Paul Weller - Irving Plaza

Whew! Sorry for the late posting today, but work CAN be a bitch sometimes.

Paul Weller last night – opening night of his 3 night stand at Irving Plaza. A hugely white male 30+ crowd in attendance, roaring their approval as soon as Paul stepped onstage with his band.

But subverting expectations (mine, anyway), Paul sat on a stool with his acoustic guitar and started strumming The Jam’s jazzbop number “Shopping” to start the set. What a weird and wonderful choice! “Shopping” was the B-side to the Jam’s last single “Beat Surrender”, and in choosing to open with it, Weller set the mood that it was his night and he would choose what he wanted to play. No wonder he was always so loved in America (note sarcasm). Anyone expecting the stop-go rhythms of “Start” to kick things off better step aside.


(photo by atease.)

“Tales from the Riverbank” “The Butterfly Collector” (I think?) and “That’s Entertainment” followed before he even grabbed his electric guitar. The sold-out crowd was lapping every bit of it up.

Other songs from Weller’s Jam days included were a rousing “Running from the Spot”; a too slow “Thick as Thieves” (which was still better than no “Thick as Thieves”); and from the beloved All Mod Cons LP, a fantastic “In the Crowd” and a absolutely gorgeous “English Rose” which Weller rendered solo on the acoustic.

Then Weller said “Alright, that’s enough of the past; let’s get to the modern day”. And with that comment, it became a Paul Weller solo show. Loads of tracks from his catalogue and most recent CDs, including “The Changing Man”, “You Do Something to Me”, “Sunflower”, “C’mon/Let’s Go” and many others found on Hit Parade, Weller’s new greatest hits comp. (By the way, didn’t anyone at the record company realize that The Wedding Present used this title long ago??).

There will be those who will grouse that it “wasn’t all Jam songs” but that was never the point – it was a night of music from the man who led one of England’s greatest bands, and he played some of the nuggets for those of us there. In fact, it was more of a re-branding exercise for Weller than anything else – tell the punters he’ll play songs from The Jam, and you’ll sell out. Last summer when he was touting his last CD, Weller played the cavernous Roseland Ballroom. I’m not sure how turnout was then, but selling out Irving Plaza three nights in a row must feel better for everyone involved on his end.

-- See more pictures from the gig here.

-- Hear my version of The Jam's "That's Entertainment" at my 12 Covers-12 Months series from 2006 (February cover).

- SPIN also offers up more pix and a review.