No Tommy-Come-Lately
Since 1999, Tom Verlaine has only held jobs that satisfy his artistic needs. The goat-voiced sometime/former Television frontman's toured the world with his old buddies in the Television revue, lent free-jazz accompaniment to Patti Smith's confused beatnik verse and enjoyed a cozy sinecure scoring silent films for Ohio-based celluloid archivists the Douris Corporation.
These days, the sunlight-shy Verlaine slinks around town reluctantly plugging a pair of not-terrible new albums. Around sounds like an unfocused instrumental afterthought to the more assertive melodies and soaring guitar atmospherics on 1992's Warm and Cool. Songs and Other Things mostly lopes along with modest six-string flourishes and an overall restrained geezer dignity. Jeez, Tom, what happened to the days of the glorious 64-bar guitar solo?
For his two-night stint at the Bowery, Verlaine strings along his favorite post?Richard Lloyd guitar foil Jimmy Rip, Television bassist Fred Smith and hotshot freelance drummer Louie Appel. As Verlaine's appearances usually go, expect these shows to be just under-rehearsed enough to make for some worthwhile $25 surprises.
Geek connoisseurs of his solo archives won't be disappointed, as he'll stoop to mix in a few choice post-Television oldies: Yelp for "Lindi-Lu," "Yonki Time," "A Town Called Walker," and maybe those Napoleonic War?inspired songs from 1982. And sure, he'll toss off a "Marquee Moon," or a "See No Evil," just so the classic-rock hicks don't bum-rush the stage.