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August 5, 2007
Squeeze in Atlantic City
The band I saw was "Squeeze" because it was the reunion of the band's songwriting team, Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford. The only other quasi-original band member in the lineup is bassist John Bentley. He isn't a true "original"; he was the band's second bassist (around '79 to '82 or so, if memory serves). Rounding out the band were two member's of Glenn Tilbrook's new-ish band the Fluffers -- Simon Hanson on drums and Stephen Large on keyboards.
Fans of the band will want the playlist. Here it is:
Take Me I'm Yours
Slightly Drunk
Piccadilly
Up the Junction
I Think I'm Go Go
Electric Trains
Some Fantastic Place
Another Nail for My Heart
Messed Around
Slaughtered, Gutted, and Heartbroken
Goodbye Girl
If I Didn't Love You (I'd Hate You)
Footprints
Slap and Tickle
Pulling Mussels (from the Shell)
Cool for Cats
Tempted (encore)
Black Coffee in Bed (encore)
The show was great fun, though the band were far from the top of their game. The main problem was lead singer Glenn Tilbrook, who'd come down with a case of laryngitis and who was singing without the upper quarter of his vocal range. The band's sound is so dependent on Glenn's pipes that this was a nearly impossible setback to recover from. One thing the band might have done was to intersperse a few more of the songs that Chris Difford sings -- His Heart Her Home, for example, or Someone Else's Heart, or Love Circles. Of course, they'd probably not rehearsed these tunes -- and one of the problems that comes along with playing with a band with a constantly shifting roster is that you can't be sure everyone in the band will know everything from the band's whole career (which in this case is quite a long one). In any case, they didn't do this, so Glenn had to slog away at song after song, with the predictable effect on his already strained voice.
Also disappointing was that Chris Difford did not step into the role of band leader (in terms of establishing rapport with the audience) in Glenn's voice-impaired absence. Difford's been at this game since the 70s, and has performed for a while now as a solo act. Surely he could have stepped to the microphone a bit and shared a few connecting words and a witticism or two to take the pressure off of Tilbrook. But he hung back and said little. The result was a concert with almost no "patter" from the band at all, and the little there was, from Glenn Tilbrook, was nearly impossible to hear because of his laryngitis.
Tilbrook and Difford had been estranged for quite a few years before this reunion tour. It's said their relationship is now quite cordial, but there was little evidence of that on stage. In fact, there was little energy between the two songwriters. It's impossible to know what's going on off stage, but to my eye it looked as though Chris Difford was only barely in the room for the show. He made eye contact with and smiled at the audience only once, that I saw, and otherwise seemed a bit stiff and uncomfortable. The same was more or less true for bassist John Bentley, who also seemed to be in his own little world over at extreme stage left. Most of the energy came from the two youngsters in the band, Hanson and Large, and from the vocally impaired Tilbrook. Maybe this is because Tilbrook, Hanson, and Large have been recording and touring together (and playing a good chunk of the Squeeze catalogue) for the last several years.
Tilbrook's singing was impaired, but his guitar work was marvelous, as always. When Difford sang, he sang well. And with a songbook like Squeeze's, it's damn near impossible to play a bad show. So I had fun, and appreciated Tilbrook's obvious effort to soldier on and give us a good show despite his discomfort. Not a great show, but certainly not a bad one either.
Posted by Eric at August 5, 2007 8:12 PM