Earlier this week, intern Seth Fiegerman, acting wholly on his own, attended a concert. While we devise the appropriate response, you may read his report:
On Monday night, I saw The Verve perform at the first of their two concerts in Madison Square Garden. Richard Ashcroft, the pretentious yet affable lead singer, walked onstage wearing a full raincoat with the hood up. Ten minutes later, the coat was off, as were his shoes, socks and most of his shirt.
“Time obviously hasn’t made us any less psychedelic,” Ashcroft announced to the audience. “Just more weird.”
The Verve broke up in 1999 at the peak of their popularity, after having just released their third album Urban Hymns, which featured the huge international hit, “Bittersweet Symphony.” This was not the first time the band dissolved, but it certainly seemed like it would be the last. Over the summer, the band announced they were reuniting for a tour and eventually a new album. Last week, they played their first show in America in nearly a decade, performing at the Coachella festival in California.
The band’s repertoire ranges from druggy jams (their early work) to more down-and-out rock ballads (later work). Throughout all their songs, themes of love and loss are balanced by a belief in the redeeming power of music.
Ashcroft carries himself onstage like a shaman summoning spirits. Even after their lengthy hiatus, he still performs with the kind of raw passion that makes you think he just wrote the songs a moment earlier in the dressing room. The lead guitarist, Nick McCabe, who left the band in 1997 because he was tired of touring, doesn’t move around much on stage. But he makes up for it with his killer guitar solos and the way he plays around with the effects.
In the years since their breakup, The Verve developed a legacy as having been one of the greatest and most influential British rock groups of the 90s. Perhaps if they can stay together long enough, they will leave their mark on the next decade as well. But catch them now anyway, just in case their reunion gets cut short.
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