A bit of perverse humor, perhaps? How else to explain why Alison Moyet closed her sold-out ”acoustic” show Tuesday at the Park West with Led Zeppelin`s ”Rock and Roll”-arguably the heaviest song in the entire rock music canon.
Moyet wailed out the opening line, ”Been a long time since I rock and rolled,” as acoustic guitarists Pete Glenister and Christian Marsac strummed furiously on their twin 12-strings. It was a gambit that aptly summed up the British singer`s musical approach-surprise `em whenever possible.
Actually, Moyet has been throwing surprises at her fans ever since she transformed herself from pub rhythm and blues singer to techno-pop chanteuse in the early `80s, in the duo Yaz with synthesizer player Vince Clarke. While the group scored a number of major U.K. hits, they barely dented the American charts.
The story continued post-Yaz as well, as her 1985 solo debut, ”Alf,”
went platinum in Britain but didn`t even sell aluminum in the States. But what the husky-voiced singer does have is a loyal audience here who have stuck with her through the long stretches between albums.
Those fans were out in force at the Park West, calling out, ”We love you,” several times throughout the evening. And for her part, Moyet seemed to thrive on the love fest.
Dressed in a black leather jacket over a loose-fitting black jersey, Moyet appeared genuinely delighted with the audience`s warm response, as she offered revamped acoustic versions of her older material, songs from her recent ”Hoodoo” album and a few more surprises a la ”Rock and Roll.”
With just Glenister and Marsac for instrumental support, Moyet`s vocal firepower sounded positively explosive on the show opening, ”It Won`t Be Long” from ”Hoodoo.” Another song from the album, ”Wishing You Were Here,” was given a sort of hybrid torch-folk treatment. A new song,
”Dorothy,” was perhaps the most passionately sung of the night, as Moyet`s wistful voice practically dripped with emotion as she sang, ”Dorothy, it`s been too long, so, so long.”
Among the surprises were an Edith Piaf-like number sung in French and the gospel standard ”Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” During the encore, Glenister and Marsac, who added strong vocal harmonies throughout, combined with Moyet to sing Clarke`s original percolating synthesizer melody on an acousticized version of Yaz`s ”Situation.”
Moyet surprised `em, all right, right until the end.
Opening for Moyet was singer-songwriter Jules Shear, who spent nearly as much time talking about how he wrote his songs as actually singing them. In his disappointingly short 40-minute set, Shear concentrated on material from his new ”The Great Puzzle” album.
Performing solo, Shear was a study in contrasts: While his tuneful vocals were heart-rending on songs like ”Trap Door” and ”We Were Only Making Love,” his flailing guitar style was positively violent.
Shear displayed a droll sense of humor as he recounted his attempts at collaborating with Joan Jett and the Band, but didn`t have enough time in his six-song set to perform his two best-known songs: ”All Through the Night,” a hit for Cyndi Lauper, and ”If She Knew What She Wants,” done by the Bangles.
