The Vaselines
May 11th at Bimbo’s 365 Club, San Francisco
When you show up to a gig on a reunion tour, you’re potentially risking how you feel about the band in question. Any trepidation or hesitance on the part of those who attended the Vaselines’ first-ever San Francisco show on Monday night was quickly wiped away, however, by how incredible the Edinburgh, Scotland group sounded right off the bat: Opening with “Son of a Gun”, it didn’t sound like any time had passed at all! At center stage stood the core duo of Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, whose dialogue was some of the most entertaining I’ve ever heard at a show.
This show came in support of Enter the Vaselines, a 2xCD compilation out on Sub Pop which presents repackaged remasters of their 20-year-old material. Famously championed by Kurt Cobain after they broke up in the early ’90s (they would tour a bit with Nirvana in the UK, however), the Vaselines had been mostly dormant until playing Sub Pop’s 20th Anniversary show last year in Seattle. As this show made clear, they’ve been doing more than just practicing, bringing a couple of new tunes to the table, which sounded quite good among the rest of the set—a delightful “hit parade” of sorts.
McKee gave the introduction to “Monsterpussy”, insisting that there wasn’t anything dirty about the title. Her mischievous smile, and the hilariously filthy stage banter that came later in the set, led us to believe otherwise, especially when it came time to explain how she’s managed to stay looking so young—a quip too raunchy to recount.
Although presumably a scrappy live band in their original incarnation, the band tonight sounded really well-practiced. The only amateur-ish moment was pretty adorable: Kelly was in need of a capo, but he had a bit of trouble figuring out the tuning at one point, tuning his hollow-body guitar with the capo on (at an audience member’s suggestion) before giving up and setting it aside. He and McKee poked fun at one another throughout, making what would’ve been a painfully long tuning transition strangely pleasurable to stand through.
In a little over an hour, they ran through nearly everything people wanted to hear: “The Day I Was a Horse”, “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam”, “Molly’s Lips”… it’s rare to hear a pop band with this many good songs these days. They closed with the faux-disco groove of “You Think You’re a Man”, complete with giggle-inducing moans. Bring on the new album!
Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]
Destroyer
May 9th at Swedish American Hall, San Francisco
It wouldn’t be easy to spot Dan Bejar on the street. With his frizzy black head of hair, beard, and slightly unbuttoned plaid long-sleeve shirt, the Vancouver singer-songwriter is surprisingly indistinct in appearance—in a big city like San Francisco, anyway. Regardless of how he looks, he does plenty to make his talents stand out in the pop continuum: He’s arguably the most striking voice in the New Pornographers (“Myriad Harbour” and “Jackie, Dressed in Cobras”, for instance, are two of the band’s best tracks), and his solo material as Destroyer, influenced as it might be by Bowie and Dylan, sounds like little else in execution.
When he tours and records, he usually has a band behind him, but for this tour, Bejar’s pared it down to himself and his acoustic guitar, permitting an interesting slant on what’s lately been a very fleshed-out endeavor. After opening with “No Cease Fires!”, he explained that the crowd at the previous night’s show, which took place immediately downstairs at Café du Nord, had been pretty riotous: He affectionately claimed that the “animals” nabbed his setlist, so tonight, he was going to try to “play a bunch of songs [he hasn’t] played very much… but are still good.” This is precisely how it turned out—a stripped-down showcase of his elliptical erudition with a song selection that tickled those super-fans present, a few of whom gleefully shouted along with “the fucking maniac” bit from “European Oils.” After playing Swan Lake’s “The Freedom” and a few moments spent strumming to re-remember how to play “Queen of Languages”, Bejar said, “I probably shouldn’t be playing this song,” but he went ahead and did it anyway, and it sounded terrific, even without the carnival keyboard accompaniment on the recorded version. These soft-spoken, interstitial bits of banter were quite funny: After a performance of “The Music Lovers”, he said, “I think there’s a Ken Russell movie called The Music Lovers… I fucking stole a title.”
One new tune surfaced, which included a line about “Nagasaki at night at war with the devil”—intriguing! Beer in hand, he left briefly after set’s end before returning to close with two of his finest tunes: “Painter in Your Pocket” and “Virgin With a Memory.” Destroyer really ought to lay waste to San Francisco more often.
Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]
Read past installments of It Shows:
Dengue Fever and The Lost World: May 5th at the Castro Theatre, SF
Thao and the Get Down Stay Down: April 30th at the Independent, SF
Mayyors: April 19th at El Rincon, San Francisco
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The Vaselines: May 11th at Bimbos and Destroyer: May 9th at Swedish American Hall, SF
by: Michael Harkin
May 11th at Bimbo’s 365 Club, San Francisco
When you show up to a gig on a reunion tour, you’re potentially risking how you feel about the band in question. Any trepidation or hesitance on the part of those who attended the Vaselines’ first-ever San Francisco show on Monday night was quickly wiped away, however, by how incredible the Edinburgh, Scotland group sounded right off the bat: Opening with “Son of a Gun”, it didn’t sound like any time had passed at all! At center stage stood the core duo of Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, whose dialogue was some of the most entertaining I’ve ever heard at a show.
This show came in support of Enter the Vaselines, a 2xCD compilation out on Sub Pop which presents repackaged remasters of their 20-year-old material. Famously championed by Kurt Cobain after they broke up in the early ’90s (they would tour a bit with Nirvana in the UK, however), the Vaselines had been mostly dormant until playing Sub Pop’s 20th Anniversary show last year in Seattle. As this show made clear, they’ve been doing more than just practicing, bringing a couple of new tunes to the table, which sounded quite good among the rest of the set—a delightful “hit parade” of sorts.
McKee gave the introduction to “Monsterpussy”, insisting that there wasn’t anything dirty about the title. Her mischievous smile, and the hilariously filthy stage banter that came later in the set, led us to believe otherwise, especially when it came time to explain how she’s managed to stay looking so young—a quip too raunchy to recount.
Although presumably a scrappy live band in their original incarnation, the band tonight sounded really well-practiced. The only amateur-ish moment was pretty adorable: Kelly was in need of a capo, but he had a bit of trouble figuring out the tuning at one point, tuning his hollow-body guitar with the capo on (at an audience member’s suggestion) before giving up and setting it aside. He and McKee poked fun at one another throughout, making what would’ve been a painfully long tuning transition strangely pleasurable to stand through.
In a little over an hour, they ran through nearly everything people wanted to hear: “The Day I Was a Horse”, “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam”, “Molly’s Lips”… it’s rare to hear a pop band with this many good songs these days. They closed with the faux-disco groove of “You Think You’re a Man”, complete with giggle-inducing moans. Bring on the new album!
Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]
May 9th at Swedish American Hall, San Francisco
It wouldn’t be easy to spot Dan Bejar on the street. With his frizzy black head of hair, beard, and slightly unbuttoned plaid long-sleeve shirt, the Vancouver singer-songwriter is surprisingly indistinct in appearance—in a big city like San Francisco, anyway. Regardless of how he looks, he does plenty to make his talents stand out in the pop continuum: He’s arguably the most striking voice in the New Pornographers (“Myriad Harbour” and “Jackie, Dressed in Cobras”, for instance, are two of the band’s best tracks), and his solo material as Destroyer, influenced as it might be by Bowie and Dylan, sounds like little else in execution.
When he tours and records, he usually has a band behind him, but for this tour, Bejar’s pared it down to himself and his acoustic guitar, permitting an interesting slant on what’s lately been a very fleshed-out endeavor. After opening with “No Cease Fires!”, he explained that the crowd at the previous night’s show, which took place immediately downstairs at Café du Nord, had been pretty riotous: He affectionately claimed that the “animals” nabbed his setlist, so tonight, he was going to try to “play a bunch of songs [he hasn’t] played very much… but are still good.” This is precisely how it turned out—a stripped-down showcase of his elliptical erudition with a song selection that tickled those super-fans present, a few of whom gleefully shouted along with “the fucking maniac” bit from “European Oils.” After playing Swan Lake’s “The Freedom” and a few moments spent strumming to re-remember how to play “Queen of Languages”, Bejar said, “I probably shouldn’t be playing this song,” but he went ahead and did it anyway, and it sounded terrific, even without the carnival keyboard accompaniment on the recorded version. These soft-spoken, interstitial bits of banter were quite funny: After a performance of “The Music Lovers”, he said, “I think there’s a Ken Russell movie called The Music Lovers… I fucking stole a title.”
One new tune surfaced, which included a line about “Nagasaki at night at war with the devil”—intriguing! Beer in hand, he left briefly after set’s end before returning to close with two of his finest tunes: “Painter in Your Pocket” and “Virgin With a Memory.” Destroyer really ought to lay waste to San Francisco more often.
Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]
Read past installments of It Shows:
Dengue Fever and The Lost World: May 5th at the Castro Theatre, SF
Thao and the Get Down Stay Down: April 30th at the Independent, SF
Mayyors: April 19th at El Rincon, San Francisco
by: Michael Harkin
published: May 14, 2009
in column: It Shows
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