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| Richard Haick |
| The Cars in Oakland on Friday |
The Cars
May 13, 2011
@ The Fox Theater, Oakland
Better than: Getting a wisenheimer brainstorm
The vibe on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland early Friday evening came as late
vindication of John Lennon's Hard Day's Night quip, "The older
generation are leading this country to galloping ruin." The street
surged with frolicsome fortysomethings on a long-deferred spree, as
steam-pressure from life in cube farm or workaday hustle began to
whistle off in anticipation of a rare, indeed, momentous, event.
Gender distribution in the street and inside the vast movie-palace
venue was roughly equal, but divided into large, mobile gangs.
Plus-ones were naturally hard to come by, so I bought my girlfriend
(who was relieved of photography duties tonight) one of the last five remaining
seats situated way up in the nosebleeds. We were idling there at 8:15
p.m. listening to Archie Bell & the Drells do "Tighten Up" over
the P.A. when the Cars crept onto the darkened stage and piled into a
thunderous, lurching "Good Times Roll."
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| Richard Haick |
The sight of four-fifths of the original New Wave band sent the entire
hard-packed mass on the main floor to howling at once. The din as it
pounded the ceiling was enough to send the cheap seats into hysterics, and I loped downstairs to investigate its source. On the floor far
below writhed a throwdown mass that looked like something these
first-wave fans might've staged the last time the Cars rolled through
here back in 1985. The few younger folk in sight were plainly grooving
on retro-culture, like the guy got up as
Dude Lebowski I spied posing
for pics at the downstairs bar. He was perfect -- down to the beard,
sunglasses, and sweater -- but was for some unaccountable reason sopping
up beer and not White Russians.
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| Richard Haick |
It's no faint praise to say the new songs off
Move Like This --
especially "Hits Me" -- are well up to Ric Ocasek's old standard, and
scarcely damning criticism to note Benjamin Orr's elegantly creepy
co-lead vocals were sorely missed, at least by me. There was no pass
made at "Drive," their biggest hit, and the late bassist's shaky
tremolo still owns "Moving in Stereo," which they saved for the encore.
The rest of the show was equal parts flashy showroom display of a
retooled act and '80s group singalong as band and fans kept
trying to outblare each other. I was back up in the cheap seats when the last song ended at the well-nigh Lawrence Welkian
hour of 9:43 p.m. The P.A. began to unload Johnny Cash's take on Vera Lynn's World War II wheeze "
We'll Meet Again," which could mean
Ocasek is one more rocker who'll never again say never.
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| Richard Haick |
Overheard: Old hippie in leather hat on beholding the "Sold Out" sign:
"Boom-boom. Wakka."
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| Richard Haick |
Setlist:Good Times Roll
Blue Tip
Since You're Gone
Up and Down
My Best Friend's Girl
Hits Me
Touch and Go
I'm in Touch with Your World
Keep On Knocking
You Might Think
Drag On Forever
Free
I'm Not the One
Sad Song
Heartbeat City
Let's Go
Encore:
Moving in Stereo
Just What I Needed
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| Richard Haick |
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Location Info
Venue
Fox Theater - Oakland
Map
1807 Telegraph (at 19th St.), Oakland, CA
Category: Music
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