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The Modfather Paul Weller is currently on a tiny US tour heading to Riot Fest in Chicago. For some reason, Minneapolis is just one of four US non-festival dates, and so naturally, the Varsity Theater show last night, September 10th, was sold out.
Local DJ Jake Rudh played some soul (The Violinaires' "Children Are You Ready?"), R&B (Brenton Wood's "Catch You On the Rebound") and blues soul (Spencer Davis Group's "I'm a Man"). I wasn't actually sure why he chose to do mostly soul, perhaps it was inspired by The Style Council or the mod movement of the late 70s and early 80s ... but that would have meant more Northern Soul (European) and maybe some two-tone ska. I've heard Rudh play Madness and such, so it's not out of his playlist.
Paul Weller started his musical career singing and playing guitar in The Jam, who produced one of my favorite single, "That's Entertainment." When The Jam broke up, Weller branched out in a more soulful style of music with his new band The Style Council, but eventually found himself as a solo artist in the early 90s.
It's important that you understand where Weller came from, as he chose to play a two Jam songs ("Start!" and "Town Called Malice") and a Style Council song ("My Ever Changing Moods"), in addition to his massive solo discography of 11 albums... Weller certainly had a lot of songs to choose from.
Like The Jam, Weller's band was smartly dressed with button shirts and jackets, although Weller stood out in a star top and dress pants. Physically, Weller is in amazing shape. Vocally, he still sounded good, although I wish he spoke more between songs.
One of the rare spoken moments was when Weller introduced "Above the Clouds," with "Here's a really old song, from the last century!"
Weller spent most of his time on guitar, except to walk over to the keyboard nearby for "Broken Stones", "You Do Something to Me" (not the Cole Porter song), and "Picking Up Sticks."
Highlight of his set, were the encores. Yes, that's encores, with an 's'. Although the setlist shows "He's The Keeper" as one of four songs in the first encore set, I believe they dropped off this song. Perhaps it was because they were running late, but they only did three songs, ending with "Be Happy Children."
When the lights didn't turn on, you quickly realized that Paul Weller was planning on a double encore. The band came back with their 1995 hit "The Changingman" and then the crowd cheered loudly when they heard The Jam's "Town Called Malice." It was well worth the wait until the end of the show.
Paul Weller will be in Cincinnati on September 12th, and will end his brief US mini tour at Riot Fest in Chicago on the 13th. Recently (September 9th), Paul Weller's Classic Album Selection Volume 1 just came out. It collects his solo albums from 1999-2000: Paul Weller (1992), Wild Wood (1993), Stanley Road (1995), Heavy Soul (1997), and Heliocentric (2000). If that's not enough, then check out Weller's second greatest hits album More Modern Classics, which came out earlier this June 2014 on Harvest Records.
Again, thank you Paul Weller for choosing to play a small venue in Minneapolis. We were very lucky to have him. If you missed him this time due to the show being sold out, there's still hope. In Paul Weller's words, he said we will see him again shortly.
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Varsity Theater marquee
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Paul Weller started his musical career singing and playing guitar in The Jam, who produced one of my favorite single, "That's Entertainment." When The Jam broke up, Weller branched out in a more soulful style of music with his new band The Style Council, but eventually found himself as a solo artist in the early 90s.
It's important that you understand where Weller came from, as he chose to play a two Jam songs ("Start!" and "Town Called Malice") and a Style Council song ("My Ever Changing Moods"), in addition to his massive solo discography of 11 albums... Weller certainly had a lot of songs to choose from.
Like The Jam, Weller's band was smartly dressed with button shirts and jackets, although Weller stood out in a star top and dress pants. Physically, Weller is in amazing shape. Vocally, he still sounded good, although I wish he spoke more between songs.
One of the rare spoken moments was when Weller introduced "Above the Clouds," with "Here's a really old song, from the last century!"
Weller spent most of his time on guitar, except to walk over to the keyboard nearby for "Broken Stones", "You Do Something to Me" (not the Cole Porter song), and "Picking Up Sticks."
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Setlist
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When the lights didn't turn on, you quickly realized that Paul Weller was planning on a double encore. The band came back with their 1995 hit "The Changingman" and then the crowd cheered loudly when they heard The Jam's "Town Called Malice." It was well worth the wait until the end of the show.
Paul Weller will be in Cincinnati on September 12th, and will end his brief US mini tour at Riot Fest in Chicago on the 13th. Recently (September 9th), Paul Weller's Classic Album Selection Volume 1 just came out. It collects his solo albums from 1999-2000: Paul Weller (1992), Wild Wood (1993), Stanley Road (1995), Heavy Soul (1997), and Heliocentric (2000). If that's not enough, then check out Weller's second greatest hits album More Modern Classics, which came out earlier this June 2014 on Harvest Records.
Again, thank you Paul Weller for choosing to play a small venue in Minneapolis. We were very lucky to have him. If you missed him this time due to the show being sold out, there's still hope. In Paul Weller's words, he said we will see him again shortly.
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Paul Weller at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (10 Sep 2014) |
