Huey Lewis & the News @ Coney Island

Huey Lewis & the News
@ Coney Island
Brooklyn, NY - August 15, 2013

As the years have gone by, one of the more pleasantly parasitic and unexpected songs to be perpetually etched into my brain is Huey Lewis & the News' cover of "But It's Alright" - one of their last hurrahs on corporate rock radio in the mid 90's. I haven't heard the actual recording in years but I can hum the whole thing on instant recall. That probably speaks to the incessant, scratching at your door, genteel madness of the appeal of Huey Lewis & the News. Of course in the years since that final bit of new release success, their big hit catalog has gone from the lambasted to the ironically nostalgically loved to the non-ironically nostalgically loved. Part of that stems from the legacy of Sports. And so now three decades on from the release of that smash, the band is playing it in full, in order, on this summer jaunt and they were doing it here in what may prove to be one of the last hurrahs of the free Seaside concerts brought to you by the one and only Marty Markowitz.

After the political and community backslapping was out of the way, it was time for Huey and the gang to plow through Sports followed by some other hits like "Power of Love" and the soul covers. It's nice to recall that there used to be hit records of mostly singles and ran less than 45 minutes. King of 'em all has to be "I Wanna New Drug". After years of only really appreciating "Hip to be Square", this one has started to grow on me. The fact that there is room to re-appreciate Huey Lewis songs at all again speaks to that benignly parasitic quality. Also the fact I ran into more familiar faces from different walks of life than at any recent show I can think of speaks to that as well. Maybe it's the "Nice guys finish first" concept around this band that appeals to some and irks others that drives whatever conversation one may still want to have now and then about Huey Lewis & the News.

I can't believe I even got two whole paragraphs out of the show.