Dick!

I'm excited to write my first blog entry from my spanking new MacBook Pro. It's Heaven and dammit am I one happy lad getting this new bitch into shape. It's been a relentless schedule since we last spoke. Irene's back from Miami, work is insane, and gigs are aplenty.

Webster Hall was the place to be this week for us Brithop lovers. The first night saw Mr. RICHARD ASHCROFT aka Dickie take a break from his opening slot on the Coldplay tour to play his only US solo show this year right down the block. This is one of those shows where I truly appreciate living in NYC. The night before, I watched Dickie perform BREAK THE NIGHT WITH COLOUR on Conan O'Brien. I am a huge fan of Dickie, but this performance almost bordered on parody. He was crazy cheesy and put his wife in a chair onstage and then made out with her during the song. Um, this was a bit much. Even for me. But it's Dickie, what can you do?

Well, you can go to his gig and see him be fucking AMAZING. All my fears were immediately squashed as Dickie, backed with a full band (including a saxiphonist/flutist), opened with the best song from his new album, the title track KEYS TO THE WORLD and then led into the Verve classic SONNET. And this was the pattern, playing the best of his solo material (SCIENCE OF SILENCE, MUSIC IS POWER) and then peppering it with the right Verve songs (HISTORY, LUCKY MAN). Some of the newer songs led to some slow moments, but they couldn't take away from that Dickie is stil fucking insane and still awesome. He just has it and godammit does he still mean it. He's a bit older, a lot happier, but he still sings these songs like it's the last time he will ever sing. We even got an encore that contained The Verve's SPACE AND TIME, which he claimed he hasn't played in years and his song with UNKLE, LONELY SOUL which he perofrmed solo with a backing track. And somehow this all worked! Dickie's in between song banter is as always funny and intense and his comments about airport security searching his 2 year old song led to some strong statements and a very funny impersonation of an American accent. Dickie also was very appreciative of the crowd and really delivered what for me is gig of the year candidate.

One of last years breakouts, Editors, came back to NY the night after Dickie at the same venue. Irene and I were very curious as to how they would be in a much larger venue and with less the anticipation and chaos of the last gig here (see previous MOGblog entry). Since that last gig, I had gotten into thier singles, B-sides, rarities and found myself really appreciating them and seeing them beyong the Joy Division comparisons (which are fair on record, but less so live and with their B-sides). Anyhow, I was tired, but excited to see if these kids could bring it again.

It was a very different gig than the last time. They had much larger space and had a lot of seasoning and seemed to fill that space really well. They had an appreciative crowd and they fed off of it and the intensity we enjoyed so much last time once again was on display and again, we they have the talent to justify the hype. The set list varied slightly from last time, but they knew when to place the songs and added the right B-sides to flesh things out. An encore containing two new songs showed some steps forward and like when we heard Kasabian play future songs like 55 and STUNTMAN, i found myself looking forward to following these guys in the future.

Sorry this was slow to write, as we have found ourselves returning quite a bit to streets of Stewart Manor as we've been attending various services for Evan's mom. We decided to counter these sad events by revisiting the haunts of our youth. Our first stop last night as the TGIFRIDAYS on Sunrise Highway, in which a younger Lurch made his living back in the 90's. He was your host and would often bring tons of food home, to G, The Kidd and I in our unemployed days. This was a fun evening as we reminiced about what Irene often refers to as our "thug years" (something my nephew loves to hear about). Today's fun was when Lurch "Declared Han" which is a declaration no one can say no to as it means you MUST go to Benihana. This is obviously the good shit, especially now in our older and employed years we are able to order things that include Lobster tails and filet mignon. I believe we all went home and passed out and G (now known by the way as G Muhammad) couldnt even leave Stewart Manor as the streets have called to him.

It's been a rough week, but it's Wrestlemania weekend and yours truly is lying around watching the Hall of Fame and hoping Bret Hart gets his due tonight. More gigs are ahead, as we are checking out Gorillaz on Monday night and we just grabbed tix to see Nine Inch Nails with special guest Bauhaus (!) this summer. Who knows what that will be like?

F