Saturday night: Big Star
Sunday night: The Posies
I'm finally on my third wind after this weekend and so I figured I'd post my last Noisepop update before I went to bed. Big Star were amazing. Absolutely amazing. Stunning, even. I'm kind of speechless about the whole thing. I think this show was possibly even better than the original reunion show in '93, and I'm dreadfully biased towards that one.
I'd give a sample of what they played, but they always play the same damn songs when they do a show so you can just do a search your own damn self to find out what they were. Ken was wearing a fly robins-egg blue suit that matched his bass with a pastel plaid tie, and his hair looked dyed black over green, possibly Manic Panic, cuz his head-sweat was dripping black. Jon's grown his hair out to the length it was the first time I saw Big Star, and Alex has this severe crewcut that makes him look pretty square, with his Dockers. Jody never ages. He still looks mighty fine for his age, or even an age quite younger than his. (This is so typical of me. I go to write a show review and all I can talk about is what everyone is wearing and what their hair looked like. Visual much?)
The lack of "O Dana" & "What's Goin' Ahn" was a disappointment, as was the encore number: A dispirited version of "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" by the Beach Boys. You can bluster at me about Pet Sounds and vocal harmonies all day till you're blue in the face, and I will still never like the Beach Boys. There's just something about them that rubs me the wrong way. My other beef is that there was no merch. No Big Star t-shirts. Not even a nice poster like you get on your way out of every other Fillmore show. This makes the sick little consumer inside me very unhappy.
This morning we took a brief detour for band practice where Bee and I were both utter zombies who took Mark and Andy's cheery willingness to rock and stomped it flat and dragged them down into loopy zombiehood with us so all that the four of us could really do was point and giggle at each other. It's nice to know that my mental influence and mind control skills are stronger than ever.
Then, I tried to get a nap but it just wasn't happening, and so Devil and I took off for Cafe Du Nord, where we STILL weren't sure if the Posies were playing an acoustic set or getting down with a full rock band. The literature had all been ambiguous and I hadn't been able to check in with any of the entourage to find out because they were busy being Big Star. When we got in, Ken was at the merch table and Devin tried to get me to say hi but I was so exhausted and loopy that I got all self-conscious and weirdy and wouldn't do it, so he went up to ask if they were doing the full rock thing, and it turns out they were! Yay! I've seen Jon & Ken do the acoustic duo thing a billion skillion times, and I've now seen Big Star twice but I'd never seen the Posies as a full rock band, so I was very torqued. The times for the show had all been fucked up in the lit, so we managed to arrive just as Actionslacks were finishing up their set (must catch them again, they rocked the house) and as Jon & Ken were making their way up to the tiny little stage. We hung back for a while and Devin rudely butted in front of Scott Miller (sorry Scott!) and I spent the first few songs in the set all misty-eyed because of the harmonies. I cry at every fucking Posies show I go to, it's a sickness. Then Devin saw a blank spot up front and dragged me there because he knows how I feel 'bout those boys. Turns out that there was a blank spot up front cuz someone on that side was releasing noxious clouds of gas from their ass up there. I've never smelled anything so rank in my life. Not even rotting corpses smell that bad. Dude. Don't eat beans.
The PA at Cafe Du Nord is a little weak for people who can actually sing, so there was some distortion going on that ruined Ken's higher end, but the rest of the show was really great. Ken is now switching between two Dano DC-3s (just like mine up there in the corner, except silver and black instead of the aqua) and so I got to hear what my guitar would sound like if I had a decent amp and if I could, uh, actually play. OK, I think I have rambled as much as I can ramble for one night, and it's time for me to finally get some shut-eye. (Wow, I noticed that I didn't mention anyone's clothes this time!)
How am I ever going to manage touring when I'm this tired from just attending shows all week? Maybe now it's time to start saving up for my meth addiction.
Posted by laura at March 04, 2002 01:35 AM