Roxyrama Reviews Page
Roxy Music on the Road 2001
Madison Square Garden Theater, New York City, NY, USA - 24th July 2001

Support Act: Rufus Wainwright - see details here
Setlist:- Re-make / Re-model, Street Life, Ladytron, While My Heart is Still Beating, Out of the Blue, A Song for Europe, My Only Love, In Every Dream Home A Heartache, Oh Yeah, Both Ends Burning, Tara, Mother Of Pearl, Avalon, Dance Away, Jealous Guy, Editions of You
Encores: Love Is The Drug, Do The Strand, For Your Pleasure
Review: - I'm grateful to Tony DiMurro for this personal review
As the Theatre in Madison Square was held in rapture by Phil Manzanera breaking "Ladytron" in two with a solo so bad, Hendrix was bowing in his grave, I was moved to tears of joy, followed immediately by the thought of what might have been. I have always been a resentful, angry guy(in fact, I'm downright miserable), but watching these dudes play with so much fun and fury I couldn't help but think why? Why break up after their first "hit" album? Why break up after their first number one single? Why 18 years to reunite? Why not a studio album after this tour? Well as Tony the Butcher's Helper taught me long ago: "Why is a crooked letter." So I dried my eyes, stopped living in the wreckage of the future and immediately got goose bumps as they broke into "My Only Love" in which Chris Spedding matched Manzanera's mind-blowing grind with a delicious slow hand of his own. Yes, Roxy Music was back and back with a vengeance.
The show started with the muffled din of crowd noise leading into the frenzied opening chords of "Re-make/Re-model," the ultimate modern day love song. To see Ferry perched on the ledge at the back of the stage playing the synth and reciting the words, "I tried but could not find the way. Looking back all I did was look away," was so powerful it immediately eradicated any remnants of the dreadful fool Rufus Wainwright(Who books these opening acts, anyway!?). I mean if the douche-bag slogs through a set like he don't care, well then guess what? DUH! Neither do we! Okay, enough, back to Manzanera and the boys. I could not agree more with chief rock critic for the chi-town sun times and overall King of Rock Jim DeRogatis: Manzanera deserves his place on the pantheon of great rock guitarists right next to David Gilmour. Even Bryan Ferry seemed to be really enjoying himself in sharing the spotlight with his former Roxy mates - Phil and Andy and YES! - TGPT - The Great Paul Thompson and almost Roxy man Chris Spedding. And even though no Eno (he still resents Roxy and as I said before I understand resentment), I was still hoping to see Eddie Jobson(although Andy probably still resents him! Is it any wonder this band could never stay together for more than three years at a clip?), but was comforted by awesome Lucy Wilkins who looks just like Jobson! In fact one of the wildest moments of the night is during her blistering violin solo in "Out of the Blue" in which a picture of Jobson plasters the screen overhead and they look like doppelgangers.
Well, by now you probably know the set list. They played the same songs both nights, but the second night, Tuesday the 24th, Roxy seemed more relaxed and tighter and the sound was mixed better. They really seemed to be having fun and when the opening chords of "Mother of Pearl" whipped through the room, with Ferry's croon: "... hey, what's this coming around the corner? WOO...WOO!" the tears came back with the realization that now I could finally die in peace.
External Articles: -
The New York Times here
Jem Aswad in New York's Time Out here
The NME here