Author: Ira

It’s the first day of the rest of our life, twenty-three years ago today.   Temporary fill-in, on loan from Christmas, James drives down from Providence and has his first rehearsal with me and Georgia.  Afterwards we all went to Maxwell’s where Antietam, Love Child, and Sleepyhead were playing.  After the last scheduled set, Georgia and I, with Tim Harris on bass (and a surprise visit from Rachael McNally on drums), played “Big Day Coming” for the first time (approximately 2 1/2 years before its release on Painful).   And speaking of Peter Walsh (as we were yesterday), he’s the emergency replacement for Georgia when she’s still bed-ridden with the flu, forcing her to miss our appearance during the 2008 WFMU marathon.   If we ever get around to releasing the followup to Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics, the closing “Chantilly Lace” medley will be just one of the many “highlights.”

 

Towards the conclusion of Half Japanese’s mindwarping cover of “Tangled Up in Blue,” Jad Fair tells us “Sometimes I don’t get Bob Dylan.”  Jad, we know the feeling because sometimes I don’t get Yo La Tengo.  Four years after new wave karaoke, we decide that a March 1, 1997 one-off at Vassar College is the perfect moment to renew our acquaintance with “Warm Leatherette.”    I asked James if he had any memory of what we were thinking, and he said that all he remembered of that night was sitting in our dressing room, watching Bob & David performing from the Aspen Comedy Festival.   And it all came back to me (not “Warm Leatherette”–that’s one for the ages).  To this day, I still hear in my head our soundman, Peter Walsh, repeating “Are you ready for the magazines!”

 

 

On this date we made our first visit ever to Paris (1992), Memphis (1994), and uh Palmerston North, New Zealand (1998).  Even those that attended American public schools should be able to figure out which one of those was attended by Jean Luc from Caen.

Hello,
Mon anglais étant très limité, je vous écris dans ma langue, le français.  Mon souvenir de la découverte de Yo La Tengo remonte à l’un des premiers (le premier?) concerts du groupe en France.  C’était à Paris, place Clichy dans la salle l’Européen.  Vous étiez en première partie d’un jeune artiste qui faisait ses débuts: Dominique A.  Il a depuis fait une belle carrière que je suis comme la votre.  C’était un concert assez émouvant.  C’est aussi un beau souvenir de ma (relative) jeunesse.   Je ne me souviens plus de la date exacte, sans doute dans l’année 1992.  Vous saurez sans doute la retrouver plus précisément.  Bonne année à vous aussi et longue vie musicale.

Merci, Jean Luc!  And before we say adieu to February, a quick shout-out to leap years 1988 (at the Lone Star in Kansas City, opening for the dB’s) and 2000 (at Town Hall in NYC with Lambchop).

 

What I remember best about our one-off at Washington University in St. Louis on this day in 1993 is James and I sharing a heaping order of snoots in the student center where our show took place.  Consulting my notes, I am reminded that later that night we debuted “Shaker” and, still later, were joined on drums by “Len” (so say my records) for not just “Cast a Shadow,” but a never-heard-before, never-heard-again cover of “Empty Heart.”  I’m sure we had our reasons.    By comparison, bringing Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci onstage on the first night of our 2004 tour together, in their hometown of Cardiff, to perform “Rebel Rebel” makes perfect sense, what with it being St. David’s Day.

 

In 2008, Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale asked us to take part in the three-night blowout they were throwing to bring their weekly comedy show Invite Them Up to a close.   We planned a four-song set for this date, six years ago, opening with the Condo Fucks favorite “Come On Up” reworded to “Invite Them Up,” and closing with Marcie Blane’s “Bobby’s Girl” (second chorus: Eugene’s girl).  And then Georgia caught the flu and was much too sick to play.   Pulling out our Rolodex, we went to the card that said DRUMMERS and there was only one name: Todd Barry.  He cancelled a few engagements and hightailed it to Rififi to save the day.

In another century and another state, we were playing our one and only show at Passaic’s Loop Lounge in 1987.  For one last time, original bassist, Dave Rick, was on lead guitar, as he had been for most of our dates since Dave Schramm’s departure in August of ’86.    Is it possible that we didn’t play with Dave again till Hanukkah 2007?  What were we thinking?

 

To punctuate the release of And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, we undertook an 11-city U.S. tour, playing (mostly) quietly in sit-down venues.  Lambchop opened all the shows, and our lineup was expanded to a quintet with the addition of David Kilgour and Mac McCaughan on guitar, keyboards, vibes and percussion.  It was an ambitious affair all around, not without its hiccups–Lambchop drummer Allen Lowrey picked the wrong moment to grab some fresh air, got accidentally left behind, and took a bus to the second show in Philadelphia.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Opening night, 14 years ago today at the 9:30 Club in D.C., was also Georgia’s birthday, so we threw her a surprise party.   Without her knowing, the rest of the band learned Gary Lewis’s “Count Me In” and played it for her during the encore.  A bunch of our friends drove down and stayed out of sight till after our set.  Well, most of them did.  Our niece was there, and was having trouble with rock ‘n’ roll hours.  While we were on stage, Joe brought her up to the dressing room, where she could take a nap.  When a surprised Georgia discovered her there, she leaned over to say hi, and got a second surprise.  Assuming it was her older brother trying to wake her up, our niece, eyes still closed, led with a sock to Georgia’s jaw.  Luckily she was cuter than she was strong.