Copyright 1993 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
July 28, 1993, Wednesday, City Edition
SECTION: ARTS & FILM; Pg. 24
LENGTH: 876 words
HEADLINE: A great show, as usual, from high-flying Kinks;
MUSIC REVIEW THE KINKS At: Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts, with
Aimee Mann, last night.
BYLINE: By Jim Sullivan, Globe Staff
DATELINE: MANSFIELD
BODY:
If "Kinksian" - as Kinks guitarist Dave Davies
defines it - means never quite fitting in with the crowd, pursuing your
own path, and trying to keep your head held high, last night's performance
by the Kinks at Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts was truly Kinksian.
On the day after Mick Jagger's 50th birthday - and a time when some are
pondering whether Jagger and the Rolling Stones have descended into the
hell of self-parody - the Kinks remain at an artistic high. No signs of
self-parody at all, in part because the Kinks have never based their existence
on burning the eternal flame of youth. The Kinks were mature in their mid-20s
and remain so a couple of decades down the line. Hence, old songs like "All
Day and All of the Night," "Till the End of the Day" and
"You Really Got Me" sound as trenchant as new songs like "Aggravation"
and "Still Searchin' ." Conversely, the new songs don't sound
like the filler between greatest hits. A workable symbiosis.
But the Kinks - these Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famers, these owners of one
of rock's grandest catalogs of songs - drew only 3,500 folks to the outdoor
shed. Criminal, almost. Enough to make one want to raise the tattered old
flag of "God Save the Kinks," a battle cry from the early '70s,
days when it seemed the Kinks would fade away because of lack of interest.
Still, if the boomers have forgotten and the grunge kids don't care, the
Kinks put out, and Kinks singer-songwriter Ray Davies retains the rights
to shuffle the cards at any moment.
He did that at the onset of last night's 95-minute show, by breaking from
the set list and coming out alone to play the wonderful but obscure song
of redemption "Sweet Lady Genevieve" from "Preservation Act
1," followed by a couple of bars from "Do It Again." It was,
in all likelihood, a nod to the recent Cambridge performance of the Kinks'
"Preservation Act 2" rock opera by a group of local musicians.
Mick Maldonado - singer for the Uninvited, Mr. Flash in the local rendition,
the guy who instigated the production - was in the crowd and beside himself.
"It made me warm and tingly all over," he gushed. "I almost
cried." Later, Ray Davies teased "Here Comes Flash" and brother
Dave surprised him with an echo of the introductory guitar riff. Yes, it
was a loose Kinks. Also a warm, friendly and passionate Kinks, which is
to say, it was business as usual but business was good.
One change in the weather was the return of longtime (but MIA) Kinks keyboardist
Ian Gibbons, who joined the tour Monday night in Saratoga, thereby reuniting
"the dwarves." (This is how the diminutive Gibbons and bassist
Jim Rodford refer to themselves; former drummer Mick Avory used to be part
of this elite corps - current skin walloper Bob Henrit is too darn tall.)
Another change was the Kinks bringing in dancers Pat Crosby (Ray's wife)
and Susie Thomas for some impressive work on the sexy, blues-drenched "Sleazy
Town" and the fierce, industrially tinged (no kidding) monster rocker,
"Aggravation."
The Kinks balanced tunes from their latest album "Phobia" (which
is stronger than I'd initially thought) with singalong crowd pleasers like
"Lola," and "Low Budget" and chestnuts like "Apeman,"
"David Watts" and "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?"
Ray Davies - the man of a thousand bad jackets, a guy who can proudly indulge
in a goofball shtick like turning his Union Jack coat inside out into a
Stars and Stripes coat - was nevertheless less clowny than he's been on
past arena tours. No bogus "Lola" teases or endless "Way-O!"
calls.
What do the Kinks mean in 1993? They still yearn for a better world - "I
don't feel safe in this world no more/I don't wanna die in a nuclear war"
in "Apeman" - and, in "Come Dancing," they ask you not
to forget your youthful rock roots. With "Victoria," they chide
and celebrate Britain's tattered empire; with "All of the Day and All
of the Night" they celebrate an endless love that they know, deep down,
will never work. But they celebrate the whole panoply, and it's no chore
to join in.
Memo to the club kids: You may think RuPaul's a pretty sharp gender bender,
but Ray's Lola was pulling that trick before Ru was born. And the Kinks
will likely be pulling their tricks till the end of the millenium.
Opener Aimee Mann was introduced as "Boston's own!" and she confirmed
"I am Boston's own," as she began her 45-minute set, before inquiring
as to whether the crowd that was filtering in was moist. Ahem. It was misting.
Mann and her backing trio then put forth an acoustic-electric set that started
gently and built gracefully. Since her 'Til Tuesday days, Mann has developed
more vocal range; her lyrics remain sharp-edge, often melancholic; her melodies
and harmonies are perhaps even more dead-on than ever. Mann's music glides
smoothly, prettily; the edge comes in the words and the humor comes in the
good natured self-deprecation. Mann's set soared politely; a bit of bitterness
lurking underneath the melodic gliding sound of songs like "Put Me
On Top," "Will She Just Fall Down," and "It Could Have
Been Anyone" A jangly, ringing, sped-up version of TT's "Voices
Carry" closed, and Mann and her men worked in a riff from the Kinks'
"All Day and All of the Night." Nice touch.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO
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