The Alarm at The Ritz: Concert Review

[Gary Dare <dare@eevlsi.ee.columbia.edu>]

concert review:	THE ALARM at The Ritz, New York, New York

	Thursday, May 5th, 1988

  The Ritz is live rock club in the East Village, and holds 800.  The
opening act was Face To Face from Worcester, Mass.  They've changed a
bit, as I remember seeing their video all summer of '84 while in
Toronto ("Over The Line").  Formerly into yuppie pop-rock, and they
have changed to 60s-ish hard-rock.  Singer has a with a great voice a
la Ellen Foley on "The Spirit of St. Louis" (with The Clash).

  The Alarm were breath-taking.  Seems this whole affair is the fifth
anniversary of their landing on our shores, as they played a Saturday
night gig at the Ritz in '83 at this time (gotta check my calendar).
They opened with a couple of numbers from the first album to warm up,
followed by a Mike Peters rap.  They then kicked in "Knife Edge", and
didn't stop until the second encore with "When The Storm Broke".  Only
three or four songs off the new album, but the talk about the sound
off of "Eye of the Hurricane" being like live Alarm is true.  The old
stuff didn't sound as lush, but it kicked!

  After rousing renditions of "Strength" and "Absolute Reality",
thoughts on the Welsh religeous tradition came to my mind and it
struck me that The Alarm's evangelical fervour and reaching out to
commune with the crowd might well spring from that.

  The only respite came during "Walk Forever By My Side", after which
the band raced to a climactic finish with "68 Guns" and their latest
FM single.  Two encores followed, the first with "Make your Stand" and
the second with "Spirit of '76" and "When The Storm Broke".  The crowd
was drained by the time the group bid us their final farewell.

  Dave Sharp's guitar playing was hot last night and Mike Peters swept
us all away with his emotion.  It's been a long time since I've seen a
group exhibit so much emotion and energy, and touch people.  We've all
heard a lot of rhetoric, but last night I saw the real thing.

gld


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ je me souviens ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gary L. Dare				"Too old to rock'n'roll,
> dare@eevlsi.ee.columbia.EDU		 too young to die!"
> gld@cunixc.BITNET					Jethro Tull