A Brief Return to the Twentieth Century: Gang of Four at Irving Plaza
The Gang of Four returned to New York in great style and form last night, showing no signs of their two-decade gap in performing. They were tight and sharp and ready to take over the world. Darting across stage and frequently switching places, Andy Gill’s jagged guitars sounded every bit as dangerous as they do on those old records while Jon King punctuated his singing by wildly flailing his arms like some sort of spastic messiah. It felt a bit like a socialist church (the crazy, speaking-in-tongues, big-tent revival kind) as the crowd (a wonderful mix of old-timers and kids) screamed along with lines like “The change will do you good!” and “To Hell with poverty!!!” The set list was mostly restricted to songs from their first two albums, the only ones that all four original members played on, although the late, Joseph Conrad-quoting “We Live As We Dream, Alone” […]