Paul Weller @ 9:30 Club, DC [9/13/08]

Meant to post some thoughts about this show on Sunday, but got caught up with some other things.

This was my first time seeing Paul, and the show was pretty much exactly what I expected - professional, tight, and not particularly exciting. To be fair, the band played with a lot of energy, and the first half of the show was excellent despite that not much of the audience (myself included) was familiar with the material, which came primarily from Paul's latest album, 22 Dreams. (Which I'm told is very good, BTW.)

Unfortunately, at about the 50-minute mark of the set, the band veered off in a jammy direction, and the last few songs of the main set (as well as part of the first encore) were unnecessarily drawn-out. At one point I thought they were actually doing their own version of Drums/Space.



Thankfully, things picked up again, and the band surprised absolutely no one by ending the night with a rollicking, crowd-interactive version of "Town Called Malice". Even my friend Matt, who I don't think I've ever seen clap along with a crowd before in a decade of going to shows, clapped along. That's how good this song is.



A couple of so-so picks from halfway back on the floor.