Paul Weller...

On Friday night Ben and I went to go and see Paul Weller (on Broadway!)...

It was the first of two nights at the Best Buy Theatre on 42nd Street, right off Times Square. It was a pretty swanky venue, it felt a bit like we were going into a cinema, going down the escalators into a carpeted lobby and bar area and then walking into the actual gig room - where there were cinema-esq seats at the back and big modern chandeliers... it was pretty posh.

It was a surprisingly intimate gig space too, especially for seeing someone like Paul Weller, who normally does pretty big venues in the UK... I think we're lucky being here and going to see UK people in smaller venues. We'd never get to see someone like Noel Gallagher in as small a venue as we did here.

The crowd seemed predominantly middle aged ex-pat men, I have a feeling I may have been the youngest person there, but it was a nice crowd - no leery drunken, football holiganish behavior to be seen... phew!

The first hour of the gig was Paul Weller's new album, played beginning to end, no talking in the middle of songs (and no 'Hello' either!), it was just like listening to the album live really... and as it was a new album people didn't know all the songs, so it was a bit of a strange atmosphere (I got a wee bit bored really!). It sounded good though, he had a string quartet and his band are great (the guitarist from Ocean Colour Scene plays for him now).

Then, after the last song he said 'Thanks, see you in about 10 minutes'... and there was an interval! I don't think I've been to a gig where there's been an interval before... but it was good, because he came back on and did a little acoustic set...

Him and the rest of his band all played guitars and did a 30 minute acoustic set, playing some of his older solo songs... they sounded fantastic and the crowd were far more responsive to the stuff they knew... it felt like the proper start of the gig.

Half way through the acoustic stuff he said 'We've got a long night ahead of us...' and he wasn't wrong, he ended up playing for 2.5 hours! With two encores!

After the acoustic stuff they started the electric section of the gig...

There were a few songs I'd never heard of, and some pretty lengthy instrumental/guitar solo bits, but he played some songs like From The Floorboards Up which sounded great.

He played a few Jam songs, including In The City which apparently he never plays. He had played a tiny gig at what used to be CBGB the night before on the anniversary of the Jam's first US gig and so had dusted off In The City especially...

Then the bass player played THAT riff, that everyone was waiting to hear...

It was a good night - I think he could have skipped the first hour, but hearing him play You Do Something To Me, Out Of The Sinking, From The Floorboards Up and of course A Town Called Malice was absolutely amazing and he sounded great too!