From: OtherJesus@aol.com
| A New Decade Catching The Butterfly This Is Music Slide Away Sonnet Weeping Willow The Drugs Don't Work Life's An Ocean A Northern Soul The Rolling People Bittersweet Symphony Stormy Clouds (Reprise) --------------- Space and Time (Richard Acoustic) On Your Own (Richard Acoustic) Lucky Man History Come On |
From: Teresa322@aol.com
| How perfect was this night. Everything was seriously
perfect. The music. The band. The lighting. The crowd. The length of the
whole show. Everything. I went to the Warfield at about 4:30 that afternoon. There weren't many people in line yet, maybe ten at most. At around 5 I saw Nick McCabe and I think Peter and the guy who was doing the photos and documentary come out of a cab. They did soundcheck a little while later, which I listened to from the back of the venue. I talked to this girl for awhile who told me about the two shows in LA a few days before that. She said the first night was just unbearably loud and one of the nights the power went out so they only got to do one song for the encore or something. She was hoping the SF show was going to be better. Ha, I even saw some guys from LA who had taped both the LA shows and were at that point taping the soundcheck. God, now they were "Mad Fer It!" They came out about 6:40. ten minutes before hand, my LA friend and I were contemplating on meeting my friend back in line, but we decided to just stay a little longer, and I'm glad we did. This friend of mine told me about how short Richard was, but I swear, I really didn't believe her. But this guy must have been 5'9 tops and he was hunching over too. He was really nice though. Saying Cheers and Thanks for coming and also I said how brilliant the new album was and how much I loved I first two albums as well. Nick was nice too. Simon just jumped into the van to go back to the hotel and Nick, Richard, Peter, and everyone else got in a second later. So my friend and I got back in line and we went inside. I got a white t-shirt. I'm glad there was non-sleep wear stuff for sale. I also got a poster which was two dollars. They were selling stickers but I got those free at Mod Lang a month or two ago. The slides and dj were ok. They should have only done that for an hour though, not two. So the verve came on a little after nine, playing for almost two hours (the longest set on the tour I think) and it included a 45 min encore. It all went by too fast. Here are a list of SOME of the songs and not in any particular order. If I missed some and you know the ones I missed, please post them: A New Decade, This Is Music, On Your Own (during encore), History, Life's An Ocean, A Northern Soul, Bitter Sweet Symphony (which sounded a lot better than the description that people posted), Sonnet, The Rolling People (during the first seconds of this song when Peter pounds on his bass drum there were great fog lights flashing), The Drugs Don't Work, Gravity Grave, Come On, Lucky Man (dedicated to Kate of course), Space and Time, Catching The Butterfly, Weeping Willow...yes, so please fill in the rest. The lighting was quite impressive. The best I've seen ever. Richard Ashcroft did I think three songs solo, acoustic, inc. On Your Own. There was no pushing in the crowd at all and I was in the very front in between Nick and Richard. No BBS kids, thank god. Richard didn't really have any back up vocals so the audience was really his back up and it was really great people were signing along. The show was sold out. i don't think they sold any tickets at the door, only will call and all that. I don't know what to say right now, but maybe I will post more later. It was certainly one of my favorite shows this year. Amazing and brilliant. Everything was perfect. I am really glad I am going to see them in 2 weeks even though evil 105 is putting it on. I don't care. It's the Verve. Everybody should do their best. Anybody who has to fly to see them would never regret it. My friend from LA said it was the best out of the three she went to. Oh yeah, and they didn't show up to the after show party at Popscene. Oh well. I didn't really expect them to. |
From: randerson@webtv.net (Roger Anderson)
| I got there early to get a nice front and center balcony seat. Perfect place to sit and wait since they didn't come on for another 1 1/2 hours. The DJ was playing cool warm-up music that really fit in. I had seen them in 1995 at Slims but for some reason it wasn't very memorable. This show exceeded my expectations. It was fuckin LOUD! I wish more bands would play that loud. Also the light show was better than Spiritualized, in my opinion. It was beautiful and seemed to change with the mood of each song. The pure huge explosiveness of New Decade, Rolling People, This is Music, Slide Away and Come on blew me away. But the best part came with the encores. RA played Space&Time and On Your Own acoustic followed by Lucky Man and History with the band - a series of personal songs that captured a great moment. I taped the show, but to be honest my recording sucks. It sounds like they're lost in a big reverbed room. In reality the sound was mixed well and very loud. The only other dissapointment was, as everyone else has mentioned, they didn't play hardly any old songs. I heard they've played A Man Called Sun at times so I was wishing they had included it tonight. All we got was Slide Away. When was the last time they played She's A Superstar, anyone?? Well, Verve Fans, we've been crying about how the mainstream has overlooked these guys for so long, now we've got our wish so enjoy it, but don't start saying they sold out now! Also, each time RA said 'Thank you', it sounded like he was saying 'I want to fuck you' which actually wouldn't be to surprising. |
From: "David Jackson"
| I had not felt this way about a band since I was 16 years old, which was 11 years prior. I had been priming myself for weeks, had my mind, body, spirit, and narcotics all in proper form to absorb every minutia of experience this concert had to offer. The dj provided a midlevel hum backdrop to a mass of jabbering excitiement unrivaled by the Bowie show I had seen at the same venue two months before. We were all going to heaven. I wove my way to a spot three people back from the stage and rooted. Suddenly the crowd erupted and the sacred figures strode across the stage and got right down to it. The sound was just enough to fill me, not enough to threaten. 'A New Decade' opened the show, as anticipated, and with good reason. It was more triumphant than I had ever understood. They progressed with minimum banter, swinging from one monumental saga to the next, sticking to the point. Thinking back I get less of a sense of individual moments as I do a vision of Richard Ashcroft backlit like a will-o-wisp, his figure silhouetted by an aura of blue and green chemical light, the dark inner space of his form like a gateway to the astral plane. And god how that doorway sang. The sound of his voice soared in orbit, carrying the hundreds around me with it in queasy weightlessness. One moment that does stick out in my head was during BSS. Given the majestic sweep of the song, I had always pictured it being sung with by some messianic figure with arms outstretched. But what struck me was the way Richard simply paced a calm, meditative walk in a square around the front of the stage, his eyes closed, as though he were in his own livingroom but seeming to summon spirits as he sang this exultant anthem. They played somewhat longer than at other shows on the tour, I would like to think because the vibe was so strong. The hall was almost impossibly packed. I tried like hell to dance furiously for 'Come On', but people would have been injured had they tried. It seemed Richard sensed this, but motioned to egg us on anyway. He must have wanted us to tear up the stage. It was mad. I can't remember the last time I was that high. The Verve are god walking the earth. |
From: John Ricci
| Got there 2 hours early as to ensure front row spots- we
did-. DJ Wayne throws down a nice mix, Black Grape, Can, Beatles, Funkadelic,
Primal Scream, very cool mix of songs. Show starts- A New Decade- best I have ever heard the band- absolutely, without a doubt- it rivals the time I saw them in 93, that's how good it was! Everything is perfect-they were hitting on all cylinders, the crowd was into the show- cheering and the band was loving it. Catching The Butterfly-Weeping Willow- these songs sound bigger live- fuller, when they are played live they come off even bigger and fuller sounding than on the LP. (Which I didn't think was possible) At one point Richard turns to Simon and says something like"I love this, I'm into this" Slide Away- perfect- Rolling People -awesome- Nick was doing the business on this one- Life's An Ocean- probably my favorite- such an great song- nice groove- Stormy Clouds>>>Reprise- These songs live are monumental- Nick soars on these two songs. Lucky Man, Richard dedicated it to Kate, saying something about 2 years, then repeating "this one's for Kate" Richard plays an acoustic Space and Time and On Your Own... chilling- you really get the emotion on these songs when you hear them live. History comes off beautiful live, absolutely beautiful. BSS was cool to hear live as well. The closer- Come on! Roaring guitars- Nice bass groove, Pounding drums- Richard laying it all on the line- what an epic finish! Absolutely the best version I have ever heard. They created this gigantic wall of sound that was so monumental- I couldn't believe I was there- I'm still flashing back to it. They have risen- they are back-they are the greatest. The world is theirs for the taking. |
Back to full gigs archive
Back to Europe Gigs
Back to North America Gigs