by Michael LelloWeekender Editor
SCRANTON — Ray Davies is a musical chameleon. He’s written snotty proto-punk, pint-swinging pub singalongs and probably the only hit song about a transvestite. So compiling a concert setlist that highlights all of those different styles is a mighty challenge, a challenge The Kinks legend remarkably pulled off Friday night at the Scranton Cultural Center, touching on all facets of his career with sensitivity, power and humor.
Davies played more than 25 songs, joined by guitarist Bill Shanley for most of them and the band The 88 for a raucous electric set that closed the night. Conversational and taking requests written on paper plates flung onto the stage, he spiced up the show with funny and poignant stories as well as a few readings from his book “X-Ray,” the audience eating out of his hand the entire time.
Seated on a stool and strumming an acoustic guitar, Davies started off with “This Is Where I Belong” before getting down to business with “You Really Got Me,” which lost none of its impact despite the stripped-down arrangement. With the jaunty “Harry Rag,” he transformed the Weinberg Theatre into an Irish pub, with the fun and sizable crowd of 1,100 clapping and singing along. The beautiful “Victoria” was one of the show’s high points, with Davies, still in fine voice at 65, singing the chorus with conviction. The nursery-rhyme simplicity of “Autumn Almanac” — inspired by a local hunch-backed gardener in Davies’ native Muswell Hill neighborhood of North London — was another breathtaking moment, and Davies prefaced “The Tourist” with a story about his recent residency in New Orleans, where he was shot in 2004.
Davies and Shanley, who switched between acoustic and electric guitars, proved to be a formidable duo, ratcheting up the intensity with a solo or some heavy strumming. The tropical-tinged “Apeman” was a treat and was contrasted nicely with the ethereal “See My Friends.” Davies explained that the rendition of “See My Friends” he and Shanley played is the original version which he recently revisited on “The Kinks Choral Collection” album.
“Two Sisters” — which Davies said he wrote about his contentious relationship with his brother, Kinks guitarist Dave Davies — and a wistful and sardonic “Sunny Afternoon” were other memorable moments from the duo portion of the show, as was a segment Davies called “a cinema of magic moments.” Here, he played songs featured in movies and on TV, like “I’m Not Like Everybody Else” (“The Sopranos”), “Nothing in This World Can Stop Me Worryin’ ’Bout That Girl” (“Rushmore”), “Too Much Time” (“An American Friend”) and “Well Respected Man” (“Juno”). The fact that so many of Davies’ songs have been selected for so many films is a tribute to the lasting relevance of his work, and his stories about each movie’s director and how the songs made their way into the movies revealed a sense of pride for his accomplishments.
Having drawn listeners in with his charm, Davies then left the stage and returned to pummel them with a searing “All Day And All of the Night” with backing band The 88. With the audience standing and many of its members rushing to the front, Davies and The 88 — which earlier served as the opening act and played a well-received, taut set of power pop — plowed through “Lola,” before the star left again, only to return with a bottle of Heineken and a Fender Stratocaster for “Low Budget.” He played a few licks behind his head and punctuated the song with a leaping scissor kick, and with that, he was gone, but not before signing a few autographs for people in the front row.
One could complain that the full-band part of the show was too short and little more than an encore, or that Davies avoided “The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society” album in its entirety, or that he didn’t play “Come Dancing.” But finding true faults with Davies’ energetic, touching performance in Scranton would prove impossible.
“They’re part of my life, and I hope they’re part of yours,” Davies said of his songs after he finished “Sunny Afternoon.” Judging by his performance and the audience’s response, you couldn’t argue with either statement.
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