From: Ajay Sharma
| First off, it was great meeting people from the list.
Gavin, Cole, Cory, Michael, Megan, JDK (show #6!!), and of course, John
Ricci and Amiee. The Venue: The Mayan is REALLY OLD. I saw the Orb there a few months back and it very nice. It's located in downtown LA and it's kinda scary to hang out there but everything was cool with the gig. The Show: I arrived on scene around 8:00 and they opened doors at 7:15. The slideshow before the gig was cool and the "DJ" seemed to be playing all the same songs as the prior gigs (according to JDK), so I think it was just a tape. :( Anyway, Verve started their set with A New Decade at 9:00pm and finished with Come On at 10:30. The Highs: It was really good to see Nick play again. He's really excellent and having Simon Tong there is an added bonus because Nick is free to do more effects and whatnot. Catching the butterfly , Slide Away and the Stormy Clouds/(reprise) combo were the best songs of the night. They really came across well. The Lows: The sound man during History was really horrible. I don't know what happened but it was terrible and you can tell that Richard was annoyed by it. This show was much better than the Palace show in 95 because everyone seemed more into the show. Richard was dancing around and excited to be playing there even though you could tell he was upset at times. |
From: Keith Bacon
| I'll let someone else handle the setlist, but I was happy
we got "Life's An Ocean." Maybe I missed it (I've been deleting a lot of mail from this list without even looking at it) but I'm surprised people haven't mentioned how different the UH songs sound live. Much bigger, but less slick and "produced." Very loud and very much in the vein of ANS. It's almost like the "old Verve" is covering their own new songs. Note: I happen to *like* the way the songs sound on UH, as well as the live interpretations. I also thought it was kind of weird that they barely used the screens at all while playing. Lighting was great, but watching them play in front of big blank screens made it seem like they were the opening band instead of the headliner. My ears are still ringing and probably will be until sometime next week, as I'll be facing the sonic assault again tomorrow. Bummed I missed the pre-meet tonight. Will anyone else be there for Round Two? |
From: Jason
| The best show I have ever seen, the best band in the
world. Great set, Stormy Clouds and Life's an Ocean blew me away as did all
the others. Would have liked to hear more stuff from ASIH, maybe tomarrow night. Was Simon Tong up on stage? I could'nt see from the angle I was at. Did not see one other person with a Rolling People Tee on, was I the only one? Met Ajay for the first time tonight and a couple other people off the list. Hope to see you all in space tomarrow night. BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!! |
From: Matt Brown
| I have to agree with Keith. They were incredible last
night. I was shocked at how Sonnet and DDW rocked as much as they did.
When I heard the first notes of Sonnet, I wasn't happy. I like the song as it appears on UH, but it totally altered the vibe of the show. It brought the show down a notch. I now think that this was good though. They quickly rebuilt the intensity, and Sonnet did rock in its own right. I do not think I could have handled it if they hadn't brought it down and rebuild it. The most amazing thing about this show is that with all of the fantastic reviews that you all have so kindly given us, they still surpassed all expectations (which were high to begin with). I can not complain about a single song that they played. Every one was intense and amazing. The only changes to the set that I would make, would be to add more songs. I did not want this show to end! We did get Slide Away (brilliant), but that was the only old song. I thought that the ANS songs were the highlight. Pete pounded out an amazing rhythm during Stormy Clouds/Reprise. By the way, Marilyn Manson was there (at least Marilyn was, I'm not sure about the rest of the band though) at the far right of the stage. It looked like a V.I.P. section or something. The show was really loud. My ears are ringing, and I wore earplugs (too many loud shows in the past I guess). I met some of the list people before the show... and you all are cool! I hope to see you guys at Hank's again tonight. Maybe I'll get to talk to more of you tonight. It is one thing to convert a non-believer, but last night they took a fanatical believer and made me even more of a fanatic! They truely ARE the greatest band in the world! |
From: Richard Harrigan
| First. let me say this - the Verve are the best band in the world. Now, I know this is gonna get me creamed but last night's show did not reach the heights that it should have and it was all because of the sound. It was the worst I've ever heard at a show. Don't get me wrong, The Verve performed brilliantly and Nick, as always, was beyond words; but the sound was terrible!!! The guitar was not even close to being clear enough and many of Nick's excursions were muffled. The drums sounded dead, as if they were hitting a wall between the band and the audience. The bass was too loud and Richard's vocals did not have their usual resonance. If I could get my hands on the sound guy I would probably end up in jail for murder. Maybe some of the sound shortcomings can be attributed to the venue. the ceiling at the Mayan is high- real high; and wide-real wide. It sounded a lot of times like the sound would just rise up there and - THUD, that was it. Like I said, don't get me wrong the Verve were brilliant. Highlights included Life's an Ocean, The Rolling People, Stormy Clouds (Reprise), History and of course, Come On, which totally scrambled my mind. They could have kept playing that for 3 more days and I would have been fine. Not coincidentally, I think these were the only songs that broke the sound "barrier". I saw them 2 years ago at Irving Plaza (NY) and you could hear every nuance of Nick's guitar and everything was crystal clear. I'm going to see them again tonight so I hope they resolve the problems. thanks for listening if you made it this far. Let me just emphasize again that the band played great, it was just the sound that sucked. |
From: John Ricci
| The first night-L.A. 11/17/97 Me, Aimee, Misty, and Gavin
met Brian Cannon at the t-shirt stand- He's a really funny guy, I didn't
believe him at first so he handed me his passport- Onto the show... Amazing- everything I had imagined it would be, absolutely amazing. When Pete counted off the intro to A New Decade, I think it finally hit me that it was really happening. I was here, this is real, they are back. This is music. So true..... Finally, after 4 years (last seen 11/15/93 SLC, UT) I got to see them again, and it rocked, just like that. The sound was pretty good, a glitch/feedback during history other than that an incredible show. The highlights were definitely Slide Away, Life's An Ocean, Stormy Clouds>>>Reprise (FUCKING EPIC!!!!) I can't think of a better set of songs to do back to back- doing this live is amazing- Nick is the greatest guitarist to walk the earth- simple as that. Lucky man- so good to hear- poignant lyrics, very true-Acoustic space and time- chills- and the grand finale COME ON!!! So amazing, so good, everything you want it to be-the guitars are just roaring and creating this gigantic song- this is what music should be. It was so good to see them again, seeing Nick back, and he was doing the magic, that we love--Everyone looked happy-positive, upbeat- Jones- slickest bassist-hands down- He and Pete laid down a fat groove all night- and the addition of Tongy on keyboard/2nd guitar- great move- he does it very well, plays hard, and the guitar/keyboard add another dimension (is this possible?) to live songs that were only usually achievable in a studio Epic- absolutely epic- transendental- sky scraping rock. |
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