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My first Weller gig in the US, after travelling over for the weekend from the UK.. and yes it was just to see Paul Weller's gig! From the you can guess i'm a fan, so any review is biased towards being good to fantastic! The set was great and the sound in the Best Buy Theater was excellent..
Outstanding show. Weller has so many sides to his music and he somehow manages to weave them all into one amazing show. Hard hitting, slow & melodic, punky, wavy, smooth, and psychedelic.... rolled into one. The current line-up is up to the task as well. When he comes back to the states for another tour, I suggest taking in a show. Paul Weller never disappoints.
Perfect night. The band was tight, and sounded terrific. Good mix of old and new - the new solo tunes were great. Weller looks great too. I hope he returns to the U.S. more often.
Great show in a great venue. While I was not too familiar with some of his newer work, Paul and his band gave a versatile performance that was high energy and very high quality. His vocals were superb and the band was tight. The high points for me were "What you give is what you get" and "That's Entertainment", so I'm showing my age a bit. Anyway, he's a true rocker and I would highly recommend his shows to new and old fans. Well done Paul!
Well what's to say about seeing Paul Weller...it kind of speaks for itself really. Been a fan since I was a little girl living in the UK and I finally (at the age of 41) got to see the man, the myth, the legend. I was like a kid at Disney Land seeing Mickey Mouse for the first time. Anyway, before I get carried away I'll write my bit about the venue. Never been to The Best Buy Theater before (previsouly known as Nokia Theater). It's a very nice venue...not too big, not too small. I will definately be looking forward to seeing what other of my favorite artists will be performing there in the future.
As always there is a workmanlike quality to every Weller show, the band is always tight, vocals solid, high energy, you never feel like you get ripped off.
Great show! Band was very tight, and Paul Weller was in great form vocally & physically. I'm partial to the louder stuff, but he's following his muse & mixing it up quite a bit. For me, there was a lull after the first 15 minutes of rock that took him off pace/intensity for a bit too long before the steam picked up again heading into the encores. I can understand why he doesn't want to play 20 Jam songs a night, but I'd be lying if I didn't say this show has me longing for a Jam reunion even more than I was before it. I would recommend that any longtime fans check out Paul, but Jam enthusiasts that are not into the Style Council or newer solo stuff might struggle.
I was really looking forward to a great show. I saw him a few years ago at Town Square and it was amazing. The new album is not that great, so hearing most of that ruined it for me. I also felt that the sound was set up bad. It sounded muffled, as though all of the speakers were blown out. I don't know if this was Paul Weller's crew or the Apollo. I was disappointed.
Paul is a consummate musician and performer but I would have liked to see more of his Style Council and well known solo numbers on the set list. The Apollo is also a great venue for a concert, more intimate than Radio City.
great musician ship, his band is awesome and he is in great shape. a little disappointing that he didn't play any of the old favourites, though.
The Modfather was in fine form and good humor @ the Apollo. He made a number of self deprecating jokes about his lack of airplay and record sales on this side of the pond, and also about his age. His guitar playing was outstanding, the band was tight, and other than a somewhat keyboard heavy stereo panned mix, which obscured vocals at moments, the sound was very good. Only drawback was just one Style Council tune: "Shout It To the Top" which brought the audience to their feet. However, his solo work renditions included "From The Floorboards Up" and "Wild Wood".
I first saw Paul Weller in 1983 and have never been disappointed by any of his performances. Given the history of the Apollo Theater I was perhaps expecting more, as I think many in the audience were. Even Well himself commented twice on the difficulties of playing new music whilst on tour. The new material was great and shows his ability to lead from the front. I personally would of welcomed a few more from his back catalogue, especially in the encore. But that said, would have gone to both his NYC gigs if I could! He's still the man. He's the Modfather!
With Bowie semi-retired, Stummer gone to his reward and Johnny Rotten/Lydon doing TV ads for butter, Mr. Weller carries the flag for the music one couldn't hear on American radio in the 1970s because it was too creative. Saturday night, he brought his show to Harlem's Apollo theatre. "So many of our heroes have played here," Mr. Weller said to the crowd, "We just hope we do it justice." No worries on that score. The Apollo is one of those rarities in entertainment, a venue that is famous in its own right, and one that has survived the ages. Liverpool's Cavern is a parking lot now. London's 100 Club is in danger of closing forever next month while the Hammersmith Palais' brilliantly weird sideways stage is merely a memory. The Fillmore West first moved from Geary Boulevard to Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco before closing in 1971. New York's CBGC's is no more. And the Apollo almost died in a funding dispute a few years back, but the fates dictated that the 1,500 seater continue. The audience was typically Weller-esque, mostly those whose ages are circling 50, a large British contingent a long way from home, and a respectable number of college-aged aficionados. A few striped shirts, an olive-colored parka and a boating jacket were visible in the orchestra, but by and large, the crowd's attire was more non-descript than it was in the 1980s. Full marks to the warm-up act Erland and the Carnival, an alternative (or folk-rock, or alternative electric folk) band from London. Simon Tong (formerly of The Verve, Blur and The Good, The Bad, and the Queen) and brilliant drummer David Nock (The Orb, the Cult and the Firemen) have teamed up with a lad from the Orkney Islands Gawain Erland Cooper in a five man act (Andy Bruce on synthesizers and Danny Wheeler on bass round out the quintet) that has great promise. The old Welsh folk tune "Gentle Gwen" became a solid piece of rock and roll in their hands. 'Love Is a Killing Thing' has Radio 6 top playlist potential, and the Jackson C. Frank's song "My Name is Carnival" explains the band's name (and they play it damned hard). The headliner's play list started with "Aim High" from the new disc, and covered every era of his 35-year career during the course of a 2-hour set (the Apollo has an 11 pm curfew, and forbids alcohol and cigarettes on stage -- Mr. Weller survived that ban most nobly). From the Jam years, he and his four-man back up band (including the ever present Steve Cradock on guitar) played "Pretty Green," "Start!" and "Art School." The Style Council's "Shout to the Top!" seemed a good fit for the Apollo, and most of the set came from his solo career including "Wildwood," "Porcelain God" "Come On/Let's Go," and "Wake Up the Nation." In tribute to the Apollo's history in black American music (which all English mods live and breathe), he played Marvin Gaye's "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)," rescuing it from James Taylor's easy listening version. Seated at the piano, he found a reflective angle to the song that contrasted well with the original's celebratory tone. Sunday night, he played the Best Buy Theater (formerly Nokia Theatre) in Times Square, a fine enough space, but with no history in a district noted most for charging tourists $5 for a bottle of water. Who wouldn't have rather been uptown Saturday Night?
A near-two-hour perfect rock show; a passionate performance, a mix of new and old material; clear sound; and superb, dynamic lighting. A rare instance where you didn't really mind that he played but a handful on songs from his earliest career (three songs only from The Jam era). Weller's solo career just keeps getting better, with his last two albums being the best of his solo career. How many 50-plus rockers can you say that about? Alas, this review's not much use to any who live outside the several big US cities (usually just New York and LA) that Weller confines his statewide tours to.
The band played well, and Paul Weller looked great and was very enthusiastic. The only thing I did not enjoy was the fact that he played many songs that were not very popular. He has such a vast collection of great songs that he didn't play, and that was disappointing to me and many others.... Being at the Apollo Theater I thought he would play more of his motown sounding songs, such as more Style Council and later Jam songs. His encore numbers were not memoriable, and were actually downers, and you could tell by the way the crowd started leaving early... I am forever a Weller fan, and I will remember the good numbers such as "No tears to cry", "Wake up the Nation" and "Start"........
paul weller is always amazing! and at the apollo made it extra special.
Weller's performance was amazing, electrifying!! Can't wait to see him again!
