Graham Parker and the Rumour at the Gramercy Theatre

Graham Parker started playing music in his native England in the 1960s, but did not get any attention until Graham Parker and the Rumour rode the British punk wave of the late 1970s, along with his peers Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson. His Gramercy Theatre concert tonight showed that over time much has changed in the music world around Parker, but Parker has only had to soften his sound a bit to remain contemporary. Listening to him sing his older and newer songs, it was hard to believe that his music was ever punk or new wave. If anything, he might be branded a pop singer-songwriter with a strong backing band in today’s world. His somewhat snarly, sneering vocal tone is perhaps the only remnant of that time period. No longer an angry young man and no longer copping a change-the-world attitude, the 63-year-old artist sang like he was part of a modern landscape. Parker’s live performance was fairly engaging, but very middle-of-the-road. The older songs were enjoyable for nostalgic reasons, their performance was professionally executed, but unless the listener held a special place in his or her heart for the late 1970s, overall the concert was pretty forgettable.