Ray Davies and Locksley at Tampa Theatre, Tampa, Fla.
Judging by all its press photos, Locksley's been training for this gig all along.
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When Ray Davies, leader of The Kinks—in short, one of the best rock bands ever, period—announced his current U.S. solo tour earlier this year, it came with an interesting bit of local news. Locksley, a band that started in Madison and moved off to pursue its career in Brooklyn, would come along as Davies’ opening and backing band. (Alas, the tour’s not coming to the Midwest at all.) It’s quite a score for such a young band, but it makes sense: From harmonies to hooks to tight jeans and pointy leather shoes, the Locksley boys pick up on the feel of a ’60s British Invasion pop group. I was in Tampa visiting family over Thanksgiving weekend and saw the tour kick off Friday, Nov. 28 at the splendid Tampa Theatre.
Locksley’s opening set kept the songs tight and delivered simple pleasures. Bassist Jordan Laz and guitarists Kai Kennedy and Jesse Laz traded off lead vocals, often within a single song. The vocal harmonies came through high and full and bought a lot of goodwill on “Why Can’t I Be You (Why Not Me)” and “Don’t Make Me Wait,” as did the snappy drum patterns, which told the crowd just where to clap their hands.
They pulled out a cover of The White Stripes’ “Hotel Yorba.” At a Madison show Decider caught last year, the band got fans onstage one by one during this song, recruiting members who could sing, play guitar, play tambourine, etc., until they’d halfway replaced themselves with audience members. (Hey look, someone got video.) They didn’t try this admittedly funny gimmick in Tampa, maybe because of the higher stage. Locksley rounded out the set with a cover of a “little ditty we picked up on a Stax compilation,” as Jesse Laz put it, nodding to the band’s bouncy R&B influences.
Locksley’s stuff remained onstage as the stage crew set up for Davies’ set, bringing out stools for Davies and his touring lead guitarist, Bill Shanley. The duo started with a few acoustic versions old Kinks singles: “I Need You,” “Where Have All The Good Times Gone,” and “Till The End Of The Day.” “Is there anybody here in need of emotional help?” Davies beamed, with a grin on his bony, pointy-featured, 64-year-old face. The old rock crusties (the kind of people who wear leather jackets and ponytails well into their 50s) and middle-aged fanatics fessed up with a cheer. (Same reaction for “Are there any sinners here tonight?”)
Davies’ best songs put satire and drama in bitingly plain English. That’s why crowds remember his tunes so well and are so eager to belt them out. Davies let the audience take the choruses of “Dedicated Follower Of Fashion” and “Well Respected Man.” It must have felt like revenge for anyone who gets to 50 or 60 and can still taste Ray Davies’ wicked humor and his sense that everything’s at once tragic and silly.
Of course, as Davies and Shanley mixed up old Kinks numbers with tracks from his solo albums Working Man’s Café and Other People’s Lives, people wondered where the backing guys were. Davies would’ve been more than satisfying on his own, but with all that gear still sitting there at the ready, people got anxious. (Between yelling out song requests, some folks yelled out, “Where’s the band?!”) After playing “All Day And All Of The Night,” they finally brought Locksley back out.
As people started crowding up front for “You Really Got Me,” with all the extra guitar and harmony power behind it, Davies stayed up on his feet, happily squirming around and mostly letting his own acoustic guitar hang around him unplayed. Davies’ young backers found their way pretty nicely into the triumphantly British “Victoria,” the opening track from The Kinks’ Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire), giving it a little extra punch. Naturally, they made a big finish with “Lola,” the charming number about a transvestite that’s grown into a huge singalong favorite. It’s good to have some fresh faces onstage for lines like “I left home just a week before, / and I never, ever kissed a woman before.” Locksley brought the charming innocence and Davies brought the wily mischief. That’s just what it took to do justice to Kinks tunes, even if it was only three.
