Watching him swagger about the Olympia stage, attacking his guitar and microphone with abandon, it’s hard to believe that Mr. Paul Weller is really 52 years old. He still seems to fit that ‘angry young man’ mould in body and spirit – the one giveaway is his shock of grey hair, and that’s still a cooler cut than most of the kids have.
Weller’s five dates in Dublin have fallen on a nightmare week in Irish history – the throngs of people gathered here tonight are looking for some healing fare. The Modfather duly obliges with a cathartic set, designed to blow your cares away through sheer volume. A gigging musician since he was a teen, if this is just another day at the office, he does a good job of hiding it. We learn two things from this evening’s show: the purple patch Paul Weller has hit in the studio extends to the stage and, revisiting the back catalogue, his body of work is of remarkably consistent quality. The fact that the first real roar of the night comes for the relatively recent ‘From The Floorboards Up’ is a testament to his continued vitality. Sure, the crowd understandably craves the early hits (and they’re treated to invigorating runs through the likes of ‘Strange Town’, ‘That’s Entertainment’ and ‘Start!’) but this is no nostalgia act.
Rather, Weller has carefully selected songs from throughout his career, all dusted off and given a shot in the arm by his able backing band, and there isn’t a lull or bum note in the entire set. Once-maligned Style Council songs such as ‘Shout To The Top’ now sound like vintage soul classics, and more recent solo offerings rage with the same intensity and verve as The Jam material. In fact, the material from new album Wake Up The Nation offers some of the real highlights, the title track and ‘Come On/Let’s Go’ being particularly exhilarating clarion calls. If anything, the set could benefit from the tempo being taken down a notch on occasion. The soulful ‘You Do Something To Me’ provides the only chance to catch your breath. A perennial crowd-pleaser, Weller offers not one, but two encores to send the punters home happy. ‘The Changingman’ is one of his final offerings and, in many ways, it sums up his entire musical philosophy. In the game for more than 30 years, he has refused to stand still. Now he’s on his victory lap. Long may the Weller renaissance continue.