24 hours is all the Las Vegas I can handle, so that is what we scheduled to catch The Verve on Saturday night. The show took place at the Pearl Theater in the Palms Casino, and while I don’t really care about the NBA, I still felt like a d*ck giving my money to the Maloof Bros - owners of the Sacramento Kings and purveyors of crappy fashion (that super-starchy long collared shirt untucked-jeans-dress shoes look that cut-rate mortgage brokers think passes for “dressed up”).
The Bros Maloof’s basketball team may blow, but their concert theater is incredible - possibly the best sound I’ve EVER heard outside of an opera hall, held about 1500, and no seat was further than 120 feet from the stage. It was literally impossible to have a bad/obstructed view.
Now the good stuff… while I wasn’t expecting Richard Ashcroft to be wearing tan Clark’s Wallabies, I was surprised when he walked onstage, took off his boots, and played the entire show barefoot. Great call “Mad Richard”!
Here’s the set-list:
- A New Decade
- Sonnet
- Space In Time
- Life’s An Ocean
- Already There
- Weeping Willow
- Sit & Wonder (new song)
- The Rolling People
- Velvet Morning
- The Drugs Don’t Work
- Lucky Man
- Come On (w/ maracas and tambourine)
- History
- Bittersweet Symphony (which I think he dedicated to Mavis Staples)
- “Love Is Pain” (new song)
The band played great - incredibly tight, great stage presence, and I’m not sure Nick McCabe played a single riff - just free-flowing aural noise, effects, and awesomeness. My only complaint is somewhat petty; I would have liked a few more druggy/noisy/early songs - where was “Gravity Grave”, “Blue”, or “A Man Called Sun”?
I’m still pondering my feelings about the last song - “Love Is Pain”. It had a dance-floor club-anthem vibe, most notably in its New Order-esque drumbeat which Darrick from Innaway described perfectly as a “cheater drumbeat” for its “obviousness” — if that makes sense. It’s a definite departure for Ashcroft and Co., although not necessarily bad - just unexpected. That said, the British “lads” and “birds” in the crowd (of which there were A LOT) were loving this song, so I expect the bubble-club dance floors of Mallorca to be raging to this by summertime - along with MGMT/Justice/Madonna mashups. Check that YouTube link above (or NYC’ers, tell me your thoughts after MSG).
Finally, it seems between Coachella on Friday and Las Vegas on Saturday, Richard Ashcroft found time to dye his blond hair brown again:
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April 28th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Great show! Thanks for posting the set list. A few comments…
One of the employees told me that the Pearl holds 2500. I was surprised to hear its that large. The acoustics were awesome.
I’ve seen The Verve play several times since 1994 and Ashcroft has never worn shoes.
Apparently, Mr Ashcroft had gone back to his natural brown hair color before Coachella.
I, too, was disappointed that the band played just one track from “A Storm in Heaven” and nothing off their debut EP.
I thought that last track sounded really good, but was definitely a departure. I can’t wait to hear the new album.
April 28th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
unless i missed something, they played “This Is Music” and “History” in Vegas also. i was kind of bummed to not have a roadie get my copy of A Storm In Heaven backstage for signing. bouncers didn’t allow for too much time to hang out. the casino was too much of a maze to figure out where on earth they would leave the theater from …
April 28th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
it was a great show! do you know the name of the song that the verve walked out to by any chance??
April 28th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Best part was the adlib during Bittersweet Symphony: “six o’clock already i was just in the middle of a dream, i was kissing valantino by a crystal blue italian stream.”
a little manic monday for youse. possibly an homage to prince, who was playing in the desert a few hundred miles away at the same time?
April 28th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I don’t know the name of that intro, but they came out to it at Blackpool Empress Ballroom in Nov. 2007 (there’s audio of the entire show floating around the ‘net).
I listed History in the set-list. I thought they played This Is Music, but couldn’t remember where in the set…
April 29th, 2008 at 11:52 am
yeah, sorry Chase, i saw History listed after i sent my comment. they played This Is Music after Sonnet, towards the beginning. i’ve seen the Verve twice now, (i’m not counting the McCabe-less version i saw in Ontario way back when because he’s the most important member as far as i’m concerned!), and have to say i preferred this gig in Vegas slightly over Boston 11+ years ago. it was so great being on the floor transfixed on Nick’s guitar playing like i was a decade or so ago …
April 30th, 2008 at 9:21 am
What about “Weeping Willow” being turned into an all out Acid House jam? Or Space and Time ending in soul groove? Rolling People? Or Aschcroft’s dance moves? The new song ruled too: Only Brits can really steal black dance music and make it rock.
April 30th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
FYI, Richard’s hair was dark at Coachella, and two nights before at The Warfield in SF too. : )
April 30th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Nor was he wearing sunglasses at Coachella. That’s an old pic.
April 30th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Absolutely the best I ‘ve seen the boys play.I’ve seen them 5 times during the 90’s in various locations. Maybe it was because they were younger back in those days or maybe just weren’t enjoying themselves.
But saturday night was different .My wife was going nuts. The Verve gave off an incredible amount of energy. They seemed to be happy to back doing what the do best MUSIC.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
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