Sometime in the ’80s, Ray Davies told me that the Kinks were the only band who could leave an audience “over the moon with enjoyment and still . . . disappointed.” Davies no longer leads the Kinks, but some things never change. Regarding his Orpheum show a week ago Tuesday — his first non-Kinks local performance with a full backing band — I won’t complain about the lack of “Days,” “Waterloo Sunset,” or anything from Preservation. That’s thanks in part to touching, mostly acoustic versions of “Village Green” and “Picture Book” (no, it’s not just the theme for a Hewlett Packard photo-printer TV ad), a searing “20th Century Man” (even more trenchant this century), the bitter celebration of failed lives that is “Dead End Street,” and all the expected feel-good button pushers: “All Day and All of the Night,” “You Really Got Me,” “Where Have All the Good Times Gone?”, and the night-closing sing-along “Lola.”
After several songs, Davies greeted us with “It’s nice to be here; it’s nice to be anywhere” — an old man’s joke, yes, but also an allusion to his being shot in 2004 while chasing a mugger. At 61, with an ever-thinning head of hair, he’s still lean of body and still a ham at heart. (He can’t resist shouting “Way-o!” at odd times, then waiting for the audience echo.) But he’s also still a songwriter of great potency, as the eight songs from his new solo disc, Other People’s Lives (V2), demonstrated. “Stand Up Comic” had bite and sass; “The Getaway” (Lonesome Train)” had a bluesy sadness. And “After the Fall” and “The Morning After” suggested we had no choice but to weather life’s shitstorms and get up to face the next day.
Related:
Interview: Ray Davies, Survival skills, Third impressions, More 
- Interview: Ray Davies
In 1964, the scorching five-chord chorus of “You Really Got Me” changed rock music forever.
- Survival skills
Back when his ’60s contemporaries John Lennon and Pete Townshend were making careers out of revealing their innermost thoughts, Ray Davies moved in a different direction, observing everyday life and the quietly fraught people who live it.
- Third impressions
"With new bands I always listen to the third album," the Kinks’ Ray Davies has said. "That’s the real key to know what’s going to happen."
- Flashbacks: October 6, 2006
These selections, culled from our back files, were compiled by Dan Peleschuk, Ian Sands, and Eva Wolchover.
- Pulp free
During the heyday of the Kinks, Ray Davies wrote with compassion about people in small towns clinging to a faded way of life.
- I Monster | A Dense Swarm of Ancient Stars
Twins of Evil (2009)
- Going on sale: February 10
Franz Ferdinand & Death Cab, Thursday, Alkaline Trio, Neko Case, and more.
- Nice guys
John Vanderslice — indie-rock artist, producer, and all-around nice guy — has had a tough year.
- Battle of the banned
It's one thing to be a musician and get thrown out of Disneyland (Velvet Underground) or banned from a national landmark (Ozzy Osbourne at the Alamo), but you've hit rock paydirt when you become the target of an entire nation.
- True believers
Luke Pritchard may look a bit like a shaggy dog with his lips curled in a mock Jagger pout. But it’s no pose.
- Britt pop
It’s like the Anti–Wall of Sound.
- Less
Topics:
Live Reviews
, Ray Davies, Ray Davies, Ray Davies
