I rarely even attend local gigs featuring covers bands, much less include them in this gig book. However, when I picked up on this one, I penned it into my diary pronto. The guest guitarist on this particular covers band, you see, was to be none other than Dave Gregory, formerly of local heroes XTC, a band who stopped touring in 1982, a year after I rather stupidly turned down a ticket to see them at the Oasis, and a band cited as influences by a whole lot of our Boston rock friends!
So, intrigued and thankfully recovering from my recent tonsillitis, I trundled up the hill to join the curious throng at the heavily-renovated and considerably more spacious Vic back room. The Hi-Fidels, on at 9.30, trotted out some initially predictable but well-played covers ("Mr. Brightside", "Monster", "Message In A Bottle" et al) before Dave Gregory joined them at 10. Immediately the performance level increased, as a spine-tingling cover of Jeff Buckley's "Dream Brother" was trotted out. This remained my highlight, despite Dave's very impressive fretwork during a lengthy cover of King Crimson's "Red", until the band acquiesced to a couple of XTC covers! A jerky "Scissorman" was a rare delight, but the real jewel was to follow with a superbly rendered "Towers Of London", lush and languid, with the Hi-Fidels putting in their best work to augment Dave's superb guitar work.
This ended Mr. G's guest spot and the first part of the set, so I took this as a cue to leave, pausing to congratulate the great man, chew the cud on Boston Rock, and get the obligatory pic. So there it is!
So, intrigued and thankfully recovering from my recent tonsillitis, I trundled up the hill to join the curious throng at the heavily-renovated and considerably more spacious Vic back room. The Hi-Fidels, on at 9.30, trotted out some initially predictable but well-played covers ("Mr. Brightside", "Monster", "Message In A Bottle" et al) before Dave Gregory joined them at 10. Immediately the performance level increased, as a spine-tingling cover of Jeff Buckley's "Dream Brother" was trotted out. This remained my highlight, despite Dave's very impressive fretwork during a lengthy cover of King Crimson's "Red", until the band acquiesced to a couple of XTC covers! A jerky "Scissorman" was a rare delight, but the real jewel was to follow with a superbly rendered "Towers Of London", lush and languid, with the Hi-Fidels putting in their best work to augment Dave's superb guitar work.
This ended Mr. G's guest spot and the first part of the set, so I took this as a cue to leave, pausing to congratulate the great man, chew the cud on Boston Rock, and get the obligatory pic. So there it is!
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