2008 Recap- #2 Ray Davies

Okay, I'll finish my 2008 list and put it to bed.

#2- Ray Davies, Working Man's Cafe and 12/11/08 at Higher Ground:

Everyone should know I'm a big Kinks fan, from back when I started listening to music. And even though I missed out on the boys from about 1993-2000 (funny how that coincides with my 'wasted youth' years), they are now again in major rotation in my life. Ray put out arguably one of his best records since the early 80's last spring, Working Man's Cafe. Another wistful look back like Village Green a bit, with his solid publican attitude. Ray also wrote some great stuff reflecting on life itself, particularly "Morphine Song" which deals with his recovery after being shot by a mugger in New Orleans maybe five years ago. In general, a really solid record.
So when I see Ray is making a rare Vermont stop on his short winter tour, I was pretty psyched. I hadn't seen Ray since '91 or '92, missing his local/regional stops while I was in my twenties. In spite of the show's promotion and a really shitty snow/ice storm that night, he nearly packed the house. Starting the set as an acoustic duo, he pulled out some killer material, reaching back to the Kinks' Golden Years for tracks like "I Need You", "I'm Not Like Everybody Else", and "See My Friends", among others. As his touring band members trickled out on stage song-by sonhg the intimate duo morphed into a full band and filed the set with selections from the new albums (including tracks off 2005's Other People's Lives) mixed with older classics. "Celluloid Heroes" was performed so well I damn near weeped, and the only bugger I had was that they could have dropped "Apeman" and pulled out "Shangri-La" which has been played at some other shows on the tour. All in all, a great night and one of my top ten shows ever.

Set List