Tag: ray davies

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Dave Davies at Evanston Space

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In 2003, I saw a cool concert by Dave Davies of the Kinks at the Abbey Pub,  but a year later, the news came that he’d suffered a stroke. I wondered if I’d ever get the chance to see him perform again. Eight years later, Davies returned to Chicago, playing Monday, Nov. 18, at City Winery and Tuesday, Nov. 19, at Evanston Space. I saw Tuesday’s show.

Davies has recovered from his stroke well enough to play the guitar again and record new music — including the recent album I Will Be Me. (The Chicago Tribune’s Mark Caro recently interviewed Davies about his album and tour.)

Davies played a few of his solo songs on Tuesday, but he largely stuck with old Kinks classics. He performed his own songwriting contributions to the Kinks catalog (“Strangers,” “Death of a Clown” and “Living on a Thin Line”), but most of the songs were written by Dave’s brother, Ray. However, it feels like Dave has a stake in their ownership, too. The sibling similarity in their vocals is unmistakable, and Dave is the one who played the famous riffs on “You Really Got Me” and other hits.

Dave’s voice was a bit ragged at moments, and his guitar playing isn’t as fleet as it once was, but these were respectable renditions of the old songs, and it was touching to see this key player from one of the truly great rock bands taking the stage again and giddily proclaiming, “I’m having a great time!”

Dave and Ray have had a contentious relationship over the years. (In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Dave said of his brother: “But I have to thank him, because if he wasn’t so fucking horrible to me I wouldn’t have understood more about life. When he was a real cunt to me all those years ago I took up astrology so I could understand why people behave like that.”)

On Tuesday, Dave said, “I want to dedicate this song to my dear brother Ray,” before playing “Young and Innocent Days,” from the 1969 Kinks album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire). It sounded heartfelt as Dave sang Ray’s words: “I see the lines across your face/Time has gone and nothing ever can replace/Those great, so great/Young and innocent days.”

So, what about it, guys? Will Ray and Dave ever play together again? I hope so.

SET LIST: I’m Not Like Everybody Else / I Need You / She’s Got Everything / Little Green Amp / Tired of Waiting for You / See My Friends / Strangers / Flowers in the Rain / Death of a Clown / The Healing Boy / Young and Innocent Days / Dead End Street / Living on a Thin Line / Where Have All the Good Times Gone / All Day and All of the Night / ENCORE: You Really Got Me

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Ray Davies at the Chicago Theatre

Belatedly catching up now on something I intended to blog about earlier…

The legendary Kinks frontman and one of the all-time great rock songwriters, Ray Davies, performed a pretty delightful concert Nov. 11 at the Chicago Theatre. His new record, See My Friends, is one of those concept duet albums, featuring various stars singing or performing together with Davies on classic Kinks songs. Thankfully, the concert was just Davies and his backup musicians.

The show began with Davies playing eight and a half songs in mostly acoustic versions, backed by guitarist Bill Shanley. This intimate section of the show was really the high point of the night for me, packed with fantastic songs such as “Waterloo Sunset.” The half song was “Victoria,” which led into Davies reading a short bit of his autobiography, which led into “20th Century Man” as the full band took the stage. Davies’ band this time was The 88, who did a good job of sounding like the Kinks, keeping things a little bit loose as they nimbly responded to Davies’ occasional pauses to banter in the middle of songs. The 88 also played a nice opening set of somewhat Kinks-esque pop-rock songs.

As much as I enjoy hearing Davies talk about his songs and make jokes, at times his banter awkwardly interrupted the music. When Davies and his band ripped into the more rocking numbers, such as “You Really Got Me,” this 67-year-old Davies bounced around the stage like a much younger man.

Davies jested that he would fine himself $5 every time he mentioned the Kinks, but in truth, this show was essentially Davies doing a Kinks concert without the rest of the Kinks. He played only one of his recent solo songs (“Imaginary Man”), instead performing an excellent cross-section of the Kinks’ vast catalogue. At one point, someone in the crowd shouted out, “Where’s Dave?”

“Where’s Dave?” Davies replied. “Asleep. When he’s asleep, he can’t do any damage.”

A good-natured barb aimed at his brother. But it really would be nice to see Ray and Dave Davies playing together onstage again someday.

SET LIST: I Need You / I’m Not Like Everybody Else / Sunny Afternoon / Dedicated Follower of Fashion / Waterloo Sunset / See My Friends / Apeman / A Long Way From Home / Victoria (excerpt) + reading from X-Ray / 20th Century Man / David Watts / This Is Where I Belong / Where Have All the Good Times Gone / Till the End of the Day / Nothin’ in the World Can Stop Me Worrying ’Bout That Girl / Too Much on My Mind / All Day and All of the Night / Misfits / Full Moon / Celluloid Heroes / Imaginary Man / Muswell Hillbilly / You Really Got Me / ENCORE 1: Low Budget / ENCORE 2: Lola

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My Morning Jacket and Ray Davies at Taste of Chicago

JULY 4, 2006
TASTE OF CHICAGO, GRANT PARK

Just another concert by the world’s greatest rock band… Well, at least, one of the greatest. Jim James and company were in fine form, with some nice song choices (stuff from At Dawn that they haven’t played so much in recent years) and Andrew Bird joining MMJ onstage with his violin on a few songs. Now that they’ve played to hordes at Bonaroo and the throngs at Taste of Chicago, I sure hope they’re winning a lot of new fans.

Ray Davies was the headliner, and unfortunately, the security people running the Taste seemed unaware of the fact that a lot of MMJ fans left before Davies started. The result: empty seats. Meanwhile, people were lined up, wanting to get in. Without the seats as full as they should have been, the reception for Davies initially seemed a little muted. I enjoyed this performance, but not as much as Davies’ show this spring at the Vic. Maybe the longer format of the Vic concert just gave him more time to throw in more Kinks songs, including more obscurities. The songs from Davies’ solo record sounded OK, but they weren’t nearly as thrilling as “I’m Not Like Everybody Else.” The crowd stuck around for a while after Davies did his “You Really Got Me” encore, hoping maybe for a second encore and “Lola.” But it was not to be.

The first act of the afternoon was Mike Doughty, the former Soul Coughing lead singer. Now, this is someone I’ve been hearing about for years without ever paying much attention to the music. I wasn’t impressed. Too Dave Matthews-y for my tastes, though I’ve heard worse.

One of the highlights of this whole afternoon was watching the sign-language chicks standing at the side of the stage, offering their sign-language interpretations of the lyrics – at least, the lyrics that they knew or could make out. They also did a lot of air guitar and drumming motions when the bands weren’t singing. They were cute, and frequently grinning as if they realized how silly the whole thing might appear.