Adam Lambert and the Mix List week of May 18th, 2009; Best Sets Ever # 7
A Change Is Going To Come – Adam LambertHe was a standby for the road production of “Wicked” which, if not making him and amateur, sure made him a passing fair minor talent when American Idol gave him his chance. Though he lost AI that was as much a demo switch as anything else and on very shaky ground when covering the sainted Sam Cooke, Lambert pours himself into this song and gives an indelible, sexy and powerful performance which deserved to win the AI contest not just this year but every year sinces its inception. The only question left is, neither a rock star nor a broadway star, nor a sould singer, nor a songwriter, what precisely is he going to do with his career?
Peacemaker – Greenday
Another keeper from “Breakdown”, Billie makes like a Rabbi at a Mitzvah warning about Holy Wars. “Hey hey hey hey hey…”
Stillness Is The Move (A Capella) -the dirty Projectors
The buzz is very loud on these guys. : “Time Out” claim listening to their up coming sophomore effort is the equivalent of seeing your first impressionist painting. Well, this is off the new EP and it is nothing of the sort but it is still weird and beautiful. They will be opening for TV On the Radio at Summerstage and I’ll have more to say then.
Talulah – Tori Amos
Extraordinary Machine – Fiona Apple
Tower Of Song – Leonard Cohen
I’m catching X at Bowery Ballroom on friday
I know I promised a Hatfield blog awhile back and I will have a lot to say once I get round to it. Till then listen to the Lemonheads leader and Juliana not quite nail the grevious Angels great song.
Robocop – Kanye West
A year after Ray Davies claimed i knew nothing about his career because I didn’t know who Mick Hucknell was and might well of thrown me out of the interview if not for the presense of my fawning friend Robert Nevin, the Kinks played one of the great sets at the Beacon, March 16th, 1987. Price for an orchestra seat? $18.50.
Pushing the product, a fairly naff album “Think Visual” and with Dave and Ray at peace for awhile, at the end of the set Ray said “Not the best concert we’ve ever given but pretty good.” Pretty good indeed. With the exception of a soft middle of “Visual” songs, the Kinks were on fire. Gone was the soap opera and schoolboy in disgraces of yesteryear and also gone was the rock and roll dream superstars of “Everybody’s In Showbusiness”. instead were a hard rock band with some of the greatest songs in the rock idiom (for some reason the Kinks are easy to forget, why didn’t I mention them in my greatest albums ever? Did I have NO ROOM for “Something Else” or “Village green Preservation Society”why not???) they concluded with “You really Got Me” and “Victoria” and played with the conviction of a band that ruled the airways.
