The Verve – In Concert at Schlachthof, Frankfurt -February 25, 1994 – Jim Moody Collection –
The Verve in concert tonight. Recorded at Schlachthof in Frankfurt on February 25, 1994. A couple of years before their breakout, but in 1994, well on their way.
The Verve, I think, gave ample proof why the 90s were a fascinating decade for music and truly represented a positive change in where it could potentially go. It was an intensely creative period that was certainly responsible for renewing an interest in new music. Artists were trying things, taking chances and mashing up genres – it was a storm of different styles and movements, but it signified a desire to take music away from the potential for complacency of the 80s and put it back on the road of discovery.
Early assessments of The Verve considered them a tossup of Rave and Psychedelia – seriously, noting wrong with that since they both represented an artistic freedom born in the late 1960s and never really fully explored the first time around. Richard Ashcroft’s intensity was exhilarating; it broke through the cool detachment that much music of the 80s had gone to and turned it human once again. It became exclamatory – it was about something and I think that was what made them so unique and appealing.
I recall bands of this period and there was a commitment shared by many of them artistically that made them cut from much the same cloth. I think about The Verve and Catherine Wheel come to mind, so does Portishead, The Charlatans, Stone Roses, The Real People – a wide representation of bands whose music was about something. It’s music you can spend hours and days with; wrapped up in their sonic warmth and absorbed by their lyric potency. The Verve were one of the game-changers and it was a pivotal period of time.
A period which is still ripe for exploration. And for proof of that, give this 1994 concert from Frankfurt a listen – better yet, hang out with it for a bit. Sit with it – try not to get up and get distracted – it’s music to listen to, not at. Makes lousy background to party conversation – goes well with introspection.
My two cents.
