The Sundazed Reissues (2000)--
Tear Off--
Complete review of The Purple Weekend (in Spanish)
The band gave a surprise warm up gig at the Paradise four days prior to their official opening date at the Tweeter Center. It was amazing to see the band had not lost one bit of its original spark and appeal. Peter Wolf, normally a fairly quiet and polite gentleman off stage, is still a possessed and consummate front man. It was an emotional and nostalgic treat to watch the band fully revive its catalog for the first time in 16 years. It is so sad that they wasted a decade and a half in a state of separation.
While the Geils reunion was the focus of most local media attention, it unfortunately overshadowed the original band slated for that night. The Box Tops had been scheduled to play the Paradise for several weeks, and the addition of Geils was announced only two days before. It was unfortunate that several people at the club (who had come to see Geils) were not aware of the Box Tops' legacy. That oversight was quickly erased when the quintet (all original members) ripped into to the ultra-catchy "Cry Like A Baby" and immediately grabbed the crowd's full attention. The Tops ripped though a 13-song set that was tight, playful, professional, vibrant, and soulful. Guitarist Gary Tally and bassist Bill Cunningham have a bag full of powerful licks and rhythms respectively. Vocalist Alex Chilton was very animated with his seemingly never changing distinctive voice. Unquestionably, this was a classic double bill that will be boasted about endlessly by the few, but lucky, attendants."--John Reed, Senior Staff Editor
While the band members spent the past month rehearsing, doing interviews and making TV appearances, Saturday found them getting down to the real business: sweating it out in front of a live audience - for the first time in 17 years....Originally planned as a short warmup set, Saturday's show wound up stretching more than two hours...
The only downside was that the Box Tops had to play while the crowd was still filing in - only a few dozen got to hear them open with one of their greatest hits, ``Cry Like a Baby.''
But for lovers of blue-eyed Southern soul, the Memphis band's reappearance after three decades was an event in itself. The Box Tops landed a half-dozen chart hits in the late '60s; frontman Alex Chilton later formed Big Star and became a power-pop cult hero.
On Saturday, they played a '60s-style set, mixing their own hits with period cover tunes (some, like the frantic ``Flying Saucers Rock 'n' Roll,'' were holdovers from Chilton's solo career). Often reserved and moody onstage, Chilton was positively exuberant with this group; and the band had such a juiced-up, garage-soul sound that drummer Danny Smythe couldn't stop grinning. This reunion calls for an encore."--Brett Milano
[Peter] Wolf said "It's an honor for us to play here with The Box Tops, Mr. Chilton...the band went into "blues you can use", and I was thinking how this show was not a retro, or a nostalgia party like The Remains concert about a month ago, this was an event...a legendary night for Boston Rock & Roll."--Joe Viglione
On his last solo tour, he performed Rice's signature tune, "Why Should I Care" -- the anthem of a performer whose forced grin masks his disgust for his audience.
Even so, after the five original Box Tops finished a reunion show Sunday night at the New York club Coney Island High, some of Chilton's admirers were shocked to hear him volunteer that, while he was onstage he was thinking about Olivier's jaded song-and-dance man... Putting his right index finger to his temple, he wearily quoted the film's most famous line: "Dead behind the eyes."
But when Chilton was onstage earlier that night alongside his late-'60s bandmates, singing their #2 pop hit "Cry Like a Baby", his eyes seemed to brim with boyish exuberance. His voice was in as good form as it's ever been, and he was exercising his entire range. It was as though the 48-year-old singer had been transformed into a 16-year-old acne-plagued kid -- that's how old Chilton was when the band formed...
If the audience had any doubts about the talents of the original Box Tops -- Chilton, Gary Talley, John Evans, Bill Cunningham and Danny Smythe -- they vanished the moment the group kicked into the set-opening "Cry Like a Baby." When Talley played the tune's signature riffs on a copy of the Coral electric sitar he used on the record, and the band (augmented by three horn players) settled into a Memphis soul groove, it might as well have been 1968...
The group did six of its seven top-40 hits, including "Choo Choo Train" (which Chilton disparaged as "not much of anything"), "Neon Rainbow" (a slice of light psychedelia), "I Met Her in Church" and "Soul Deep." The omission of "Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March" did not go unnoticed by some audience members, who shouted for that one as well as for obscure B-sides and album cuts. It was all to no avail as the group stuck to its well-chosen setlist.
The 17-song set ended with a faithful version of the song that started it all, the Box Tops' 1967 #1 hit, "The Letter". For an encore, Chilton led the band through a high-energy version of "Keep on Dancing," a 1965 hit by another Memphis group, the Gentrys.
His "dead behind the eyes" feeling seemed to go unheeded by fans, who found his energetic stage presence a welcome change from the disinterested performances that have marked his solo career. If fans wish only to be entertained, Archie Rice may not be such a bad influence after all.
Deena Canale, 28, grabbed Talley's setlist from the floor as the last notes faded away. "I'm really into Memphis music, and they incorporated so much of it into their set," she said, declaring the show "amazing." -- Dawn Eden
Feature article--Performance Magazine (9/5/97, p.19)
Still the Tops
"In September 1996, rock n' roll history was made as the five original members of the Box Tops
returned to a Memphis recording studio for the first time in more than 30 years. They cut tracks
that night and the evening proved so rewarding the group decided to reunite for a tour...The
reunion began when Cunningham asked the original members of the group to record a few songs
for fun. The group recorded six songs at Memphis' Easley Recording Studio and returned in
November to record six more. According to Talley, the group didn't know what songs they were
going to record until they got to the studio. They eventually picked 12 old cover songs and one
original penned by Talley and co-writer Richard Fleming. "We all sort of brought in songs and
we
picked them out on the spot," Talley confessed. "Even though we were unrehearsed, everything
sounded pretty good and we were surprised at the energy the tracks had."
After the November session, talk turned to touring. The music was good, the mood was good and Rick Levy with Florida-based Rick Levy Management was interested in booking the band. In February, he met with the group in Memphis during the mixdown of the project. "Our feeling was, if you want to book some gigs go ahead and let's see what happens," explained Talley. Levy booked the House of Blues in Los Angeles... and on April 18, the group performed there--and has been working consistently ever since.
...As for future plans, Talley says the group will continue to tour and actively seek a record deal. He told PERFORMANCE, "We're all excited and we honestly sound better than ever."
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