The Wedding Present
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During its first run, the Wedding Present moved restlessly from strummy pop to harder, more Americanized rock to the somewhat slicker sound of its 1992 project to release a single every month for a year. Singer-guitarist David Gedge put the British quartet on ice in 1997 and began to record under the name Cinerama. Now Gedge (without any other original members) is again the Wedding Present, rediscovering his own back catalogue. The band's show Sunday at the Black Cat included several songs from its new album, "Take Fountain," as well as a few Cinerama numbers, but also reached back to its origins for such sprightly romps as "Once More" and "My Favorite Dress."
Although his latter-day material is more erotically explicit than the early stuff, Gedge still specializes in accounts of failed, unrequited or illusory romance. Two essential musical ingredients play against the lyrics' adolescent regret: Gedge's incongruous baritone and guitars that storm valiantly ahead of the vocal melodies. Simon Cleave, who plays what can only be described as lead rhythm guitar, is a worthy successor to original hyper-strummer Peter Solowka. His six-string churn was a rising tide that lifted all plaints.
When Gedge delivered a joke about his youthfulness, it bombed, but his bruised reaction to that dud proved his point. The singer is essentially unchanged: charming and petulant, eager to please but only on his own terms.
"We don't play encores, and we never will," he announced before embarking on the evening's final vamp. But of course the entire performance was an encore.
-- Mark Jenkins
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/02/AR2005050201465_2.html
