Oh, yes. Events.

On Monday evening Graham and I went to see INXS at the Symphony Hall.



At this juncture let me direct you here and here for Graham's pretty good reviews of the gig.

It's a cop out, but what is there to add? Very little.

At the present time, with shaven head and goatee, Graham does look very much like Rob Halford of Judas Priest. At one point Graham demonstrated his psycho stare. Actually, very much like his normal stare, but I was too scared to say. The pink tie dye shirt was also a bit disturbing.

We talked about some private things. Very mysterious. We also had a good moan. I think we both like the odd snarl at the world.

The gig.

We missed all of the first band except for their last song, which featured the lyrics "sex you up, sex you up". Graham said they sounded a bit like Ocean Colour Scene, but I didn't get that myself.

What we saw of The English Beat (we were in the bar, where else? "A pint of Strongbow and a Becks please, my good man!") was really good and they played my favourite song of theirs ("Save It For Later", which was never a hit, scandalous!) at the very end of their set. Brilliant. Dave Wakeling may be a little more... er... rotund, these days, but he sang exactly the same as he did in the early 80's. Great pop/ska band; underrated even when they were having hits. Like I said, brilliant.

INXS, and new singer J. D. Fortune, were really, really good. I was surprised because it could have been the lamest spectacle in the entire world. I mean, think about it. A bunch of middle aged rockers, having frankly seen better days, recruit a new lead singer (the original singer - a great front man, by the way - having died whilst having a wank) from a reality show. They then have the gall to go on tour with this impostor, performing the original hits sold so brilliantly by the original singer, and hope that the punters would not notice the difference.

It couldn't work. Could it?

It did work. It worked very well. It was a great show. Great musicianship and great songs. I forgot how many great songs INXS had recorded. You know them. "What You Need", "Need You Tonight", "Never Tear Us Apart", "Suicide Blonde", "Mystify", "New Sensation", "Taste It", "Disappear". They played some new stuff that I didn't know that sounded like, and as good as, the old stuff.

J. D. Fortune obviously has an image of how a rock star should behave. Moves had been carefully digested and studied and adapted. Nothing wrong with that. You can only adapt what has worked before and your own style will come in time. I think it worked, as well. J. D. Fortune was a rock star. He smoked and drank onstage. He wore jeans so tight that Paris Hilton would balk at trying to fit into them. He also, crucially, sang and performed brilliantly. He glided and prowled across the stage. He shook his ass. He connected with the audience and he sold the songs. Yes, it was very slick, and I'm sure every move had been completely thought through, but it was great.

I don't see any reason why INXS could not be a big, worldwide band again. All it would take would be another hit and they could be away.

I was going to write a review of "Ne Le Dis à Personne", but I have run out of time. I will do it tomorrow.

Labels: Gigs