Post Show Banter >>>>

I believe they canceled both the Atlantis and 930 gigs.

grateful wrote:
I bailed on the Julien Baker Atlantis show.  Missed opportunity :(

Oh

No, I had COVID and had to skip both.  They played:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/x/2023/the-atlantis-washington-dc-1ba29548.html

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/x/2023/930-club-washington-dc-3a28137.html

hutch wrote:
I believe they canceled both the Atlantis and 930 gigs.

Oh boy

I should just cash it in

The T Mobile connection came back and we three walked into the Atlantis at the totally rock and roll time of 6:20, as the opener was finishing their set. It was loud and the opener sucked. My daughter's first comment was "Can we please leave?"

But we didn't, and Nada Surf came on at 6:57pm. They're one of my favorites, and were reliably good. They did 17 songs, five of them new, and were done in 80 minutes. A totally truncated show.

Another boardie told me the late show (that was added after the original show sold out) lasted two hours and 24 songs.

How's that for some scheduling bullshit?

at least she said Please

also setlist FM has similar # of songs, but different mix

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/nada-surf/2024/the-atlantis-washington-dc-6352c6ab.html
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/nada-surf/2024/the-atlantis-washington-dc-4356e34f.html

Multivisti-hatch wrote:
at least she said Please

also setlist FM has similar # of songs, but different mix

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/nada-surf/2024/the-atlantis-washington-dc-6352c6ab.html
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/nada-surf/2024/the-atlantis-washington-dc-4356e34f.html

Boardie Vas Deferens tells me that second setlist is incomplete. He says they went on at 10:30, played at least 24 songs, and finished at 12:30.

Ok, vas does have a smidgen of credibly (my new band name) when it comes to these things

Multivisti-hatch wrote:
Ok, vas does have a smidgen of credibly (my new band name) when it comes to these things

I guess the silver lining was that we were able to grab some dinner and still be home by 10, allowing my wife some sleep before her 5:30am work phone call with someone in India.

Never a fan of the two shows in a night but it’s interesting to note that in the 1940s and 50s multiple shows per day was the norm and it wasn’t uncommon to have 20-30 minute sets. Guys like Sinatra played six shows a day! The early rock and roll shows packaged together various performers with each artist performing their hit….Even into the late 60s rock shows rarely went over an hour. The Beatles in Hamburg played show after show after show until 4 am. Once the Beatles made it their concerts weren’t much more than 12 two minute songs!

Beat (Adrian Belew era King Crimson) at Warner Theater.  Great show and was happy to see it was a sell out.  It's nice to see this tour be so welcomed by fans as there doesn't seem to be a more genuinely nice guy than Adrian Belew. And you can tell he just loves to perform this music.  The show just oozed excellent musicianship with Belew, Stevie Vai, Tony Levin and Tool drummer Danny Carey.  They hit all the highlights of 3 Belew era King Crimson albums Discipline, Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair.  I was blown away by Stevie Vai's guitar work, as well as all the others.

Disappointed tonight in Frankie Rose, who opened for Jesus & Mary Chain/Psychedelic Furs. Was really looking forward to it. Didn't know anything about her, but listened on Spotify to see if the opener would be good, and I liked it. Unfortunately, they spent the whole set in the dark, backlit by red lights crossing the stage behind them and a screen playing black and white graphics. We couldn't see the band at all from the front row of a box, just silhouettes. Since the drums and keyboards appeared canned – no discernable person playing those – I had to wonder whether the whole thing was live or Memorex.  Everything but the drums sounded pretty good, but maybe too good, and it was hard to focus on the music while being so annoyed at the band playing in the dark, like, who does that?, and wondering if it's all recorded. I'd like to think at least some of it was live, and I tried to tell, but the performance wasn't visible. In fairness, to her credit, she did visibly sing two songs with JAMC. So, I really wanted to like it, but lost a fair amount of interest.

Jesus & Mary Chain, and Psychedelic Furs, were great. Richard Butler's great weird voice hasn't changed at all. A lot of people left after "Pretty in Pink," but they missed out, their last three songs were some of their best.

James / Johnny Marr

The now nine piece version of James gave us a 70 minute joyous  set that went by far to quick and end far to soon.  Besides songs from their marvelous new album "Yummy" we got as close to a US James's greatest hits as one could hope for. "Born Of Frustration", a primarily audience singalong for "Stay", "Sometimes" and "Laid".  Hopefully, at some point US promoters will realize the James has the US fanbase so they get a non-coheadlining tour. So many great songs they have to choose from, would have wished they dug a little deeper into their more recent albums, but getting 80/90s James will never disappoint.

In stark contrast Johnny Marr gave us a plodding when will end set, I have many thoughts on his set primarily being why did I stick around so long.  His voice just isn't up to being able to carry The Smiths or Electronic songs. His solo material is dull and sounds alike.  The beauty of The Smiths was his ability to multi-track guitar parts, which while he and his guitarist were making a attempt to replicate that sound it just wasn't working.  The kicker being that in an abbreviated version of "How Soon Is Now", Johnny was only handling the rhythm guitar line and the other was handling the leads/stabs the song is known for.  Vocals aside the guitar work on "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" was stunning.

That was my impression seeing Marr live years ago. He sucks.

I’ve heard this many times, alas people keep showing up to see him

hutch wrote:
That was my impression seeing Marr live years ago. He sucks.

As my better half said it will never be The Smiths unless Morrissey is there, with that said surely there are singers Johnny could be using to breathe new life into those classics.  My thought last night was if Kirsty MacColl were still alive she could be that singer.  I also found it quite ironic that he would about half through his set asked if there were any songs people wanted to hear, given he does the same exact set every night.  As a solo artist Johnny is coasting on his name at this point, but he's Johnny Fucking Marr so I guess that's all that matters and the audience was there for it. 

My Space observation for the evening, was yet again we ended a couple rows behind a band's biggest fans who during the James show were flailing around with added bonus of lifting up their elementary aged children so they could see the band throughout the set.  No ear protection was seen for the children either.. And then of course for Johnny's set two very tall people who sat during James were now standing right of me.

Multivisti-hatch wrote:
I’ve heard this many times, alas people keep showing up to see him

I mean, he’s no Dylan…

Good one.

I thought JAMC was a bit dull last night. Many songs have that same slow/plodding tempo and droning guitar that gets old after a while. It's relatively dark and they never move, so they're not much to watch. "Psychocandy" was one of the great albums of the 80s and they mostly ignored it. I like them, but I'm not their biggest fan.  I was ready for them to be done after about 45 minutes.

The Furs, however, were wonderful. Nice mix of old/new/hits. Richard sounded great.  Mars was definitely missed though. Seemed a bit rushed and no encore, but what they played sounded terrific. I could have used another 30 minutes or so of them.

I was kind of surprised The Anthem wasn't more full, considering there were 2 big bands.  It never felt crowded and by the end the floor seemed about 1/2 full.  Fun night though.

How was the show?  Looking forward to it, though I had the Birchmere.  Insanely short drive, but I still need to get there early to find a good seat.

grateful wrote:

nkotb wrote:
Mountain Goats on Tuesday

Tonight