Paul Weller Last Night: Bad
He played only a couple Jam and Style Council songs, but that was OK by me. I love Paul Weller's recent solo albums. Last year's 22 Dreams is a full-spectrum listening experience, with gorgeously arranged symphonic pop, bits of floating Brain Wilson-y whimsy, soulful piano ballads, and strummy folk rock. The album's scope and inventiveness shows up most younger, beardier bands for the timid mumblers they are. 
Bad show, mate
No, the problem wasn't the song selection it was, well, as my comrade Agen Schmitz described it:
The new drummer seemed to think he was in a heavy metal tribute band that was playing Paul Weller music. He was overly bombastic and the rest of the band seemed to follow that lead with extra-loud playing -- no nuance whatsoever. To add to the problem, the mix was muddy beyond belief, making me wonder if to protest Phil Spector's guilty verdict they decided to create their own wall-of-sound effect with each and every instrument and microphone adjusted to the same level.On top of it, I think Weller was wasted - and getting progressively drunker throughout. He was sloppy and his "patter" with the audience was a mixture of gratitude (he hadn't been in Seattle for a very long time - which I can attest to, since he canceled out on a show that I had tickets to back in the mid-90s on the day of the show) and petulance marked with loads of F-bombs.
If anything, I think Agen's assessment is almost too kind. The show sounded like shit. Where was the craftsman, the smart, funny, angry songwriter who made those great records? Instead, we got something more like this Paul Weller.
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