by glokstadt » Sat Jan 26, 2008 6:44 am
Bruce Foxton has to one of the gods of bass playing, he and Rick Buckler along with Hugh Cromwell (lead singer of The Strangles, who opened the show as well--see below) put on such an awesome show, all my friends and I during the gig, and afterwards didn't even care that Paul wasn't up there playing, as the band exploded the set with "In The City" followed by "The Modern World!" It was a fuckin' "youth explosion!" Good to see the young kids in the crowd mixing it up with us old farts.
Rick was tight all night on the skins, Bruce nimble as ever and power chording/kicking/jumping, these two old farts still have plenty of gas in 'em... Russell Hastings (vocals, guitar) played all the rhythm guitar and sang some of the lead vocals (Paul Weller fill-in guy, but he was excellent!), as Bruce sang the majority of songs, and some younger guy was on lead guitar playing all the signature riffs and solos, as well as on keyboards (Dave Moore), but was in the background, behind Bruce and to the side of Rick's kit.
The sound was great at the House of Blues in Anaheim--which surprised me, and it's located right inside of "Downtown Disney."
The rest of the set never waned in energy, angst, power, or intensity... even intensifying as the set move on, or maybe it was just us in the crown, I was up front, standing behind my friends who were right at the barricade.
They Played (and not in order that I can remember!): In The City, The Modern World, Art School, Private Hell, Start!, Ghosts, Strange Town, Little Boy Soldiers (One of my all-time favorites!), All Around the World, David Watts (Kinks cover), So Sad About Us (Who cover), News of the World, Down in the Tube Station at Midnight, When You're Young (Didn't We Have a Nice Time), The Eton Rifles, Going Underground, Funeral Pyre, Just Who Is the 5 O’Clock Hero?, and another two or three I can't remember right now... an awesome set!
The encore was "Town Called Malice," and then they closed the curtains down quickly.
All in all it was an awesome gig!!! IMHO they sounded just the same as when I saw them last in 1981 at Perkins Palace in Pasadena. It doesn’t seem to be any loss without Weller.
I'm paying for that gig right now, got home at 4 a.m. woke up at Noon--lost my voice from yelling, had too many beers, as all my old mod/scooter/skinheads friends from Club Impact and the scene were buying--pogoed the entire set, now all my muscles hurt especially shoulders and thighs right above my knees–I'm not 17/18 anymore, but I was last night, even if it was for only 2 hours!!! [:)]
The best part was hooking up with people I haven't seen in anywhere from 12 to 25 years! And the fact that Jay from Club Impact has some kind of connection and had 50 free Comp tickets, so we all had more money to spend on beer and drinks... I still was going to pay anyway, so now I can purchase for tonight, if I can crawl out of the house...[:p]
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