[ATTENDED: October 13, 2022] Alec Nicol [rescheduled from May 7, 2020]
I was pretty excited when The House of Love announced a 30th anniversary tour of the States in 2020. It would be their first time playing here in 30 years. Then COVID, obviously.
I was never a huge fan of the band, but I’ve liked them since college–part of the whole 90’s Creation scene. And they have half a dozen songs that routinely get stuck in my head.
I hadn’t given too much thought to the band’s lineup. I believe that when the 2020 tour was announced the original band was back together. But this show had a
new HoL lineup that Guy Chadwick announced last summer after telling fans he’d parted ways with original members Terry Bickers and Pete Evans, as well as Matt Jury, who’d been on board since the group reunited in 2003.
The new lineup will find Chadwick backed by Keith Osborne on lead guitar, Harry Osborne on bass and Hugo Degenhardt on drums. The band also has recorded a new album, though its release has not yet been announced.
So that’s kind of a bummer. Although Guy Chadwick wrote and sang all the songs, so I guess the rest of the band isn’t that big a deal. The only thing I missed was Bickers’ backing vocals.
I knew there were a few songs I really wanted to hear (and they played them all), but I didn’t have a big set list in mind. They played songs from their first three albums and then a bunch from the one Chadwick just released (which was kind of a solo album).
It was great hearing “Christine” and some of the other songs from the debut. Chadwick’s voice sounds the same and he seemed to be very jolly. [I had assumed he was cranky given the somewhat tumultuous past of the band.
I was thrilled when the started “The Beatles and the Stones,” one of my favorites songs from the era. And even though he got lost in the words mid-song, it still sounded great.
As did “Shine On.” The “she she she” parts and the guitar melody were perfect.
There were a lot of people there who were HUGE fans. One or two very vocal about it. But the general tone was positive and fun.
Especially during the encore when they played “I Don’t Know Why I Love You.” A song with great lyrics like “your face is a hammer in my head.” The whole set was solid and tight–relatively short, but it covered everything I wanted to hear. And it made me want to check out the latest album, which sounded like a souped-up version of the classic sound.
It turned out that there were some other shows that were scheduled on the same date, but if it took 30 years for The House of Love to come to the States, it was unlikely they’d be coming back any time soon. I made the right choice.
- Road ♥
- Christine ♥
- Hope ♥
- Sweet Loser Θ
- The Beatles and the Stones ♠
- Melody Rose Θ
- The Girl With the Loneliest Eyes ≅
- Shine On ♠
- Sweet Water Θ
- Crush Me ≅
- Destroy The Heart ♥
- Se Dest ♠
- A State of Grace Θ
- Burn Down the World ≅
encore - Clouds Θ
- I Don’t Know Why I Love You ♠
- Love in a Car ♥
♥ The House of Love (1988)
♠ The House of Love [the butterfly album] (1990)
≅ Babe Rainbow (1992)
Θ A State of Grace (2022)
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