Psychedelic Furs Aug 2019

Going Psycho!

With

The

Psychedelic Furs!

Aug 7, 2019, The Greek Theatre

Los Angeles, California

Story by James West, The Rocker

Photos by Danette West, TheRockerChic.com

Take the attitude of Johnny Rotten of The Sex Pistols, combine it with jamming musicians of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, and throw in a crooning voice of Frank Sinatra, and you've got yourself a crazy mess that is The Psychedelic Furs!

All you Fur-babies out there please forgive my description.

After-all, you've got a mostly 70's Classic Rocker here giving a review of an 80's Art Rock/New Wave band! But hey, what can I say, I dig some of these guy's songs. Also, this concert was a pick of my beloved wife and 80's connoisseur Danette West, aka The Rocker Chic! As is usually the case with these endeavors I end up having a really good time experiencing the unexpected. Concerts like Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Echo And The Bunnymen, and now The Psychedelic Furs give me more appreciation of the Art that is Rock And Roll!

Dear Boy...

What is up with...

that James guy?

Appreciation is one thing, but putting up with the opening acts was a bit of a challenge for me! Dear Boy started things out with a poppy set of nice songs that resonated well with the 80's generation crowd on hand. Singer and Los Angeles native Ben Grey was very appreciative of the opportunity given them to open for the Furs on tour this year. "You can tell by listening to our music how influenced we are by both James and The Psychedelic Furs!"

The crowd was enthusiastic, but I was missing that "PUNCH" of heavy guitar chords and drums during Dear Boy and James.

I did appreciate the excitement and energy from James' performance though. That dude was all over the place during his set! He went off into the crowd a couple of times and even up in the balcony during his set of songs, which was comprised mostly of hits and new material. "I looked over here to my right and just felt I had to get up into the 'cheap seats' and be with you people!" he stated after his climb into the balcony. I was almost expecting a stage dive from the balcony the way he was carrying on! Ha! Also, I did enjoy his disjointed dance moves on stage as well.

To me James' music is a blend of 80's pop with a bit of U2 thrown in for good measure. He did get off on some political tantrums though that should have probably been left unsaid. Maybe it was just his inner Bono coming out!

To tell you the truth I didn't really know what to expect of The Psychedelic Furs live in concert in the year 2019. It's crazy how a lot of 80's bands have not aged well over the years, especially in the health department. I mean, I thought the 70's had to be worse, but most of those 70's bands are still in great shape and still out delivering the goods in arena's across this great globe.

There was a lot of excitement from what looked-like a sold out Greek audience in attendance. After an unusual Opera introduction the Furs appeared and launched into "Love My Way" and the crowd went nuts!

LOVE

MY

WAY!

Singer Richard Butler still sounds remarkably great! Most of the gravely-voiced vocalists from that era have lost their chops, but Richard still sounded in great form that night, especially with it being the last date of the tour. My only concern was that the audio engineers at the venue had Richard's vocals turned down in the mix was a bit too low, with the keyboards up too high. Still the songs sounded strong throughout the thirteen song set.

The rest of the band sounded great too! Richard's brother Tim Butler was awesome on bass, and I was also impressed by guitarist Rich Good and drummer Paul Garisto. Amanda Kramer played the keyboards with style, and Mars Williams played saxophone like it came from... well... Mars!

The setlist was straight off their greatest hits album, but The Rocker Chic and I thought it was kind of strange that they played most of their well-known songs at the beginning of their performance, and as a result, the remainder of the set seemed to suffer a bit. Although as a result of playing some deeper album cuts, I did get into the cool vibes of songs like "Sister Europe" and the encore "India".

Overall, it was a very interesting night for this Classic Rocker. I learned that yes, there are fans of music other than what I usually listen to and enjoy. Music is Music, and it reverberates down into the souls of all who listen to it and who witness live music like this in all its glory. Thank you Rocker Chic for a great night, and oh... if you don't mind, can I please put on some Metallica now? I'm having heavy metal withdrawls!