The Posies @ the Black Cat, Washington, D.C. 9/26/05
Definite Door / Please Return It / Second Time Around / Ontario / Throwaway / Everybody Is A Fucking Liar / I Guess You're Right / Start A Life / Precious Moments / Conversations / Dream All Day / Grant Hart / Flavor Of The Month / Solar Sister / encore: It's Great To Be Here Again / Love Letter Boxes / Apology / You're The Beautiful One
On Monday night, after I got out of my night class, I raced down to D.C. to see maybe one of my favorite bands ever. I didn't become fully obsessed with the Posies until after they broke up in the late 90's, so I never saw them live during their original run. But they keep coming back and doing tours together, so I've gotten to see them twice now in some reunited form, and I always get geeked out about it. There's a kind of faded glory to what they do now, a couple of guys in their late 30's, playing mostly songs they wrote over a decade ago to half full rooms in smaller venues than they played at the time. But they're still a pretty formidable live act and a lot of fun to watch. Jon Auer is a chubby guitar god who could pass for Antonio Banderas's brother, and throws his guitar in mid-air constantly, even during solos. And Ken Stringfellow is constantly jumping around and spitting, sometimes whipping his head back and hocking phlegm three feet above his head and then catching it in his mouth.
The first time I saw them live was about 4 years ago, when Jon and Ken had just started playing with a new rhythm section, Matt and Darius, who are still playing with them on their current album and tour. I remember at the time, I was a little unnerved by Darius's drumming, since he didn't really emulate the parts on the original studio versions of the songs, and I loved the playing of both of the Posies' 2 previous drummers. So if he didn't play the same fills the same way they did, it kind of ruined the song for me in some small, nitpicky way. But this time, it sounded like he'd really studied the old studio albums and picked up the essence of the songs, which made the show, in my eyes, a lot better than the last one.
I'd seen a few setlists from this tour already on the internet, so I kinda knew what to expect for the song selection. But there were a few surprises I wasn't expecting, and I enjoyed the large amount of songs from Amazing Disgrace, probably my favorite album. Their new album, Every Kind Of Light, has continued to grow on me since I reviewed it, so I wouldn't have minded if they'd played more than 4 songs from it, but 3 of them happened to be my favorite songs on the album, so I was happy with that. "Start A Life" and "You're The Beautiful One" were great songs to hear live, but I kinda wish they weren't still playing over the drum loops from the versions on Success and came up with different live arrangements.
Towards the end of the set, with little warning, Jon and Ken threw their mic stands down in front of the stage and jumped down to perform "Dream All Day" and "Grant Hart" down on the floor in the middle of the crowd. It was kind of a mess and someone's mic kept feeding back, but it was still pretty cool. Jon even threw his guitar up so high at one point that it bounced off the ceiling. After the show, I checked out the merch table, and the only CD they had for sale that I don't already own was one of Jon's side projects, so I bought it and a poster, and I shook Jon Auer's hand and he called me "bro". I don't get real nervous or excited about meeting musicians anymore, but that was kind of a surreal moment.
Definite Door / Please Return It / Second Time Around / Ontario / Throwaway / Everybody Is A Fucking Liar / I Guess You're Right / Start A Life / Precious Moments / Conversations / Dream All Day / Grant Hart / Flavor Of The Month / Solar Sister / encore: It's Great To Be Here Again / Love Letter Boxes / Apology / You're The Beautiful One
On Monday night, after I got out of my night class, I raced down to D.C. to see maybe one of my favorite bands ever. I didn't become fully obsessed with the Posies until after they broke up in the late 90's, so I never saw them live during their original run. But they keep coming back and doing tours together, so I've gotten to see them twice now in some reunited form, and I always get geeked out about it. There's a kind of faded glory to what they do now, a couple of guys in their late 30's, playing mostly songs they wrote over a decade ago to half full rooms in smaller venues than they played at the time. But they're still a pretty formidable live act and a lot of fun to watch. Jon Auer is a chubby guitar god who could pass for Antonio Banderas's brother, and throws his guitar in mid-air constantly, even during solos. And Ken Stringfellow is constantly jumping around and spitting, sometimes whipping his head back and hocking phlegm three feet above his head and then catching it in his mouth.
The first time I saw them live was about 4 years ago, when Jon and Ken had just started playing with a new rhythm section, Matt and Darius, who are still playing with them on their current album and tour. I remember at the time, I was a little unnerved by Darius's drumming, since he didn't really emulate the parts on the original studio versions of the songs, and I loved the playing of both of the Posies' 2 previous drummers. So if he didn't play the same fills the same way they did, it kind of ruined the song for me in some small, nitpicky way. But this time, it sounded like he'd really studied the old studio albums and picked up the essence of the songs, which made the show, in my eyes, a lot better than the last one.
I'd seen a few setlists from this tour already on the internet, so I kinda knew what to expect for the song selection. But there were a few surprises I wasn't expecting, and I enjoyed the large amount of songs from Amazing Disgrace, probably my favorite album. Their new album, Every Kind Of Light, has continued to grow on me since I reviewed it, so I wouldn't have minded if they'd played more than 4 songs from it, but 3 of them happened to be my favorite songs on the album, so I was happy with that. "Start A Life" and "You're The Beautiful One" were great songs to hear live, but I kinda wish they weren't still playing over the drum loops from the versions on Success and came up with different live arrangements.
Towards the end of the set, with little warning, Jon and Ken threw their mic stands down in front of the stage and jumped down to perform "Dream All Day" and "Grant Hart" down on the floor in the middle of the crowd. It was kind of a mess and someone's mic kept feeding back, but it was still pretty cool. Jon even threw his guitar up so high at one point that it bounced off the ceiling. After the show, I checked out the merch table, and the only CD they had for sale that I don't already own was one of Jon's side projects, so I bought it and a poster, and I shook Jon Auer's hand and he called me "bro". I don't get real nervous or excited about meeting musicians anymore, but that was kind of a surreal moment.
Labels: concerts, The Posies
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