Sunday, December 14, 2008

Locksley and Ray Davies @ Hammerstein Ballroom

On Friday night I went to see Locksley open for Ray Davies (of The Kinks) at Hammerstein Ballroom. It was a much older crowd than I'm used to seeing Locksley play for, which was a nice change of pace in a way from the insane screaming teenage girls (although drunken adults start to act very similar...). However, I felt like maybe the lower energy was kind of hard for Locksley, who managed to keep their energy high despite it. They put on a great show as always, but it didn't look quite as easy for them as it usually does. It didn't help that the sound was awful (and in a nice venue like Hammerstein, I wouldn't think that would be a problem...). It was pretty cool that they got to play with a legend like Ray Davies though, and hopefully this tour has expanded their audience pool amongst people above the age of 22.

Ray Davies was great. He is your classic rock star - smooth British accent and all. He played song after song without any noticeable mistakes (and the set list was almost three pages long). He told witty stories in between songs and got the audience to sing along quite often (not that that was probably all that hard for him. The whole audience seemed to know every single song). I feel like he is the rock star every other musician else aspires to be. It made me excited for The Kinks to soon be reunited.

All Over Again [mp3] - Locksley - "Don't Make Me Wait" (iTunes)
Strangers [mp3] - The Kinks - "Lola versus Powerman and the Money-go-round" (iTunes)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Locksley did an outstanding job opening this tour for Ray. I was at every show and the DC 930 club was where Locksley really hit there stride, and outsnding show from them, The sound for them at NYC was terrible. They are a very hard waorking band and a great bunch of giys and as a long time Kinks fanI wish them all the success and luck intheir career!
Ray Davies is sekond to none, and really is not like Everybody Else. God save him, his brother Dave and the KinKs, and also all their fans who have supported them through the years, through the highs and the lows…we;ve been through it all yet we’re still the same and for all you know we may still have a ong way to go. dan the fan, the montvale, new jersey hillbilly boy aka Frank Lima