speats

"Everybody's in showbiz / Everybody's a star..."

Reflections on being in the court of one Raymond Douglas Davies at The Wiltern Theater Los Angeles, July 16, 2006

A sparsely decorated stage, wide-open expectations, and a sense of "oh-my-god-I-am-the-luckiest-music-geek-in-L.A." permeated the air at The Wiltern Theater last night. It had been half a decade since Ray Davies had visited Los Angeles and in the interim Life Happened for the reigning poet laureate of The British Invasion. The Kinks went on hiatus, Dave Davies suffered a stroke, Ray sustained a gunshot wound defending the honor of his lady from a New Orleans purse-snatcher (this incident is also notable for being the Last Recorded Act of Chivalry Ever in the United States) and released his first solo album earlier this year, the potent and pointed "Other People's Lives".

The Kinks are that last great unchartered terrain of British rock history. So much has been said about The Beatles, The Stones, and The Who that most of the mystery surrounding them eroded long ago.

The Kinks are and have been always a different animal, uncompromisingly English in all phases of the career (Way back whenThe Beatles urged true believers to "Turn on, relax, and float down stream", Davies and co. praised the simplicity of Waterloo Sunsets, and long after The Fab Four disbanded and the Stones became irrelavant, The Kinks' vision never compromised or capitulated). Radio knows them for "Lola" and "You Really Got Me" but legions of balding geeks like myself know them for "Death of a Clown", "David Watts", and "Sweet Lady Genevieve". They are like the last indie store in a sea of chains.

The Kinks for me forever lived in that nether world of rock snobbery, MOJO Magazine testimonials, and that crappy sounding Columbia House cassette copy of The Kink Kronikles I've had since the eighth grade (which I've since traded up for an equally crap-sounding CD...can't anyone remaster this for the love of Jeebus?). I knew them first for the obvious hits (I was in 6th grade when "Come Dancing" went Top 40) but the romance didn't really blossom until the aforementioned Kronikles album was fully digested and I went exploring in the far flung hills of The Back Catalog. Albums like "Something Else", "Face To Face", "Village Green Preservation Society", "Arthur", "Lola Vs. The Powerman", and "Muswell Hillbillies" became staples of my musical diet. After all, you are what you hear. At least in my world.

That's the backstory...On with the (or should I say last night's) show!

Ray and his band of surrogate Kinks hit the stage with a force of enthusiasm that knocked the jadedness clean out of the L.A. crowd and sent it hurling towards Canada (no small feat in this town where everything save for a car crash is greeted with the energy of a 6am yawn) and immediated transformed all of us into His Royal Subjects.

Davies artfully balanced his new material with a pallet of classics and curios such as "Hairy Rag" (from the Something Else Lp), "Tired of Waiting for You", "20th Century Man", "Celluloid Heroes","Set Me Free" and "Low Budget".

His energy and vocal ability belied his 62 years (placing him on a very short list of British Invasion icons who can still perform with the conviction and urgency of their heyday) and made everyone their feel like they were part of something more than a routine Classic Rock Cash-In. He put the "showman" in "showmanship".

You could say he really got me.