A four-day run at NYC’s Westbeth Theater begins 17 years ago today. We are honored to share the stage with an all-too-rare appearance by the guitar duo of Jody Harris and the late Robert Quine. For our part, things really get going on night 2. We take the stage with sheets over our heads and sing the Shaggs‘ “It’s Halloween” a cappella, at the conclusion of which the three of us enter from the wings, revealing that it wasn’t really us under the sheets (though I don’t think anyone was fooled). Wake Ooloo and The Scene Is Now play too, so Glenn Mercer joins us on a half dozen songs, including the Dream Syndicate‘s seasonal selection. Peter Stampfel and Will Rigby‘s Unmentionables usher in November, and Peter, Will, and Dave Schramm all help us out during our Fakebook-heavy set. The last show is a hardcore matinee with Magnetic Fields. Stephin Merritt’s version of “Attack on Love” was such a success at its out-of-town tryout the previous June in Minneapolis that we bring him back for an encore on the big city stage. Brian Sides is retiring from life on the road with Yo La Tengo at the end of this show, so we invite him to play guitar on the last two songs, “Cast a Shadow” and Blondie’s “Dreaming.”
