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Opera House, Toronto, Nov. 9, 1998
What a difference two years can make. Back when the Afghan
Whigs last stopped byToronto's Opera
House in 1996 on the Black Love tour, black-clad
leader Greg Dulli, coming across as equal parts
Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave, opened what would be an intense,
darkly-hued show with the mournful lines, "Tonight, tonight, I say
goodbye/to everyone who loves me." |
Tonight, however, Dulli -- decked out in shades and a pimpish
fedora, looking like Robert DeNiro's Johnny Boy on a Miles Davis
tip -- literally strutted onstage to the chunka-chunka rhythms of
his band laying down the Temptations' "Papa Was A
Rolling Stone," with the air of a man given a new lease on life. As
the song metamorphosed into "Somethin' Hot" from the Whigs'
critically acclaimed new album, 1965, it soon became clear
that existential angst was the last thing on Dulli's mind. He was
here to partay, y'all, and for the next two-and-a-half hours,
that's just what he and the packed house did.
When Dulli did essay treatises on the sexual wars that pervaded the
band's classic Gentlemen album of 1993, such as "Debonair"
and the searing "Fountain And Fairfax, he did so as a survivor,
rather than either a victim or victimizer. The new perspective lent
the songs a heretofore unheard of air of ultimate victory. Nothing,
but nothing, was going to bring Dulli down on this night, a point
that a wacky mid-set cover of Ozzy Osbourne's
"Crazy Train" drove home.
Helping Dulli cut through the doom and gloom of the past two tours
in favor of this new, upbeat, rhythm and blues-fueled celebration
of life and love were Whigs cohorts John Curley
(bass) and Rick McCollum (guitar), drummer
Michael Horrigan and an assortment of sidemen and
women, including singer Susan Marshall, whose
smoldering solo turn on "My Curse" was one of the evening's
highlights.
Back when the title seemed to mean more than it currently does,
that other great rock & soul band, the Rolling
Stones, were regularly billed as "The World's Greatest
Rock Band." As the Afghan Whigs tore through their sinewy new funk
tune "Neglekted" and, appropriately, crunchy encore versions of The
Stones' "Beast Of Burden" and their own "Miles Iz Ded" -- a tribute
to Dulli's fave icon of black cool -- the band simultaneously made
that tired old phrase seem meaningful again and highlighted why it
has fallen into disrepair.
Simply put, most of the competition just ain't good enough. Like
prime-time Stones, these white boys have learned the lessons of
their black musical forebears, and without patronizing them, are
creating something totally now, somethin', well, hot. Seeing the
Whigs in action only emphasizes the ineptitude of many of today's
rock bands, for whom pop music history seems to stretch no further
back than, say, Nirvana.
The Afghan Whigs may not yet have attained Greg Dulli's recently
expressed desire for them to be the biggest rock band in the world.
Last night's performance, however, proves they're a strong
contender for one of the best.
JOHN WALKER (November 11, 1998)