Taking a break from a long piece I'm writing about the period when music got out of control with the emotions from 1988 to 2005 to talk about this show I attended yesterday featuring two of my favorite bands of all time: The Feelies and Speed the Plough.
I wasn't looking forward to spending a whole day at a crowded Hoboken street fair, so Andrea and I got there around 2:45, about 30 minutes before Speed the Plough was set to begin. We got up to the main stage and it was clear this was going to be as great a three hours as we could hope. Every member of the Feelies other than Stanley Demeski was onstage setting up as well and two of the other people waiting with anticipation were Ira Kaplan and his son, right next to us for the next few hours (and beyond).
They started off, not long after 3:15, with I believe "Perfect North" off the new record, which unfortunately has not arrived yet (hopefully on account of the postal service, still within normal range). The rest of their performance was great, save for the one minor hinderance of a bad arm injury affecting Toni Baumgartner which prevented any of the usual woodwinds. The upside of this was it gave a chance for her son Michael to show off that he is one of the best lead guitarists around. With drummer John Demeski he brought a great youthful energy to the band that keeps them totally fresh. The surprise guests were Bill Million, Brenda Sauter, and Glenn Mercer, which was real nice, but a little bit of a tease for someone always hoping for some kind of surprise Trypes reunion. On that note, the band's setlist was not my ideal, but when all their songs are so good, that's not much to complain about, and surely that had something to do with the injury. It did have the advantage of being longer than the last time I saw them, but the previous set's inclusion of "Madeleine" and "Veszprem" gave it the edge.
The Feelies, on the other hand have had a very consistent setlist every time I see them, and yesterday's performance may have been the best performance I have seen. As usual, that begins with "On The Roof," and saved the few Crazy Rhythms tracks for the end. In between that, though were some of their highlights. The best of which was probably "Slipping (Into Something)" which concluded with some excellent guitar noise, especially from Bill Million who was clearly channeling Hendrix. One recurring theme throughout their set was tense buildups such as on "Away" and of course "Raised Eyebrows" which with the greatest visibility of the five members made it the most mesmerizing performance of the song I have seen so far. Like every time I have seen the band, after that the initial set concluded with "Crazy Rhythms" which also sounded better than ever, ending with more subtle guitar noise and some really tight mesmerizing bass.
The encore was equally predictable and enjoyable. It began with "Rock & Roll," which was the last thing I heard, sung by Mercer on my final visit to Maxwell's. Then we got some more Crazy Rhythms with "Fa Cé-La" and "Everybody's Got Something To Hide (Except For Me And My Monkey)." The latter song was also helped by the sunny environment and big stage with Dave Weckerman's performance on the front, wailing on the pipe and tine drum. I saw John Baumgartner catch some shots (or possibly video) of him from a very intimate and action-packed angle and I am hoping to see some of those as soon as I can.
Afterwards we were so lucky to be in the front of the crowd and made our way to the PATH, probably not returning to Hoboken until Tommy is back for a holiday or two, and once again we were side by side with Ira Kaplan and son. As the four of us made our way to the station confirming just how over Hoboken has become, if the members of Yo La Tengo presumably don't even live there. We made our way down to the 33rd Ave train and waited. The Kaplans then moved away from us, taking a seat on a bench. That ended again when the train arrived and they walked right up to the same door as us and stood, and later sat near Adrea and me. I was convinced they would end up following us even longer as we decided to eat in Williamsburg, and you know, they might live around there, but it ended at 14th street as we left. It was an oddly long encounter with one musical idol while seeing even more of them. It was hard not to say something and nerd out again, but he definitely deserved a day off.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment