HAMILTON -- Maybe the drugs work after all.
Charismatic singer Richard Ashcroft and his soccer-loving English mates from The Verve played a workman-like gig Friday at Copps Coliseum that started out in a narcotized slumber, but finished in a strobe-light flash of Bittersweet brilliance.
The band played almost all of 1997's mega-successful and critically acclaimed Urban Hymns album and about 9,500 fans were grateful for the dreamy mood that was cast over the Steeltown bowl of concrete known as Copps Coliseum.
Ashcroft and the band - minus guitarist Nick McCabe, who bailed on the tour a while back due to stress - started out the show tentatively. Ashcroft had to fill in on guitar, which meant the rock messiah gestures were kept to a minimum.
The band could also be a little rusty on this stop on their 32-gig European and North American tour because nine shows were recently cancelled when bassist Simon Jones came down with a serious viral infection.
The Tibetan Freedom Concert in Washington, D.C. and giant Danish rock festival Roskilde were among the cancelled dates.
Jones, Ashcroft, drummer Peter Salisbury and guitarist/keyboardist Simon Tong were helped along in their sonic flourishes on this night by guest steel guitarist B.J. Cole.
Ashcroft, the undisputed front man of the band, seemed to be in a bit of a hallucinogenic fog at the start: He screwed up the order of Lucky Man and The Drugs Don't Work.
But he got his legs during blistering and beautifully noisy renditions of Lucky Man, Velvet Morning and Come On. The latter was a sonic wall that swept listeners up in a wave of beat-heavy ambience.
When Tong came out from behind the keyboards to play guitar, the whole band improved. Ashcroft could focus on singing and the layer of guitar made the overall sound more rich and complex.
There wasn't a whole lot of banter between Ashcroft and the audience, but the mop-topped vocalist from Wigan, England was cognizant of the role Canadian fans have played in the band's journey from its birth in 1989 to its current cat-bird seat as the band that breathed life into the moribund rock music scene.
"You have helped make us very successful," said Ashcroft, who wore a mesh black T-shirt, black sporty pants and black trendy beach hat. "Thanks for your support."
The 14-song show lasted 90 minutes and included a solo Ashcroft acoustic encore of two tunes - So Sister and See You in the Next One (Have A Good Time).
Then the familiar string opening of Bittersweet Symphony kicked in and the fans surrendered to their Shoegazer God.
Ashcroft displayed some Jagger-esque dance moves in the late stages of the show, and if you add thick lips and a gaunt face to the mix, well, you can see the resemblance.
Massive Attack did not open the show - they quit the bill weeks ago for unspecified reasons - but a solid DJ got the crowd prepped for a Vervacious evening.
The band's current tour began in Ireland in May and ends Aug. 29 also in Ireland.
The only other Canadian date on the tour was to have been Aug. 1 in Montreal at the Molson Centre, but that show was also cancelled for unspecified reasons.
JAM! Rating: 3 out of 5
