'1999' Dates
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Another fine, mellow show. However, it was inside at Emo's, and they have a damn TV right next to & above the stage. It is the most annoying, non-punk-rock thing in the world. I hate it.
Simply put, Hades Kick rocks. Paul Newman put on another rocking show as well. It seemed that most of their songs were new ones, at least I didn't recognize them.
Hard core ska-funk. I have no idea how Blue Meanies can keep up the energy. I only saw a little bit of MU 330, but they were just as energetic. Too bad I was exhausted, and not a few years younger.
It was a Champaign reunion or something. Heroic Doses rocked. Nick was in the Chronicle. I only knew some of the Sunny Day Real Estate songs from the one record I have. All the kids there knew the songs though.
Two friends from work are in this cover band. This was their first show out.
An in-store for their latest release. I confirmed that Marc & I have the same taste in women.
FFG is a Tim Kerr band. They were rockin' off the stage. Nice & loud. Trail of Dead did a typical half rock, half screwing around. Their songs were chaotic, kinetic, & crazy. Reconfirmed Marc's & my taste.
This show was a lot like the last time I saw them, but that's a good thing. Daniel spilt between rock-n-roll on the guitar & forlorn love songs on the piano. He apologized for not practicing enough; he had gotten some new records and was spending his time listening to those instead of practicing. His love songs are amazing. He really captures the innocence at the first moment of a crush. There's a few songs about some woman at a funeral home that he seems particularly infatuated with. Best rock song title: "Bloody Rainbow." He writes great songs. He also does a great Beatles cover, "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away." After hearing his other songs, seeing him, and actually listening to the lyrics again, I don't think he could've picked a better cover. Kathy and her great voice had a few lonesome love songs as well.
It must have been mental instability week or something. I never saw Wesley play out when living in Chicago, so I had to go see him when he came to Austin. For those who don't know, he's a 400 pound, 6 1/2 foot, schizophrenic black man. All his songs sound the same, he swears a lot, and he always ends his songs, "Rock over London, Rock over Austin, Texas" followed by a television jingle catch phrase. I never heard him say "Rock it like a Magikist," my favorite Wesley phrase. All the kids were there to laugh at the crazy man swearing. It's kinda sick. I think the only sign that Wesley understands his situation is the song called "The Joke's On You." Otherwise, like my friend who is an ex-neighbor of the man, I think he really thinks he's a good, big rock star. Now that I've seen the side-show, I won't go again. Oh, some girl called me a "fucking poseur." Pretty funny, I thought. What was I posing? I looked square as could be. Kids today.
I was exhausted. This was at the tail end of working way too much. So I didn't enjoy it, but it was good. He had a small band, just like the last time. Plus he said that he was disappointed that the Liberty Lunch is going to be moved. I don't get it at all. I have no idea what the attraction is to the Liberty Lunch. The place is a dump. The beer & the cover are expensive. I swore that everyone who liked it hadn't seen a show at a decent venue, and then here comes well-travelled (I assume) Mr. Smith saying he likes the place. What do people like about it?
SXSW Whammo was actually funny stuff. I've seen him do a Ween hoot nite, he's a slam poet, and he's in the Asylum Street Spankers. His band had the drummer that was in Starfish. He tells little funny stories in between songs that have pre-recorded tapes playing in the background. One of the funnier songs must've been called "Surf the Net," since he yelled it to the punk rock sounds alot. It had a great line "Yeah I know Mother Nature. I've been to her web site." Daniel Johnston had no piano this time around. He started out solo on the acoustic guitar, with the usual songs about his unrequited love for funeral home woman. The last part of his set he was backed by a rock band. It added to the music, making it much more powerful sounding, but I believe that it drowns out Daniel's emotional singing. I think that what makes him listenable is his lyrics, and if they are overwhelmed, it doesn't sound so great. But I'll definitely see him again at the Cactus, with the piano.
SXSW Five Head put on a great show. Their instruments sounded great, since they weren't thru the P.A. The vocals sounded rather pillowed. It seems that SXSW puts their own P.A. into venues. And at Hole In The Wall, they had a completely inexperienced guy at the board. I was standing in the back watching the show right near the sound board. The guy was fiddling with everything trying to fix the vocals, but couldn't figure it out to save his life. When I noticed that he kept systematically pressing buttons on a unit that even I could tell was powered off, I wanted to step in and fix things without any knowledge about what I was doing. I just felt I could do better. By the end of the set, he found a bunch of knobs he hadn't twiddled before, and the vocals finally sounded a little better. Hotwheels Jr. played next, and their vocals were better then Five Head, but I wasn't really interested in them. So I left.
SXSW It was raining, and I had a wristband. So I got to stand in line for an hour or so while staffers first told the line there was a 95% chance I wouldn't get in, then soon "You won't be getting in." Since I apparently had nothing better to do, I stayed in line and soon found myself within 20-30 people of the head of the wristband line. Perseverance & a positive attitude are necessary to get into the shows you want to see at SXSW. I'd never seen either of the bands, but they came with high recommendations from friends. I was just about wiped out with exhaustion once I got in, so it was another of the fine shows that I was too tired to enjoy as much as I should. I don't know about The Old 97's. They play straight ahead country-ish rock, and that's about it. Nothing really struck me as amazing about them. Built to Spill came on and the singer/guitarist (I don't know his name) didn't seem too thrilled. He said that they had to cut their set short to fit the 40 minute SXSW time slot. I liked the band. They have catchy pop songs with lots of crazy guitar layering in. His voice is one of those voices that I'm sure many people wouldn't like, but to me it conveys lots of emotion that I like in a song. There were lots of industry folks there I guess (both bands are thought to be hitting big soon). Both the bands thanked industry people from the stage. It was like the Oscars or something.
SXSW Whew. Big show. I was there for 8 HOURS. I got there 2 hours before the shows started to make sure I got in. This was the show I bought a wristband for after all. Miles are German, and sing with an accent. I think they have a song about "To Kill a Mockingbird." Those Bastard Souls were next. The singer is one of the singers in The Grifters, and I've seen the bass player play with Red Red Meat before, and he's a nice guy & bartender at the Empty Bottle to boot. The singer said that the band was going to be a main thing now, rather than a side project. I hope that doesn't mean the Grifters are over. I wouldn't mind if they were now a side project... Their songs are like Grifters, only with an rocking violin playing along with keyboards. There were 2 songs that had me smiling in the way I do when a song really rocks me. I have to go pick up a record so I can get that feeling again. I didn't pay much attention to Grandaddy or Sparklehorse. There was a large Champaign contingent there, and I wound up talking alot. Mercury Rev weren't as loud as I had thought they may be. They played lots of the songs from Deserter's Songs. It was interesting to hear them played by a large rock band vs. the orchestral arrangements on the record. They should put out a live version of the record. It's cool to hear the songs in a stripped down (as stripped down as a 6 member rock band can be) form. The Flaming Lips set up a big screen that had an LCD projector. It was showing various video clips all during the set cut with an extreme close up of Wayne's face. They had a little video camera mounted right above the mic! It would pick up the image on the screen behind him, and there'd be this interesting video feedback going on. Steven & Michael played keyboards & guitars. Wayne sang along with hand puppets, and hit a gong. The rhythm track was thru the video tape. Steven was taped playing the drums, and then they all played along. They did a couple songs off of Transmissions, a few more off of Zaireeka, and a couple new ones. I think it was great. They've been playing for so long, and you'd have to think that they want to keep on doing something new and exciting, and well I'd never seen anything like it, and I was excited. I thought maybe that the guys from Mercury Rev & Flaming Lips might play together, but this didn't happen. I was exhausted, drunk, and I had a great time.
Whoa. This wasn't a true part of SXSW, even though it was the last show I saw this weekend. It was probably one of the best ones all week as well. 33 Degrees is an alright place to see a show, so long as you don't mind florescent lights & drunk kids. I don't know the full name of the first woman. She seemed to be a last minute addition to the set. Her songs were extremely personal. Marc wondered if she liked Liz Phair. At one point she was bantering about the crowds for SXSW. A drunk guy in the audience starts talking to her like they were having a conversation. Since she said something about the traffic & SXSW, he decided to talk on about road rage. She looked at him all frustrated, and said "I hope I _never_ write a song about road rage." Good come back. He shut up for the rest of her set, but he was too drunk to shut up the whole night. More on that soon. Next up was The KG. This was a guy on guitar and the Dub Narcotic drummer. His songs were love songs. They were nice, but nothing too spectacular. Next up was Miranda July. Her's was a really clever performance art piece. It had slide & LCD video projectors. She stood in front of them while they were projecting upon her. There were a few slides that were divided between blue & white; the blue was on the bottom. She would swim while here. It was an odd piece about a woman's cells, and this woman was actually an alien on earth. The aliens looked like people (like people who are driving school instructors, no less) and had a great alien voice. Road Rage guy decided to talk to Ms. July during her show as well. This time several people in the audience decided to tell him to shut up. After a few times, he finally got the point. Next were iqu, who I wasn't too interested in, even though they had all sorts of cool gadgets. Last was Dub Narcotic. I swear that it was even better than the last time. It was really late (2:30 AM?) and there were still a bunch of people there all jumping & dancing around. They played quite a few from "Out of Your Mind," including the title track, and Miranda July was there to sing her part! It was great, even though she went to hide in a back room to sing with her cordless mic. Road Rage guy made another appearance. When only a few people were hopping around, a cute woman from the previous band grabbed a bottle of Jim Beam, started dancing & passing around the bottle. This, as I'm sure you can tell, got the crowd really hopping. Once she was done doing that, she came back over to the side I was standing on, near the guitarist. Road Rage guy came up and wanted a swig off the bottle. He was drunk & belligerent, and she really didn't want to give him any. So the guitarist gave a little Cutty Sark to get him to shut up. Meanwhile, the cute bottle girl climbed up the shelves behind the band, danced around, fell onto the drum kit, and got up laughing & dancing. The drummer kicks, by the way. This show was incredible. I can't wait for the next one.
SXSW This free park show had tons of people there. It wasn't nearly loud enough. Marc and I got there just as they started and had a good spot, except for one reason. We were standing next to every career drunk in Austin. One guy that was in front of me when I first got there was "leaning" against a tree. He kept on almost falling into me. Over to the right was another guy laying (passed out?) on the ground and some alternative frat guy types were picking on him. Another guy danced with Marc. A little later, after moving away from the leaner, I noticed that he fell down. All of this is appropriate because GBV seemed to be just as wasted. The bass player split his pants, and Bob kept jumping around in a drunken manner. The reason was probably the fifth of whiskey they were passing around. Despite this, it was as good of a GBV show as I've seen. Lots of new songs (of course, I swear they must write songs 24-7), and they played some old hits. I was glad they played "Smothered in Hugs" and "Hot Freaks" off of "Bee Thousand." They played for a good hour to hour and a half as well.
Damn fine show by Sebadoh. I like the band, but sometimes their shows can be a little disappointing. But this one rocked. They went all thru the catalog playing many of my favorites. All the way back to "The Freed Pig," "Temporary Dream," "Vampire," "Sister," "Soul and Fire" and more. Jason & Lou seemed to split the set. This was great since Jason writes rocking songs. Everybody seemed to be in a great mood. The new drummer sang a song in the encore as well. I have no idea why they went so far back in the catalog, but I noticed a video camera on the stage. Sebadoh could be the perfect damaged indie rock couple date. Lou's songs are quieter & timid, and about what a loser the guy is. Jason's songs are loud & obnoxious, and about how fucked up the guy is. Something for everyone. I was glad that I had delayed my flight to Chicago to the next morning to catch this show, until I had to get up 4 hours after I got home! Mr. Buckner played guitar and a woman played drums. His set sounded really good and the songs were nice. The crowd didn't seem to much into him, but I'd like to hear him play again sometime.
Monroe Mustang are the quietest band ever with 3 guitars. Mellow. This is probably the last show I'll see at Electric Lounge. It's closing because they ran out of money, I guess. Well, it was one of the better places in town to see shows, so that sucks. 7% Solution have a big light show, and not much else. This band _opened_ with a Stereolab cover, that didn't sound all that unique. The light show proved that math is cool, and the band isn't.
Silver Scooter were drunk. I was drunk. It was fun. This was part of the Pop Rodeo. Unfortunately, this was the only band of about 15 I saw.
It was a $5 show. I know that doesn't sound like much, but Emo's is usually $2. One guy at the door said it was because of a high guarantee for the bands; the other guy at the door said that without Electric Lounge, this is going to happen. Oh well, gouge the customer. The Music Tapes had a TV that had an image that sang along, a giant metronome (about 6 foot) that ticked in time with the song, a percussion (?) instrument that was a giant pair of hands on wooden arms that clapped in a very Rube Goldberg fashion, and a song that had a bouncing ball percussion session. I could also recognize some of the people in the band from Neutral Milk Hotel. All that said, it was just OK. It was unique, but here it is nearly a week later, and nothing really stands out as memorable. Olivia Tremor Control also had members that I recognized from Neutral Milk Hotel; there were also a couple people who played with The Music Tapes in the band. They had lots of trippy psychedelic-style songs. Nothing I've found as emotional as Neutral Milk Hotel unfortunately. I don't quite understand the whole connection between all these bands, but I guess that they all record in the same place, Elephant 6.
Trans Am sang this time around. I think I'm getting tired of their shtick.
Great show. He writes the songs that the whole world ought to know. Only if every band had the charisma he has alone.
Typical Trail of Dead show. It rocked, and then it descended into chaos. Trumans Water were missing their drummer due to heat, so King Coffey & and Jason from Trail of Dead stood in. It was pretty cool.
Poster Children put on the regular rocking show they do. There were people in the audience from Champaign who I didn't know! Who woulda thunk it?
This was one of Paul Newman's last shows before some move to Chicago, and some stay in Austin. Too bad, because I like them more and more each time I see them. They played lots of songs that I assume were new, because I hadn't heard them before. Silver Scooter doesn't seem to be progressing much. I don't know if I like them as much as I used to.
Will Oldham did lots of songs I hadn't heard before. It was also very 70's rock sounding. The place was packed with lots of people also enjoying the show.
Too bad I was a little too drunk for this one. They were rocking with a slightly different line up than when they played SXSW. They have a major label record coming out soon. Space aliens & lost love. Gotta love it.
Sonic Youth's gear was stolen a few days before this show. All of it. They still played with rented equipment, presumably all tuned the way they want. So they played lots of brand old stuff. Expressway To Yr. Skull (dedicated to the thieves), Tom Violence, Shadow of a Doubt, Death Valley '69, Teenage Riot, & Sugar Kane are the ones I can recall. I loved the show. It was like 1990, just before punk rock broke! One of the descriptions I heard was transcendental. There were times you could tell they were barely able to keep away from the inevitable cobwebs that came up, but I actually liked the seat of the pants feeling of the show. Thurston still looks like he's 23. Spot opened. He's a local who used to produce lots of the SST records. Now he plays Celtic music. He had the stage alone, and won over the crowd.
I only saw one song of Black Lines, but it was great: intricate guitar noodling loud stuff. There was a member of Paul Newman in the band. The damn TV above the stage was on in Emo's again, so I didn't see much of the other bands. They were good though, just not good enough to look at while Blues Brothers and Pee Wee Herman play on TV!
This was lots of fun. We took the train out, and sat on a blanket in the park while the bands played. An old friend Lisa happened to be visiting Cindy while I was also in town. She brought along her 3 1/2 year old daughter, Luciene (Moonie). I had never met her, and she is one of the cutest little girls. We wound up playing with her most of the time, especially with one of those glow sticks that are so popular at outdoor nighttime events. I bet that we annoyed those sitting around us, but that really doesn't matter!
This will be the last show I see at Liberty Lunch. It's closing. The place pretty much sucked, but it's kinda too bad. I think I finally found a good spot; it's high, breezy, and it sounds alright. Bob Mould apparently was specially invited to play for the end of Liberty Lunch. It was pretty much half acoustic & half electric. He did solo, Sugar, & Hüsker Dü songs. The electric songs reminded me of my friend Kevin Elliott playing his guitar in his room back in college. I couldn't get that out of my mind. Bob Mould also did some new songs in the middle. He started a tape that played a hip-hop electronica beat. Then he played a rather standard Bob Mould sounding song over it. I don't think it worked, but I'm willing to give it a listen.
He was doing an in-store before the show later that night. He said he'd be able to play more songs here than later. He did some covers; I also think he made up a song on the spot. He told great funny stories as well. He's chloroform based, you see.
This was cool. There was a big video screen behind the bands. They had little video cameras on mic stands that were pointed around. They project on the screen, and usually they'd pick up in the video as well, creating some interesting video feedback. They also passed out little FM Walkmen. They had a little radio transmitter broadcasting the show. You listen in, hearing the show in stereo in your ears, with the big PA blasting around you. It was cool at first, but by the time I moved to the front to take pictures, it didn't work too well. There was static, and in the front the show was already really stereo separated since I could hear it all directly from the amps only feet away. iqu did pretty much the same thing they did at 33 Degrees a few months earlier. Sonic Boom had about 6 or 7 modified Speak-n-Spells. They had all sorts of extra switches and the like. He mixed them live and created a pulsating rhythm. They weren't speaking. They weren't spelling. They were making all sorts of noises & tones. Pretty cool. Next was Robyn Hitchcock. He played a new song "Viva Sea-Tac", and ode to Seattle & Tacoma with the great line something like, "Sea-Tac computers coffee and the very finest smack." Next were Sebadoh. I don't know how they fit into the whole show, but I liked their set. Lots of Jason's numbers again, which is always a good thing. Lou had set up a camera to point at a notebook he had that had various messages & pictures to broadcast to the audience. Next up were the Lips. It was a similar show to the SXSW show. They played the hits and had the puppets, the videos, and the confetti. The new one I don't recall from the last one was "The Spark That Bled." This is the song that's about having a bleeding wound on your head that you didn't know was there. Wayne used fake blood all over his face, dripping into his eyes, mouth, & clothes. Imagine that image projected onto a 10 foot screen! It was a great show.
I got there once Hovercraft had already started. It was long jams that melded right into each other. Eric joked that their name should be 20 Minute Sound Check. They had a video projected behind them that was synced to the music. Melvins came on, and of course King Buzzo made a scene with his very large hair. It's so freaking hilarious! Their new bass player is a guy from The Cows. The crowd was nuts. I wanted to be close to the stage, which means I'm near the pit. I hate the pit and the types of people who are attracted to it. I don't even think of Melvins as mosh music, but what do I know? Anyway, it was hot and loud.
Mr. Graham was playing while we walked in. His gravelly voice reminded me of Tom Waits. Jonathan Richman came up next. He did all the danceable ditties everyone should know. He was at the club for four nights straight. I remembered most of the songs from the last time I saw him, so I don't know what the other nights were like. He played "Pablo Picasso," "Dancing at the Lesbian Bar," "Nineteen," and more. As usual, his non-stop grin and hilarious songs made the night great. Now all I have to do is pick up some records...
We got there late, so once again I missed Calexico. I hear they're good too. I'd never seen nor heard Dirty Three before. I liked it. They have violin, guitar, & drums. The violinist runs & dances around the stage, sometimes capturing parts he plays in some device. Then these captured sequences repeat, and he plays over them with something else. Overall it's pretty loud, distorted Rock And Roll, as he kept reminding the crowd. I wasn't impressed with the latest Pavement record (Terror Twilight), which I purchased on my brother's recommendation. However, I liked the songs better live. It was a great show, even if they played only about 5 songs I had heard before. Actually I recognized the "Terror Twilight" songs, but I wouldn't say I know them by any stretch of the imagination. I was rocking. I'll have to check out that record again.
Technically, I didn't go to this show. It was at Stubb's, $40, and sold out. So a bunch of us went across the creek to hear the show, along with about 100 other people. We could hear Willie just fine, only we couldn't see him. However, if you went way to one end you could peek through the barricades at Stubb's and see Willie's cowboy hat. You could tell it was his hat because the hat would be away from the mic (which you could barely see) when he wasn't singing, and it would move towards the mic when he was. He played all the hits I can remember. It was fun. Among all the people on the free side, there were gutter punks & families catching the show. There was one punk rocker with a mohawk and a jacket with the Exploited skull head on the back! I guess that is Austin. Either that or Willie appeals to the outlaw in everyone. Speaking of which, the cops came out on horses & bicycles to bust some people for drinking & drugs. Very uncool. Next time I think I want to catch the real show inside.
Rik Didjit is hilarious. He is so rock-n-roll on stage. Whenever I've seen him offstage, he doesn't look very rock-n-roll. He did it all, as usual. I could swear that the thing to do when you saw Rik Didjit was to give him the finger the entire time, but no one here in Austin was doing it. They did a cover of Love And Rockets' "Yin and Yang the Flower Pot Man" from "Express"! Man, when I was listening to Love And Rockets, the Didjits were rocking in central Illinois, and I thought they were too punk rock for me. What the hell was I thinking? Rik was listening to L&R at the same time!
Paul Newman is a great band. Damn. They played a bunch of new ones, and a medley(!) of some of their songs from the albums in the middle of their set. It's too bad that half of them live out of town in Chicago now; they don't play Austin as much. But it could be good for the band if they got out of Austin, at least that's how it seems to me. Burn Lake have a heavy post-rock sound (that's the music critic in me). Some parts were a little weak, but overall I liked it. I hope to see them again. The opening band is from Canada. They have a guitarist & a drummer who stands & plays keyboards at the same time. Not too bad, but they need some more banter. The guitarist broke a string during the set, and the other guy played organ music that sounded like it was right out of an ice rink. However, he ended it too soon, and there was lots of silence. This show was indoors, and Emo's got rid of the TV above the stage! Yes. Before the show football was on, and they had a huge projection TV on the stage which they removed for the bands. Down with TVs on stage!
My feelings about this show are mixed. Isotope was great. But the opening acts... I don't know. DJ CX did his thing before the show and between acts. He scratched records of 1980s video games, and had some pretty lousy rhymes. At one point, since the crowd wasn't into his lame act, he faked a Texas drawl while berating the crowd for being indifferent to his show. The last straw was when he jumped on stage during one of my favorite Isotope songs and gave the crowd even more weak rhymes. There's parts in this song that sound like an old synthesizer drones on, and he mimicked it with his voice! What the hell? It sounded like some third grader taping his voice for the first time. Though he did 2 funny things. First off, he had a hand-held aerosol air raid siren. He'd use it every now and then. Lots of times he wasn't holding it correctly, so it'd give off some white gas, then finally bleat out. It was completely out of rhythm! Hilarious. The other funny thing was actually something he said. When the crowd was watching him blankly without moving, he tried to get them moving by saying something like "C'mon! This ain't no Footloose!" Hilarious. Freedom Sold had a DJ and rapper who played guitar. His rhymes simply didn't, nor did they roll out of his mouth nicely. Then he'd doodle on his guitar for a bit, somewhat giving a feeling of some old Funkadelic record. Finally, Isotope came out to clear most of the bad taste out of my mouth. Watching John(ny) "Machine" Herndon is fun. He's a fabulous drummer, and could most likely back any band he pleases. The band had a pretty low-key stage presence while they filled the room. It was also great to see a horn player live, since it not something I see too much with all the rock shows I go to. Hopefully when I see them next time, the opening bands won't make me want to leave. Isotope were tops, but the rest of the show was so bad that it makes my overall impression of the show weak.
Another rocking show by Royal Trux. They started really late: about 1:25 AM. But they seemed to put on the same show as if they started earlier. I had to leave by 2:20 AM since this was a week night; I had to work the next day after all. Jennifer Herrema, the singer, was walking around before the show, looking every bit the 1970's rocker chick. She was wearing a Native American rug-like poncho and her omnipresent dark sunglasses. The guitarist, Neil Hagerty, looked like the typical post heroin abuse indie rocker: skinny with jeans and a dark t-shirt. They played lots of songs off the new record, a few from Accelerator, and some I didn't know. I think that at live shows you get a better feeling for what the songs are about. Perhaps it's because the vocals are generally mixed higher. Also you can plug your ears and hear even more. That said, it doesn't seem like their songs have much meaning; you're a liar, let's go to the waterpark since it's hot out, etc. However, I think that simple subjects are the basis of lots of rock songs, especially the style of rock that Royal Trux supply, old time rock and roll. I'm still not a fan of Freedom Sold, despite seeing them 2 shows in a row. However, I actually enjoyed them a little more this time around. Perhaps the smaller inner stage was better for them, or they had figured their act out in the intervening 3 weeks.
We got there just as Trail of Dead were starting. We missed Eric Bachmann, the singer for Archers of Loaf. But he played along with Superchunk. More about that soon. It was the biggest place I had ever seen Trail of the Dead. Their latest album is on Superchunk's label Merge; apparently they had gone on tour with Superchunk. It sounded great, and the band didn't mess around too much. They put on a fine show. It was great to hear them though a big clean sound system. They can be a great band when they want to. Superchunk came on and played lots of the "hits": "Slack Motherfucker;" "Kicked In;" "Seed Toss;" "Precision Auto;" "From The Curve;" "Hyper Enough;" "Hello Hawk;" "1000 Pounds;" and "The First Part," a song from the best album of all time with the greatest lyric: "One good minute can last me a whole year." They opened the encore with a request, "What Do I" from their first single. It was much like the Mercury Rev show where it's odd to hear the songs that are laden with strings on the record played by a four piece. But it's also fun to hear them in your own head. During the encore they also played the Archer cover "Harnessed in Slums," with Eric Bachmann on guitar and Jim from Superchunk on vocals. It was awesome. Their version even had one of the best little breaks ever in that song that goes "dink!" If you don't already know, Superchunk is my favorite band, and I realized at the last Archers show I saw that they are my secret favorite band. This was so much fun. Superchunk has been going for 10 years. They have a slew of great songs to pick from to play. It must be somewhat of a bummer that you have too many great songs to play! It leaves no time for the new classics. I mean I'd figure that most indie bands started because they were tired of hearing the same stuff over & over, and here they are playing 10 year old songs. I hope they don't stop. Laura looked as good as ever, Jim was funny as usual. Oh, and the songs really rocked. This band is the greatest ever.
I only saw 3 songs. I spent most of my time talking with friends. So, I wasn't going to make a write up of the show, but something peripheral happened that's a good story. Since quite a few my my reviews are about minuscule matters, I decided to write it up anyway. So while I'm sitting there talking, I see this guy. And he's dressed "rocker:" blue jeans, t-shirt, and a bandanna tied around his head. He's holding his hand up to his head, and there's this chain hanging. I'm trying to figure out what the heck is going on, and then he turns so I can now see his hand. He's talking on a cellphone, and it is chained to his belt! It was one of those long chains the kids like to attach to their wallets. Soon enough, he hung up and clipped the cellphone onto his belt. The phone was still green glowing, and the chain must've looped down to his knees. It was one of the funniest things. This guy could make millions! I'd never seen anything like it. I'm sure that it will appear in the next alternative rocker VISA commercial, "Cellphone: $100. Chain for cellphone: $15. Being young with cellphone: Priceless." I love it.