Ray Davies

Bobby B: The Vinyl Vagabond May 17, 2019

[This review was originally posted on my old music blog...]

It was a brief performance, so I figured I'd throw up a brief review before hitting the hay early on a Friday night. First of all, it should be mentioned that the HMV at 333 Yonge Street in Toronto has hands down the worst setup I've ever seen for an in-store performance. By mere fluke I got there mega early, and as it turns out, it's a good thing I did. The setup made it possible for maybe 20 out of the ... um ... way more than that, to see what was going on. However, waiting over an hour to see a 20 minute show will not go down as one of the brightest moments in my personal history. On the other hand, how often do you get to stand a few feet away from a true rock legend?

Ray Davies was here on one of only a couple of appearances to promote his new CD "Working Man's Cafe." The man of course, is an incredible songwriter, and the songs that he performed from the album sounded quite good, for a first listen. He's always been applauded for his often satirical lyrics, and his presence and banter during this performance proved that he is just as witty and, perhaps more amicable than ever. I could've sworn that he promised to play a few Kinks classics, but he only played "Lola," which had everybody singing along, as they should. Aw well, one is better than none, I guess. Afterwards, he stayed behind to do the autograph thing, but the line was long and I've never been a big autograph person. I already had a better view of the show than almost everybody else there anyway. Because I was an hour early. Because I'm cool. And now I'll get back to going to bed early on a Friday night.