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And
then - Rats in New York Caught
in the Act
An Irish group that's been together less than three years (with five English hits to its credit), the Boomtown rats have managed to stay clear of the punk backlash by conveying their social insights through a commercial style of precision pop that sacrifices punk's minimalism for hook after hoof amidst a tight barrage of overpowering chord progressions. Yet, when Geldof introduced his band's biggest English single, Rat Trap, by, by saying that American radio stations only play it because it sounds like Springsteen, but Springsteen could never write a song as good, he was only fooling himself.
The Boomtown Rats are to be admired though, for hitting the stage with all guns blazing, never letting up in their intensity through (I Never Loved) Eva Braun, Me and Howard Hughes, and She's So Modern - until the second encore I Don't Like Mondays, a gripping Ballard of a teenage sniper who shoots up her school. Here, accompanied only by Johnny Fingers' keyboards, Geldof's vocal was convincing, almost chilling, while during the rest of the show he didn't really prove he had the chops to carry a tune on his own. Bringing the audience on stage to dance to Do The Rat (alternately putting thumbs in ears and then up the nose) won the band many friends, especially when Geldof ordered a security guard to stop manhandling one reveller. But the diversion only distracted this reviewer from the music. Perhaps the full truth was spoken by the opening reggae act, Max Romeo, who, when confronted by widespread "boos", politely thanked the audience. Credit:
Michael Tutton of Canada
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At
the last show of their first American tour, Boomtown Rats' lead singer
and songwriter, Bob Geldof, did his best to shake up New Yorks's Palladium
audience "This is the city of the half-truth!" he shouted. But
it's open to question whether or not Geldof and his highly-touted band
told the "whole" truth that early May night.
Springsteen
succeeds because he can make an audience believe the protagonist of his
songs is unfolding his explosive life before them on the stage. Geldof
on the other hand, a former writer for England's New Musical Express,
is as much an observer as he is a participant in his stories. It's hard
to believe that Geldof has experienced the hopeless urban plight he signs
about in Rat Trap as he prances about mimicking Mick Jagger.