It's my first visit to this venue, and I'm a bit startled to see that it's an actual lounge, with people eating dinner and stuff. It's funny how I find myself here just a couple of weeks after getting a looksee at the "A Night With Lou Reed" video from 1983 that was held in a similar-looking club in New York, with tables up front and standing room in the back.
Opener Priya Thomas is well-versed in "Is This Desire?"-era PJ Harvey, although PJH had started singing instead of wailing by that point. And I can't get over a nagging feeling that her guitar+voice are badly out of tune with the canned parts from her sequencer. Cale manages to take a career of wild unpredictability, avant-gardism, and defiantly anti-pop nonhits and turn it into something polished and nigh on professional. His new album "Black Acetate" is a slick piece of churning rock and roll that is ably recreated with his live band. The likes of "Pablo Picasso" (mammoth, intense) and "Guts" (feeling nearly like a handheld singalong with Cale at the piano) fit comfortably alongside newer straightforward rockers like "Outta the Bag" and "Hush". Overall, it's a tremendously entertaining two hours spent watching a 63-year old dude who's vigourous beyond his years. Oh, and Matthew Sweet would have killed to have written "Perfect" a decade ago.
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