Glenn Tilbrook – 1 December 2001, Largo. Los Angeles, CA

Glenn Tilbrook – 1 December 2001, Largo. Los Angeles, CA – Solo acoustic show

One Response to "Glenn Tilbrook – 1 December 2001, Largo. Los Angeles, CA"

packetofthree says:

3 August 2014 at 1:50 pm

REVIEW

Without apology, the body of work Glenn Tilbrook created with Chris Difford as the leaders of Squeeze dominated the Brit popster’s lengthy solo set Friday. This is the beginning of his solo career, the 44-year-old said, one that’s come six years after the last decent Squeeze album and now includes one impressive solo disc.

by Phil Gallo

Without apology, the body of work Glenn Tilbrook created with Chris Difford as the leaders of Squeeze dominated the Brit popster’s lengthy solo set Friday. This is the beginning of his solo career, the 44-year-old said, one that’s come six years after the last decent Squeeze album and now includes one impressive solo disc, “The Incomplete Glenn Tilbrook,” on the indie Quixotic/What Are Records?

Unlike far too many other artists of the 1970s and ’80s, Tilbrook takes pride in the songs that established his career, and he plays them with aplomb, his high-pitched voice still sounding great, especially when he hurries a lyric. His guitar playing is wonderfully rich and full of all the catchy Squeeze riffs.

Tilbrook wrote melodies for Squeeze, Difford the lyrics, and in this acoustic presentation, the tunefulness is constantly exposed. For fans, it’s an intimate two hours at the altar; for newcomers, it’s a bath of spectacular songcraft that is relentless in its stellar quality.

He employed a nifty trick at the outset, playing tunes from ’81, ’91 and ’01, the last only one of four performed from the new disc. Newer material veers toward a harder side of the pop-rock spectrum, with little of the twisted sensibility Squeeze brought to the new wave scene 20-plus years ago. More than a half-dozen of Squeeze’s best-known numbers peppered the set — “Up the Junction” and “Take Me I’m Yours” shined the brightest in performance and durability — leaving plenty of room for a healthy dose of older album tracks.

Music from 1981’s “East Side Story” was the dominant source of material for the evening, and that album was certainly a shining moment in a career built on extending into the 1980s the sort of uniquely British pop rock developed by the Beatles and the Kinks. Unsurprisingly, Tilbrook took a moment to remember the late George Harrison and the spiritual manner in which he lived his life, mentioning the influence “My Sweet Lord” and its gospel harmonies had on “Some Fantastic Place.” He then turned in a wonderfully touching rendition of the tune.

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