Throw that thing somewhere else

Another memorable swing state show on this date in 2004, in Knoxville, maybe too memorable.  David Kilgour and Lambchop’s Paul Niehaus, William Tyler and Deanna Varagona are holdovers from the previous night, and we welcome back Sue Garner, in addition to Rick Brown’s lone appearance of the tour.  Nevertheless, we have a rough time making a connection with the audience, and then it gets worse when someone throws a drink at Todd Barry during his first set.  The mood onstage is dark and I stop “Behind That Locked Door” to propose that the audience either shut up or leave, adding that I don’t care which one they choose.  A couple of songs later, we perform a particularly ferocious “From a Motel 6” which morphs into “Point That Thing Somewhere Else,” after which Todd returns, though it never exactly gets back to normal, even for a tour that is almost never “normal.”  Things also not going according to plan in 1990.  Wilbo Wright gets creamed by turnpike traffic and is so late to our in-store at Pier Platters that Georgia and I end up doing it as a duo.  We stick to the script in 2005 at Emo’s in Austin.  Jad Fair opens the show, and joins us for six songs, including local favorite “Fire Engine.”

 

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In a big country

You don’t have to have seen us bring Roy Loney up for an impromptu “Slow Death” Friday at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco to know of our fondness for the city-specific.  Over the years on this date, we squeezed six members of Lambchop onto the stage at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville during the 2004 swing state tour and we covered the Electric Eels in Cleveland in 2009.  More local guests: Tara Key at the Knitting Factory in NYC in 1991 and Rick Rizzo at the Vic in Chicago in 2006 (he was nearly deafened when he stepped on a fuzzbox turned way way up).  And at a 1990 in-store at Olsson’s in D.C., touring Fakebook, while Georgia and Wilbo Wright lay down a groove, Kevin Salem pulls a copy of Henry Rollins’s Pissing in the Gene Pool off the shelf and declaims a few excerpts.

 

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Bye bye Eugene

Our swing state tour of 2004 is in its phase of resembling an MLB playoff tour, having just left Kansas City and arriving, 10 years ago today, in St. Louis.  William Tyler has returned to the lineup, and in the standup slot, we bid farewell to Eugene Mirman and welcome Trevor Rosenthal fan (like me, he goes for all the players with Jewish names) Todd Barry.  James sings “Psycho” in honor of the late Janet Leigh, and David Kilgour–the only non-YLT singer in the combo–takes the lead on half a dozen numbers.  The next day we caravan to Ted Drewes, where David waits too long to test his concrete’s non-spillability, creating a bit of a mess and a wonderful photo op in the parking lot.

 

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Viva Rock Vegas

In 2010, Matador celebrated their 21st anniversary with a three-day blowout in Las Vegas.  In between trips to Lotus of Siam and the Liberace Museum, we were able to find time for a brief performance,  the centerpiece of which was “Nuclear War.”  Reworded as “Matador Records,” James called and Georgia and I responded with every staff member past and present (I know we missed a couple, but not many).  Special guests included Hamish Kilgour on percussion (same as he did 13 years earlier in Charlotte, NC), and Guided by Voice’s Mitch Mitchell on . . . we never did find out what led him to wander on stage during our set.

Before we go, let’s wish a happy anniversary to David G., who writes:  My wife and I are huge fans. Or actually, she was a huge fan who more or less changed my life by forcing me to listen to I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One start to finish in 2004 shortly after we first met. There was no turning back.  So . . . on October 3, 2009, we got hitched.  The processional music for walking down the aisle was “Our Way to Fall.”  And then, when she appeared to walk down the aisle solo, it shifted to “Return to Hot Chicken.”

 

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Canadian clubs

A couple of shows in Canada on this date: Toronto’s Phoenix in 2006 with Why? and Montreal’s Club Soda the following year with The Horse’s Ha.  Demonstrating the unpredictability that’s been our hallmark for nearly 30 years, not only do we play a Neil Young song during both encores, it’s the same one: “Prisoners of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”  (At least we add a French-language “Et Moi, Et Moi, Et Moi” for the Québécois.)  No Neil Young number at our 2004 swing state show in Kansas City, despite a multitude of his fans on stage: Rick Rizzo, Doug McCombs and David Kilgour (and perhaps Eugene Mirman, though I think he leans more towards Jethro Tull).  But we only missed by a day–“Hey Babe” was part of the previous night’s set in Ames, Iowa.

 

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Blue: moon, grass and bird

I was in Los Angeles last weekend for the Big Star tribute show at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre and the Cinefamily’s Magnificent Hubleys program, which kept me so busy that when I found out the Aislers Set were doing a show in town, I could get no closer than reminiscing about our date together in Lexington, Kentucky, 11 years ago today.  All tour Joe has ceded the Ace Tone chair on “I Heard You Looking” to Dan Lee, and tonight Dan–and Wyatt Cusick–also tickle the plastics on “Emulsified,” and the whole group adds to the cacophony on “Nuclear War.”  Speaking of Kentucky, on this date in 1991, we play with Anitetam at the Bluebird in Bloomington, Indiana for the second time that year.  I wonder when’s the last time we played ANY club other than Maxwell’s twice in a year?

 

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