The Verve @ The Theatre at Madison Square Garden: Never Drop Acid of a Wednesday

No longer does Richard Ashcroft have to pimp out Verve tunes with his backing musicians on a solo tour. He can get his old mates, The Verve, to do it for him.

Welcome back, guys. Although, you would never have guessed that these lads have been on hiatus for a decade. They look and sound like they've been going strong since 1991. I'm always skeptical of reunion shows because they are mainly done for paychecks. Tonight, I didn't get a sense at all that this was one of those "cash a paycheck" reunion shows. Ashcroft made no references about reunions or getting back or "it's been so long" speech. He just showed up to blow your mind.

Amazing amazing amazing show. Me and Jason from ProductShop NYC kept on looking at each other between songs with the expression, "Man, this is fucking great."

The setlist:

• A New Decade
• Sonnet
• This Is Music
• Space & Time
• Life's An Ocean
• Already There
• Weeping Willow
• Sit and Wonder
• The Rolling People
• Gravity Grave
• Velvet Morning
• Drugs Don't Work
• Lucky Man
• Come On
• Encore: Bittersweet Symphony
• Love Is Pain

I can't over-emphasize how on point their performance was. Ashcroft has the best voice from the 90s BritPop/Rock era and tonight his voice is as fluid and soul-stirring as his last performance in 2006 at Webster Hall. This was my first time seeing The Verve, so I got to see Nick McCabe and all his guitar glory. It wouldn't be a band without him in the line-up.

While The Verve are not an arena rock band in the Oasis vein, they are more a spiritually uplifting band with songs about strength, hope and devotion. It's important to note that most of their music is based on the Northern Soul movement from 1970s England. They are from Wigan, the epicenter of that scene, so they are more about moving the mind than the body.

The show felt like a spiritual revival with people holding their hands above their heads as if they are praising the high power of The Verve. It was also good to see that the band themselves are enjoying being together again, with Ashcroft looking over at McCabe and being marveled by his guitar skills. Again, you would have never guessed that these guys took such a long break.

A new album from them this year should be interesting, considering Ashcroft's solo work has been a subdued, more romantic affair. Since Urban Hymns came out in 1997, so much has happened to British music. You have Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs revitalizing the BritPop era, Bloc Party bringing dance rock into the fold, Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines doing their brand of post-punk rock and slew of 80s-revivalist bands infusing the British music scene. It will be great to have The Verve remind people that rock music can stir the soul and can have influences beyond The Smiths, Blur and The Clash.

 

Comments

[tv]

It was a great show but I'm pretty sure they did not play gravity grave on Tuesday (they did play it on Monday).

[Martin]

they played man called sun on tuesday. show was good. not enough songs from storm in heavan or northern soul.

[andrew]

I don't see the limitation of The Clash as an influence... they had about every influence around on their music.