LOS ANGELES-In Judd Apatow”s “This is 40,” Paul Rudd plays a music executive trying to bring back British singer/songwriter Graham Parker. At last night”s sold-out show at the Roxy here, Parker proved he needs no help.
Playing his first show with his original band, The Rumour, at the venue in more than 30 years, Parker headlined the “This Is 40” soundtrack release party. Fittingly enough, Apatow opened the evening, announcing, “This is a ridiculously good show,” before sitting beside Rudd for the rest of the evening. He was right. Also appearing on the bill were Ryan Adams and Lindsey Buckingham, both of whom have songs on the movie”s soundtrack.
Adams took the stage first for a three-song set, opening with the lovely “Shining Through The Dark,” a live version of which appears on the soundtrack. The prolific songwriter sat on a low stool for his set, making all but the crown of his head invisible for the standing audience. No idea how he looked, but he sounded lovely as he also ran through “Lucky Now” and “Everybody Knows,” accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar.
In a nod to Buckingham (and to Parker’s band, no doubt), Adams joked “I was going to play [Fleetwood Mac’s] ‘Rumours” front to back. I was going to play it on a Casio keyboard and dress up as a vampire.”
If Adams’ short opener was lovely, Buckingham, introduced by the soundtrack”s producer Jon Brion, reached transcendence in his remarkable four-sing set. Giving a short bow to the audience before strapping on an electric guitar, Buckingham was fully engaged from the first note. He skipped his two songs on the “This Is 40” soundtrack -”Sick Of You” and “She Acts Like You- and instead played an extended, incendiary “Shut Us Down,” which appeared on Cameron Crowe”s “Elizabethtown” soundtrack. The sound man took a second to catch up, but by the time Buckingham eased into a menacing, sensual “Go Insane,” his guitar playing was crystal clear. That”s a good thing because there are few guitarists who can play with his precision, speed and melodicism. He gets more sound out of a guitar than most musicians do from a full band. A slowed-down, time-shifting, hypnotic “Never Going Back Again” followed before he wrapped with “Big Love.” He remarked on how when he originally wrote the song in 1987, the line “Looking out for love” hinted at a sense of alienation. Now he sees the song as “a meditation on the power of change.”
The evening belonged to Graham Parker & The Rumour, who played a wide-ranging 22-song set that spanned the title track from his 1976 debut album, “Howlin” Wind” through this year”s “Three Chords Good.”
He parted with The Rumour in 1980, not reuniting until last year when they began recording “Three Chords Good.” All five of the original members are on tour with him: guitarists Brinsley Schwarz and Martin Belmont, bassist Andrew Bodnar, keyboardist Bob Andrews, and drummer Steve Goulding. Though it took them a few minutes to seeming get into the groove, by “Get Started, Start a Fire” (from 1988″s “The Mona Lisa”s Sister”), the band was locked into a solid groove.
Though he slightly preceded them, Parker”s music recalls his fellow angry young man/British pre-punk colleagues Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, as well as U.S. singer/songwriter John Hiatt. His literate lyrics wrapped around guitar-driven, often ska-inflected, soulful melodies, and, while embraced by critics, he never had the breakthrough in the U.S. that many anticipated for him given his songs” infectious nature.
Now 62, his once-legendary performances are still spirited, especially when he strips off the guitar and engages with the audience, as he did on the spiky “Nobody Hurts You” and the classic “Protection,” leaning over the audience and shading his eyes on the lyric, “You wanna hide?”
His most engaging tunes remain those that embrace a rollicking twanginess, including “Hotel Chambermaid” and “What Do You Like,” which he recorded with the Punch Bros. for “This Is 40.” He also performed the atmospheric 1977 track, “Watch The Moon Come Down,” another song Apatow snagged for the soundtrack.
It was hard to tell who was having more fun: Parker or the audience, as the crowd”s loud applause brought him back for two encores. He concluded the evening with his bounciest track, “Soul Shoes” and his sparkling cover of the Jackson 5″s “I Want You Back,” which he”s been performing for decades not.