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Bryan Ferry: From Indio to Point Loma

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Bryan Ferry was a legend of few words when he performed Friday night at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, where he returns for an encore performance this weekend.

Apart from a periodic “thank you” and brief introductions of the members of his four-woman, four-man band, the iconic English singer said almost nothing. But who needs stage patter when you’re blessed with a voice as distinctive as the quietly charismatic Ferry, and boast a repertoire filled with so many classic songs?

Judging by his Coachella set, those classics should be amply showcased when he performs a sold-out San Diego show Thursday, April 17, at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay. If you have a kayak or an inner tube, head for the marina now to get a prime spot.

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At 68, Ferry still looks every bit the debonair star he was in the 1970s. It was then that he soared to stardom as the lead singer in Roxy Music, one of the most artful, innovative and idiosyncratic bands of (and beyond) its time.

He launched his solo career in 1973 and released five more albums that decade alone, one less than he made with Roxy during the same period. On his own and with Roxy, he has influenced a least two generations of musicians, although none have matched his ability to combine rakish charm and a masterful command of melancholy.

With Ferry in the spotlight, Roxy released its debut album in 1972, sounding (and looking) like nothing before or since. Simultaneously retro and futuristic, arch and serious, lilting and edgy, their music was an impeccably crafted mash-up of new and old styles, reconfigured in wonderfully unexpected ways.

Friday at Coachella, where he deservedly received a hero’s welcome, the ever-dapper Ferry began his set with “Re-Make/Re-Model,” the opening number from Roxy’s self-titled debut album. In 1972, it sounded so strangely fresh that, in hindsight, the song (like the album it came from) seems to have almost created the template for the more artful end of the New Wave music scene that would follow in the mid-1970s.

Ferry’s vocals are as distinctive and assured today as ever. Yet, while he has a several decades worth of solo albums to draw from, his Coachella set focused largely on Roxy songs, not his solo work. He did, however, include a romping version of “I Got the Same Old Blues” by J.J. Cale, the reclusive Valley Center troubadour who died last year.

Yet, by focusing on his Roxy material, Ferry reminded listeners just how special those songs remain today. He mixed early songs, including “Virginia Plain” and the wonderfully pensive “In Every Dream Home a Heartache,” with such latter-day Roxy classics as “Avalon” and “More Than This.”

During “Love is the Drug,” Roxy’s only U.S. Top 40 hit, Ferry mimed a few urbane (as oposed to urban) dance moves. Otherwise, he let his suave vocals speak for themselves. It was a wise move for the veteran singer, who seemed to have every woman standing within sight of me at Coachella swooning from start to finish. Expect no less Thursday at Humphreys.

Bryan Ferry, with Dawn Landes

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 17

Where: Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Point Loma

Tickets: Sold-out

Phone: (800) 745-3000

Online: ticketmaster.com

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