THIS IS MUSIC: THE VERVE @ MSG APRIL 28

When I heard that The Verve were going to be playing a few months ago, I basically flipped. “Bittersweet Symphony” has been one of my favorite songs since I was about ten. I had only just gotten into the rest of their discography, so I was eager to hear live the songs I had recently grown to love.

My friend Bennett and I took a cab up to MSG because it was raining and we were both having bad days. But we both foresaw it turning around after this concert. We got some drinks to take the edge off, and settled down in our seats to wait for the show to start. Looking around observing the crowd, I realized that we were only a few other (barely) teenagers there besides us. I guess that makes sense, since the band hadn’t performed in New York for almost ten years. In about three minutes, we had both finished our drinks (we had REALLY bad days, ok?), and decided to go for round two. Its a good thing we did because I ran into my favorite Mancunian, Paul Adams! He had the sad misfortune of going with a friend who had not yet recovered from ankle surgery and was forced to sit near the back of the theatre, despite having a general admission pass. He offered to switch tickets with us so we could get closer down into the action (we were in the seated section), and we trekked down to
the side of the stage to try to explain to the guards that we wanted to switch tickets but since Bennett and I didn’t have GA wristbands, they wouldn’t let us switch. So we grudgingly slogged back to our seats.

As we were about to sit down, the band took to the stage (there were no openers), and we jumped right back up because OH MY GOD, there they were in all their legendary glory with the amazing Richard Ashcroft right in center stage. I forget what song they opened with because I was too in awe of how Ashcroft does not appear to have aged a day since I watched a video of him walking down the street for five minutes in fourth grade. By the time they started their second song “This is Music” I had come back to reality and started dancing my pants of, because this song and pretty much every other Verve song makes me feel like my feet could just lift right off the ground. I guess the rest of the crowd didn’t share my feelings, or maybe they were tired, because we were almost the only ones standing up in our section, and probably literally the only ones dancing. I felt kind of bad for the poor sod who had his view of obscured by my shakin’ booty, but not that bad. You paid good money
for these tickets, sir! Get up and dance!

Despite Ashcroft’s handsome appearance, after the first few songs I spent very little time looking at the stage. The sound they made (especially with the crap MSG acoustics) was phenomenal and I was lost in my own little eyes-closed-arms-waving-hair-flying universe. Even though I knew almost every song they played, it sounded new, and I think that is the mark of a legendary band. Their sound is just so all-encompassing and huge sounding that its hard not to get caught up and find yourself in distortion and reverb heaven. They stormed through most of the favorites (except Slide Away, which is an amazing song) including “Drugs Don’t Work”, “Sonnet”, and “Lucky Man”, “Life’s an Ocean” and “Weeping Willow”. As the songs progressed, Ashcroft’s zip-up shirt kept getting more and more unzipped, and I made a bet with Bennett that he would take his shirt off. Crushingly (for both my wallet and my heart) he did not. They also played the epic ten-minuter “Gravity Grave”. I am telling
you, I used to hate long songs passionately but lately they are just my favorite part of gigs! Its like you are going into an underwater tunnel and lose all concept of space and time when they song is going on, until it stops and you come up gasping for breath on the other side, realizing that you were only in a temporary reality. Sorry if that was a little metaphysical, but it was seriously a spiritual experience. It was THAT good.

They kicked their encore off with the heart-wrenching and gorgeous “History” which , in a very cliche way, sent a wave of shivers all over me. But this was no match for my reaction to “Bittersweet Symphony”, which basically consisted of me melting into a puddle. . It sounded a hundred times better live, which is incredible considering how great it sounds recorded. Finally the whole crowd was standing up and waving their hands in the air, huge smiles of ecstasy plastered on their faces. They just kept playing it for what seemed like forever, the sound just kept getting bigger and bigger and I thought I would just combust with happiness. Thankfully I survived. They played a new song for their closer, which I found kind of lame. I mean, the song was good, but it was sort of an anti-climax after “Symphony”. But that didn’t make me any less ecstatic as I made my way out into the drizzly night . Our night (and the weather) had improved so much we didn’t even mind taking the subway
home.