Blur live at the Bowery Ballroom, New York City
16 March 2003
Reviewed by Xfm Online

Like the breath of fresh spring air that blew through Manhattan all day, Blur fill the Bowery with something special in an exclusive preview gig for 800 lucky fans.

With a set leaning heavily towards songs from their highly anticipated forthcoming album 'Think Tank', tonight is a very different experience to guitar-based previous shows. But a vocal and appreciative audience seem more than accepting of the new tunes even upon this first hearing.

What's even more astonishing about their new bass-heavy sound is that tonight they are missing Alex James, who Damon says "had trouble getting into the country." The frontman then proceeds to phone the absent bassist and gets the audience to scream into his mobile phone when the answering machine picks up (it's half three in the morning back in Blighty). Bass duties are handled by "Chris from Brooklyn," as Damon introduces him, which of course gets a huge cheer from the crowd. He does a good job considering this is only the second day he's played the songs.

The expanded band, with two backing singers and two drummers, plays for just over an hour, but showcase a lot of new songs. The forthcoming British single, 'Out Of Time', rocks the crowd with some nice guitar work from former Verve and The Shining man Simon Tong , but they also respond well to the slow and mysterious 'Caravan' where Damon's voice occasionally sounds Bowie-esque.

The crowd really get into the guitar licks on the more up 'Crazy Beat', slated to be the first US single from 'Think Tank'. It's more reminiscent of old Blur but some folks do start scanning the crowd for Daffy Duck thanks to the weird vocal effects. At one point Damon has to read the lyrics from a crib sheet, commenting that "this one has lots of lyrics, but I haven't forgotten them."

While there's no 'Parklife', 'Country House' or 'Tender' the crowd are treated to 'Beetlebum', 'Popscene' and 'Song 2', and greet them with enthusiasm. But the audience truly go wild when 'Parklife' classic 'Girls and Boys' gets an airing. They end the show with a storming version of 'This Is A Low', blowing the crowd away with the full rich texture of one of Blur's greatest mini epics. Definitely worth the wait.

Katherine Pognacz