The Del Amitri Concert, September 22, 1995
Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 15:50:07 -0400
Subject: Del Amitri Concert Review - The Riviera in Chicago, 9/22/95
by David Sills

DEL AMITRI REVS UP AT THE RIVIERA

After selling out 3 shows at the Double Door in April (not to mention a jam packed in-store performance at Best Buy) our favorite Scottish rockers Del Amitri decided that they hadn't yet had enough of the Windy City. So they came back to the larger Riviera Theatre on September 22 and sold that out as well.

Opening the show were the Caulfields, and I'm guessing the only reason these guys got on the tour was because they are label mates with the Dels. To put it mildly, they stunk. Boring songs, no stage presence and I swear that the lead guitarist was Kato Kaelin! One person I was with actually fell asleep. Their big "aren't we cool" moment was plugging the fact that one of their songs was going to be heard during a scene of Melrose Place. ZZZZZZZZZ... Even a tongue in cheek cover version of the Captain And Tenille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" couldn't save them.

After a 40 minute wait, Del Amitri finally took the stage with "Stone Cold Sober" and basically kept the songs coming all night. Iain was wearing a cowboy hat which didn't stay on his head too long. And Justin was clad in the famous purple shirt and purple/green/black tartan pants (I hope he washes them between shows). A film crew was trying to catch every minute of the action - "Some old friends of ours are going for their Master's thesis or final project or something," explained Justin.

Here's a list of the songs they played (not in order - sorry!): Stone Cold Sober, Kiss This Thing Goodbye, When I Want You, Hatful Of Rain, Just Like A Man, When You Were Young, The Ones That You Love..., Start With Me (with Iain taking over lead vocals for a brief merger of Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life"), Always The Last To Know, Here & Now, Tell Her This, One Thing Left To Do, Being Somebody Else, Crashing Down, Roll To Me, It's Never Too Late To Be Alone, Medicine, Driving With The Brakes On, Come Together, and Be My Downfall.

With a band like the Dels, they have so many great songs it's hard to be upset if they didn't play one that you really liked. So calls for "Move Away Jimmy Blue" and someone's drunken war cry for Rod Stewart's "Maggie Mae" went unheeded, as did my calls for some of my favorite b-sides. And the other good thing is that they change around the set list enough so that if you see them more than once you don't see the exact same show.

The band seemed to be having a truly great time. "We were here doing three shows at the Double Door in April, so we were in town the whole weekend," said Justin, "and we had such a great time in Chicago that our next show was total shite." This drew a big cheer from the crowd.

For "Roll To Me", Justin started by playing and singing the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" - perhaps to point out to some people that the Del Amitri song is an homage to the Fab Four (even the same opening chord). No mention was made about this being their "hit" single and it was done in the middle of the set.

Justin described "One Thing Left To Do" as a "song to slit your wrists to because it's just so sad and depressing" (as he spoke he pretended to get all choked up and teary). Later, Justin said that they were going to try and play a song that they only started doing 2 shows ago and that Justin kept screwing up, even in soundchecks. Then they played the song, "It's Never Too Late To Be Alone" without error (Iain was standing next to Justin the whole time so that in case Justin forgot the chords, he could look at what Iain was playing on the bass).

The Beatles came back into the picture as the live fade out of "Crashing Down" turned into "Come Together". "This was a single so we might as well play it," was Justin's way of introducing "Kiss This Thing Goodbye".

They took a short break, then came back to play some more. This encore ended with "Being Someone Else". Justin said that they really enjoyed playing in Chicago, and he called it the "Glasgow of the United States - which is much better than being the Edinburgh of the U.S.! Believe me you wouldn't want to be them!" He then mentioned that they couldn't play forever because they had to be in Detroit the next night. This got the crowd booing Detroit, so Justin dedicated the song to the people of Detroit, because "you guys are giving them a hard time."

And after returning for a few more songs, they started "Be My Downfall". This time Ashley didn't get sent off during the song (he played bongos) as he did at previous shows. Iain and David sang their harmony parts and Andy did several beautiful accordion solos (yeah Andy!!) and then it melted into a song called "Drown On Dry Land" (which as far as I know is not a cover song - I've looked!) and back into "Downfall" - it was truly wonderous. They all thanked us again, and exited as the house lights came up. A great show by a great band!