"This was supposed to be the on our first album, but instead it was the b-side to our first single. We went to record it on Tuesday then dropped acid on Wednesday and finished on Thursday. There's a lesson for you. Never drop acid on a Wednesday."
- Richard Ashcroft introducing "Gravity Grave"

After missing The Verve's first night at the WaMu Theatre, I finally got to see them play their second and final show in New York City. The show was fantastic. The crows was okay. The music was phenomenal. Richard Ashcroft and Nick McCabe belong together. In a big nod to Nick's return, he was the last one on the stage at the end of night. He blasted out so many killer jams from his guitar. He's amazing. Simply amazing.

One note, "History" was on the setlist to be played before "Bitter Sweet Symphony" but was cut due to time restrictions after the band played an extended version of "Weeping Willow".

Chris Music Snobbery was with me at the show. He has a more in depth review and makes the great point that "Tonight, I didn't get a sense at all that this was one of those "cash a paycheck" reunion shows. Ashcroft made no references about reunions or getting back or "it's been so long" speech. He just showed up to blow your mind."

And finally, Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered lysergic acid diethylamide-25 in 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals firm in Basel, dies at the ripe-old age of 102. He became the first human guinea pig of the drug when a tiny amount of the substance seeped onto his finger during a laboratory experiment on April 16, 1943.

Thanks to Albert, The Verve exist...............

THE VERVE | WAMU THEATER | 4-29-08
A New Decade / Sonnet / This Is Music / Space & Time / Life's An Ocean / Already There / Weeping Willow / Sit and Wonder / The Rolling People / Gravity Grave / Velvet Morning / Drugs Don't Work / Lucky Man / Come On // Bittersweet Symphony // Love Is Pain