The Boston Herald
March 28, 2001
Paradise Heavenly During Rock Double Bill
The Soft Boys And The Young Fresh Fellows At The Paradise, Boston, Monday Night
by Brett Milano
If you didn't know better, you'd swear that The Soft Boys and the Young Fresh Fellows, who played a memorable show at The Paradise this week, are two of the freshest new bands to come along in years. But both bands have a history that goes back to the early-'80s. Yet in terms of heart, creativity and pure Rock 'n' Roll energy, Monday's show was a contender for the double-bill of the year.
The Soft Boys tour reunites English singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock with his bandmates from 1980: guitarist Kimberley Rew (later the leader of Katrina And The Waves), bassist Matthew Seligman (later with David Bowie) and drummer Morris Windsor.
The Soft Boys had little notice the first time around -- in fact they never played Boston before -- but their album Underwater Moonlight became a cult classic. They're now touring behind the album's re-release, marking a change from the solo-acoustic shows Hitchcock has played during the past decade.
Since The Soft Boys never drew big crowds the first time around, it was an overdue payback for them to draw a near-full house at The Paradise and get three lengthy encores. It didn't hurt that the Moonlight songs are all terrific, combining Beatles-Dylan roots with Punk energy and Hitchcock's artfully skewed lyrics.
But the band showed a renewed chemistry that belied two decades on the shelf, and it was a kick to see Hitchcock back in brash, rocker mode. On the set-closing "Insanely Jealous", he and Rew got off to a two-guitar showdown that amplified the song's slow-burning tension.
Though this was conceived as an oldies tour, Hitchcock already has written some new songs, and they played a half-dozen on Monday. The best were "Sudden Town" (with a shimmering, R.E.M.-like guitar riff), and "Mr. Kennedy", a surreal road song that featured another lively instrumental workout.
Fronted by exuberant character Scott McCaughey (an auxiliary member of R.E.M.), Seattle's Young Fresh Fellows occasionally show a thoughtful side on disc. But onstage they're more likely to go for non-stop cheap thrills, and that was definitely the case on Monday. Their frantic 45-minute set included a pair of Boston-oriented cover tunes (Freddie Cannon's "Palisades Park" and The Modern Lovers' "Someone I Care About") and their own "Beer Money", one of the first and funniest swipes ever taken at corporate-sponsored Rock.
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