Amy Winehouse / Patrick Wolf @ the Varsity
Source: morecowbell.net
Photo by Stacy Sandstrom
Amy Winehouse w/ Patrick Wolf @ Varsity Theater - 5/2
Like it or not (and no offense to the Arctic Monkeys who put on a killer show last night), this was easily the most anticipated and hyped live show of 2007 in the Twin Cities so far.
Starting the night off was London’s Patrick Wolf. I absolutely loved Patrick’s 2nd album, ‘Wind In The Wires‘, but have been a bit slow to warm up to his latest album, ‘The Magic Position‘. Live in concert however, Patrick is incredibly engaging and exciting to watch. Dressed in an unbuttoned Boy Scout top (complete with suspenders), tight jean shorts, high socks, and haircut and makeup that would make Ziggy Stardust proud, I think a lot of the crowd was a bit unsure what to think at first. And while pretty much the entire crowd (save for a couple who drove up from Omaha to see Patrick) were there to see the headliner, It was evident that Patrick had won over a huge portion of the audience.
Full disclosure, the first time I heard ‘Rehab‘ last winter, I enjoyed it a lot, but for whatever reason I just totally wrote her off and didn’t bother to check out her new album. Fast forward to 2 months ago or so when I heard another song from ‘Back To Black‘, the fabulous ‘Tears Dry On Their Own‘, and my mind was changed almost instantly. I was shocked at how much I loved the entire album (Rehab isn’t even CLOSE to the best song on the record). I have a soft spot for old school R&B/Motown and also really enjoy modern artists like Sharon Jones (*more on her in a bit) that keep that vibe alive. So I guess in hindsight I shouldn’t have been that surprised that I love Amy’s album, and had I known right of the bat that the fabulous Dap-Kings played on ‘Back To Black‘, I definitely wouldn’t have passed it up the first time around.
Photo by Stacy Sandstrom
I had seen Amy and her boyfriend (who watched all of Patrick’s set at a table in the crowd), along with 2 members of the Dap-Kings walking around Dinkytown an hour or so before the show. I thought that was pretty cool considering how tough it would be for her to do that in the UK and not not be hounded by paparazzi.
Anyhow, enough build up.
The show started off with ‘Addicted‘, off Amy’s 2003 album, ‘Frank‘, and it only took one song before Amy asked for a drink (a Jack & Coke for those keeping score). While I have a feeling much of the press have overblown Amy’s “wild ways”, I don’t think she really does much to dispel those reports/rumors either. She was on pretty good behavior this night however.
Amy & The Dap-Kings, to whom she owes a lot of credit to, tore through almost all of ‘Back To Black‘, along with a few more tracks from ‘Frank‘. They even through in a bit of Lauryn Hill’s ‘(Doo Wop) That Thing‘ at the end of one of her own songs, which I thought was a nice touch. Towards the end of the very brief (half hour at most) main set, Amy commented on how “shitty” she was performing, and thanked us for sticking it out. I think most of the audience disagreed though, and while she isn’t the most engaging or energetic performer, her voice is definitely strong live, which I think is most important. I expected a bit of a cocky attitude from her going in to the show, but it turns out she is funny, self deprecating and I found her on-stage persona fairly endearing.
Photo by Stacy Sandstrom
After a short encore break, Amy and the band came back out and played 2 quick numbers. The gorgeous ballad ‘Love Is A Losing Game‘ and a totally fun cover of The Zuton’s ‘Valerie‘ (one of the few songs of theirs I truly do love too), which can be found on Mark Ronson’s (producer of ‘Back To Black‘) recent record, ‘Version‘, which is full of really fun covers (listen to the entire album on myspace).
So the big question on the mind of everyone who wasn’t able to attend… does Amy Winehouse live up to the hype? Yep. Was the show amazing or one of the best shows of the year? Not really… but I still had a blast, as did most of the sold out audience it seemed. The main complaints seemed to be that the set was short (43 minutes), but I personally expected no more than 50-60 minutes, so it wasn’t ridiculously short by any means. They still managed to pack in 13 songs in that short amount of time too. Amy will be back in town this fall (you can pretty much assume First Ave), and I will definitely be checking her out again.
Read Jen Paulson’s review at HowWasTheShow.com and see more of Stacy’s killer shots.
*As a bit of a footnote, I can only hope that someday even a quarter of the people who saw Amy’s show will check out Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. Because as much as I enjoy Amy, Sharon is totally authentic and puts on an incredible live show. Their new record, ‘100 Days, 100 Nights‘ will be released in September with a full US tour to match, and you can bet I’ll be writing more about her again this summer.
