The good times are still with Davies

November 20, 2009|Marc Hirsh, Globe Correspondent

“Are there any individuals here tonight?’’ Ray Davies asked at the Berklee Performance Center on Tuesday, and a sizable portion of the crowd, missing the irony, erupted in cheers. The former Kinks frontman, ever the wag, then persuaded his audience to sing along with the title phrase of “I’m Not Like Everybody Else.’’ Having made his point with his typically mordant wit, the often-cantankerous Davies remained in high spirits for the rest of the night.

Rather than replicate the choral versions of Kinks songs on his recent album, Davies took the opposite approach at the outset. He and guitarist Bill Shanley doubled up on acoustic guitar, generating a bassy, percussive momentum on “I Need You,’’ and Shanley’s speedy lines and the audience’s call-and-response on the line “Oh, yes he is!’’ transformed “Dedicated Follower of Fashion’’ into something resembling participatory Irish folk.

Davies’s full band came in after the first verse of “Celluloid Heroes,’’ and the spacious but firm backing amplified the song’s pathos. The sound mix was excellent: clean and focused, hitting hard as a result of each instrument having a clearly defined outer edge.

“Low Budget’’ was snappy and rocking, while the spry “The Tourist’’ gained a bite sorely lacking in its recorded form.

In addition to his maddening tendency to skip parts of some songs (a few lines of “Apeman’’ here, the entire stakes-raising middle section of “20th Century Man’’ there), Davies seemed to have a knack for selecting some of his least engaging solo material. Even so, “Morphine Song’’ was a gem, as was the bluegrassy “Hymn for a New Age,’’ which had quite a bit of fire under its sharp acoustic riff and high harmonies.

Best of all, there was still power in the songs he unleashed on the world 4 1/2 decades ago. Teasing the opening chords of “Till the End of the Day’’ three times and jumping antsily after the third strum-through, Davies played off of the audience’s anticipation before hurtling into the song proper. A fierce “Where Have All the Good Times Gone?’’ followed, and Davies’s good cheer made it less about wistfulness than optimism for the future.