The Kinks man hits the Borgata

Towards the end of Ray Davies set at the intimate Music Box at the Borgata in Atlantic City, after playing about a dozen Kinks songs and a few songs from his recent solo records, he acknowledged the music that he had made with the Kinks and asked the audience to applaud the band. The fans went wild and made more noise than they had all night. Ray then asked the audience to applaud his brother Dave and again the fans showed their love. It was clear that while the Kinks haven’t recorded an album in 15 years or played a show in more than 10 that Ray Davies is full of nostalgia for the band he and his brother started in the 60’s. He then let the audience know that he and Dave had been getting together and playing music again and alluded to a Kinks reunion. The people went bonkers and he went straight into Tired of Waiting.

While a Kinks reunion would be something I’d probably sell one of my kidneys to attend (look for it on craigslist when the kinks reunion is announced) it shouldn’t be overstated how incredible Ray Davies is on his own. I was expecting to see an electric show with a full band which is how he’s performed all the other times I’ve seen him but tonight he played a stripped down acoustic show with only one member of his band accompanying him on guitar. The small room which seats maybe 1,500 was the perfect setting for such a performance. And let me say, this was not a mellow, quiet acoustic show. This was a rocking night full of jokes, stories, interaction with the audience and lots of sing along moments. From the opener of I Need You, people were up and singing along and they stayed that way for Where Have All the Good Times Gone and Dead End Streets. Nearly every song that followed was preceded by a story that either related to the song or to something that was going on his life at the time the song was written. For the recent track ‘Morphine Song’ he told about getting morphine in the hospital after he was shot in the leg and how the person next to him was in severe pain but didn’t have the coverage to get the morphine. Before the classic ‘All Day and All Night’ he spoke about the beginning days of the band and how they were turned down by nearly every record company because their groundbreaking sound of distorted, loud guitars was seen as nothing but noise.

One of the great things about seeing a performer like Ray Davies is that his joy for the music and sharing it with the audience really comes shining through. There wasn’t one moment during this show where he wasn’t smiling or just beaming with joy. It’s so obvious when watching him that he loves his music, he loves performing and he absolutely adores his fans and their enthusiasm for him. Unlike most performers that ignore the many requests that are shouted out from the audience throughout the show Ray Davies has always encouraged them. Every time I’ve seen him perform he’s played multiple songs, or at least parts of them, that the audience members yell out or throw on stage written on pieces of paper or paper plates and last night was no different. Someone had yelled out for Apeman and almost immediately he started playing it, playing nearly the entire song. Someone else requested Alcohol off of the classic Muswell Hillbillies album and he played the first part of the song up to the chorus. Other songs such as This Time Tomorrow, which was recently used in Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited, he played just a few bars from and then moved on.

For the encore of the show he brought the opening band, young pop-y, mod rockers Locksley up on stage to act as his backing band for two final electric numbers, the classics You Really Got Me and Lola. It was a powerful, electrified end to a great night of amazing tunes.

After the show my friend and I ran into the guys from Locksley and we invited them along for a drink at B Bar in the hotel. They turned out to be really nice guys and we had a fun time getting drunk together at the bar. Gotta say the Borgata has some cool bars and seemed to have great tunes playing everywhere we went, including the elevator (at 3am I held the elevator door open for ten minutes while I watched Keith Richards sing two songs at a live Stones show. badass). We gambled a bit, where we got a bit drunker off of the comped drinks, lost a bit of money, but a had a blast doing it, and then got fatburgers at 2am from the 24 hour Fatburger in the food court. All in all it was a kick ass, fun night. I look forward to going back for another show very soon.