Too much on my mind

Maybe it’s sunspots, but we’ve had too many memorable shows on September 29 to fit into one post, and oddly I can devote tomorrow’s dispatch to part 2 because nothing comparable happened on the 30th.  In 1993, we play a record release event for Painful at midtown’s SIR studio.  Giddy on show-business fumes, Georgia goes to retrieve our station wagon for the drive home, and thinks she sees one of our friends on the street, waves hello, and when he waves back, she realizes it’s Paul Shaffer.  Seven years later, we have a contender for our most fun show ever, at Austin’s La Zona Rosa, the last of three southern dates with Chris Knox opening.  We’ve already invited Jad Fair, recently relocated to Texas, to join us on a few songs, and then just a couple of days before the show, we’re asked if Daniel Johnston could be added to the bill, to which we instantly agree.  Chris, Jad and Daniel spend their offstage time at the merch stand, creating art for any and all, and the three of them end up onstage with us before the night is through, including a hastily thrown together version of the Ohio Express by way of Toy Love‘s “Yummy Yummy Yummy,” sung by Chris.  Final one for today: two years ago, we played two shows in Ithaca: a performance of The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller with Sam Green, followed by a Freewheeling Yo La Tengo set.  I’ll admit that I don’t consider that especially noteworthy, but Omar from Lima sees it differently:

1. First memory.  I’m in Lima (Peru), trying to find a new album.  Internet is not as great as it is these days, so I necessarily have to go, every weekend, to the same place to find some new music. It’s 2006, and I walk around with my best friend–who turns out to be my
lifelong partner–and I find Prisoners of Love.  I’m 20, and I have never listened to YLT.  And I play “By the Time It Gets Dark.”  I bought the album immediately.  And I became a fan.  And that’s my favorite song.

2. Second memory.  I’m in Ithaca (NY).  It’s 2012, and I just started a PhD.  I’ve never been in a concert there before.  (In fact, it’s just my second month living in the US!)  And I have a lot of work to do.  But I read that YLT will play at Cornell.  Two blocks from my place.  Have to go.  Second memory,  first American concert.  And you guys play “By the Time It Gets Dark.”   And I smile as . . . as I was at a YLT concert.

Elsewhere on the same day, Ned tells us: mary and ned walked down the aisle to your cover of “the whole of the law” on september 29th, 2012.

 

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