Georgia got a taste of the Big Apple Saturday night, as singer-songwriter Joe Jackson brought his songs about New York City, as well as a few pop classics, to Atlanta for the second performance of his Night and Day II tour.

Though he has been thought of as one of the "angry young men" throughout his career, Jackson was in great spirits as he took the stage and began "It's a Hell of a Town," from his latest release, Night and Day II, the sequel to his popular 1982 album. Dressed in black pants, a white shirt and a black, knee-length leather jacket, the forty-six-year-old artist would spend the next 165 minutes dancing, laughing and blushing, as the crowd continuously roared its approval.

The laughing usually came when Jackson, who has not toured in more than five years, would occasionally miss a cue to sing backup, as he did during "Nineteen Forever." But, besides a few missteps and a self-proclaimed sore throat, Jackson and his tight six-piece band, featuring longtime band mates Graham Maby on bass and Sue Hadjopoulos on percussion, sounded as if they had never left the road.

Their two-part performance relied heavily on both Night and Day albums, which tell stories of New York as seen through the eyes of its residents. Jackson performed nine of the ten tracks on Night and Day II and six of the nine from its predecessor, often discussing each song before launching into it.

"Sometimes, living in New York, it can get to you. It's easy to become paranoid," Jackson explained before "Just Because...," from NAD II. As the song began, Jackson also expressed his feelings about Rudolph Giuliani, the city's current mayor. "Giuliani has to die -- the fucker," Jackson proclaimed. "Give me a gun. I'll do it myself."

While he wasn't smiling when he said it, given his playful demeanor throughout the night, the mayor's office should not be worried about Jackson. The only thing he is guilty of is writing infectious pop tunes, one of which brought the audience to its feet for the first time of the night, and made Jackson laugh at his own words. During "Is She Really Going Out With Him," a classic breakup song that was somehow omitted from Rolling Stone's Top 100 Pop Songs, the balding Jackson could only roll his eyes and laugh as he sang the line, "I wash my hair and I kid myself I look real smooth."

Jackson followed up the song with another relationship-gone-wrong pop gem, "Breaking Us in Two," and then announced that the band would be taking an intermission. "It will be exactly, exactly fifteen minutes," he stressed.

Twenty minutes later, Jackson returned alone, and sat behind one of the two keyboards on stage. "I'm going to do a few by myself if that's OK," he said, as he was illuminated by a lone spotlight. Jackson proceeded to perform a mix of originals, including "Hometown," and covers, such as the Beatles' "For No One." "It's nice to be able to pay tribute to artists that have influenced you," he said. Earlier Jackson had also given an inspired rendition of Steely Dan's "Reelin' in the Years," during which he managed to recreate Walter Becker's guitar solo note-for-note on a keyboard.

While the covers were fun, it was Jackson's original material that the audience responded to the most. This was especially true when Jackson visited material from his 1979 debut album Look Sharp. Songs like "One More Time" and "Got the Time" brought the crowd back to its feet.

If there was any low point to Jackson's performance, it was when he decided to combine "Stay," from NAD II, with "Steppin' Out" from the original Night and Day, thus cheating the audience out of hearing one of his biggest hits it in its entirety.

The audience didn't seem to care, however, as it rose again during "Slow Song," the final track on Night and Day. It would also be the final song on this night, as the band members began leaving the stage one by one, with Jackson eventually leaving Maby to play the final notes before the stage went black. While he may not be an angry young man anymore, Joe Jackson still knows how to work a crowd.

TONY JENKINS
(December 5, 2000)