Concert review: The Afghan Whigs at The Grey Eagle

When I raised my hand to review The Afghan Whigs on their Wish You Were Near Tour at The Grey Eagle, I felt fairly certain I would be writing about a well-received show. It was all downstream for me at that time — all I had to do was show up to see one of my favorite bands from back in the day and hope they would play at least a few songs from their 1993 release, Gentlemen, a seminal album for me that’s almost always in my car for whenever I need to tap into my early-’90s agro angst, along with other CDs like Dinosaur Jr.’s Without A Sound and L7’s Bricks Are Heavy. Let’s do this!

But as the day drew closer, the show started to feel very upstream for me with a steady current of reasons to not be up for or even open to this show. First off, this was coming after a week of me seeing some other epic shows. I was lucky enough to get to see Wu-Tang Clan up north in Hartford, Conn., and then the back-to-back bounty of Ween and Jack White at our very own Rabbit Rabbit. It would be tough for Afghan Whigs to live up to that run — not that everything needs to be a competition, though my live music belly was full.

And the show was on a Wednesday. Now, I’m well aware that when you live in a smaller city like Asheville, you have to be ready for the mid-week shows with bigger bands usually saving their weekend shows for larger cities, but Wu-Tang and Jack White were on Fridays, and Ween makes Thursday feel like a Friday. This was Wednesday. There would be no pregame, no long excited lead-up to the show. I would literally be coming directly from work. It can be hard to rock hard on Hump Day.  

And the show was in a smaller venue. I love The Grey Eagle, but feared the show would feel ill-fitted to the venue. Would this be a band that was meant to play arenas now being made to settle for a more modest music hall setting, pulling at the collar of their tight-fitting tour spot? And The Afghan Whigs have a brand new album out, How Do You Burn?, which means they’d be playing a lot of the new stuff. When you go see one of your favorite bands from some 30 years back, it can be risky to hear them repeat, “This is another one off our latest!” And the show was starting late. Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure about this whole ordeal.

But I started to have more hope when the band’s manager came out and strongly encouraged the crowd in front to wear earplugs. He even had a basket full of earplugs that he passed out to the crowd like candy at the holiday parade. I wasn’t close enough to receive the hearing-safety handouts, so I took a few steps back. As I did, I saw those around me —a good-size crowd, especially for a Wednesday, and a crowd close to me in age that clearly came out to see a band that they were psyched to see. I spotted a friend who I know more from comedy and theater. He greeted me newly as a fellow follower of his favorite band and almost seemed a bit verklempt to be in their company. The current of opposition in me was shifting.

The Afghan Whigs came out on stage with confidence. They didn’t care who you’ve recently seen or what your Wednesday was like; they knew they were about to put on a good show. They’ve been doing this for a while and it is not guesswork at this point. They were going to play hard and they were going to play loud — louder than I heard at any of those epic outdoor shows. Shake your chest loud. Take another two steps back loud. Club loud — or, in this case, music hall loud.

For me, any great band needs a great front-person, and guitarist and lead singer Greg Dulli is definitely that. Iconic voice and requisite swagger (much like our fiend, Mr. White). Man, Dulli sure can hold the center! And yes, they opened with a few songs off the new album like “Jyja” and “I’ll Make You See God.” But that’s the nice thing about a band that has established a signature haunting sound from the start: even if you don’t know the song, you still do; it feels familiar.

But I and others who felt the same did not have to wish, “Gee, I hope they play something off of Gentlemen“ for too long. A handful of songs in, they did play something off it — the title track — and I was in my happy place. Patrick Keeler on drums dropping down those sharp starting beats through the atmospheric audio fog — we have lift-off! I was rocking as hard as I had at any recent show, my head banging as hard as John Curley's bass was banging in my chest. And god, The Grey Eagle can be such a great place to see a great show. America needs more music halls.

The Whigs did play more songs off the new album as well as songs from some of their other solid efforts like In Spades and 1965. And they’ve been doing some interesting covers on this tour, like Shawn Smith’s “Wrapped In My Memory,” and “Heaven On Their Minds” from Jesus Christ Superstar. (I do enjoy a good cover.)

I could see how much the band enjoyed playing together when they were wrapping their sound around someone else’s songs with Rick McCollum on lead guitar, Christopher Thorn on guitar, and Rick Nelson on keyboards, viola, and whatever else you needed him to play. When they morphed from Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?” into “Fountain & Fairfax” (from Gentlemen), I made a shrieking sound that may have made some of my crowd neighbors concerned for my sanity. I didn’t care — full-speed downstream for me.

The band is amazing, but it’s Dulli’s voice that lets you know you’re at an Afghan Whigs show. Pained and powerful, it vibrates a place in you that has been hurt. It may not heal it, but it makes it feel heard as he holds court with earned authority. 

I liked how he rebranded the encore as the “bonus round,” skipping the walk off stage, waiting for the crowd to beg, and then coming back to close out their tab (something other artists have done since the quarantine times). They finished with a cover of The Smiths “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,” which was fantastic and a fitting description of The Whigs’ staying power. Not only did they not disappoint, they exceeded expectations. They made the vertebrae in my neck hurt from how much I viscerally enjoyed the show. 

And to think I had my doubts! If their tour takes them anywhere near you, make sure you are there, no matter what day.

 (Photos by Jonny Leather)