Show reports from 1997

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Pussy 1997
Bob Willis tribute
There are other reviews in between

About Cambridge, Mass., September 11, 1997

Jesse_Hochstadt wrote:
I just discovered your Mekons homepage (via Excite search) and thought I'd drop you a line.  I've been a fan of the Mekons since sometime around the release of "The Edge of the World" and have seen them on numerous occasions in New York and, most recently, in Cambridge, Mass., this past Thursday.  The band lineup was Jon, Tom, Sally, Steve Goulding, Sarah Corina, Rico Bell, and Lu Knee/Edmonds.  (Jon introduced Steve as "And on drums, Fidel Castro!")  I was disappointed that Susie Honeyman wasn't along for the brief tour, or at least someone to play fiddle.  I was also somewhat disappointed that there was no point during which roadie Mitch came on stage and was semi-erotically worshipped by the band (I think they used to do it during "Sorceror").  But there was one new "disco" number during which Sally led us all in a little dance, and Sarah took lead vocals on one new number that seemed to revolve around pirate-like "Ho ho ho"s (but was not from "Pussy").  A friend of mine who didn't know the band at all thought they looked a bit tired, as if they were growing weary of the rock'n'roll thing, and indeed Tom seemed to be hanging back a bit at time. Jon made one of the few humorless remarks I'd ever heard from him when he grew tired of people shouting requests and said, "Let us do our show from our set list just like a regular band."  (I get the feeling they hadn't rehearsed much additional material.)  On the other hand, he introduced the show by saying, "We're Fleetwood Mac, and we've now had sex in every possible combination, so we're back" (or something along those lines).
It was overall a good show, dominated by material from the "Fear/Edge" period and from "Rock'n'Roll" (including "Heaven and Back," from the EP that came out around then).  By the time of the encore performances of "The Curse" and "Memphis, Egypt" the room was rocking pretty hard. There was one song from "Pussy," namely, "I Had a Dream."  From the lukewarm reception it received on being introduced, I'd guess I'm not alone in my lack of enthusiasm for that album.  There were a few clearly more recent songs I didn't recognize, which makes me wonder whether they're from the big art project/album that was released a year or so back but was too expensive for me to buy. Hopefully they're from a soon-to-be-released new album, though no one on stage made that clear.


Ken Ostrander wrote:
NOBBY,
        the show last night was phenomenal!  they played a lot from _so good it hurts_ but mixed it up a lot.  seven people on stage with sue(?) on bass and i'm not sure who on mandolin.
                the crowd was very cool as well.  the mekons have the coolest fans.  i even saw someone i work with there!  what a suprise to find a fellow fan so close to home.
                        i've been in serious pain since my car accident a few weeks back, but my roomate found some percocets she had left over from an operation she had a while back and those helped a lot.  mixed them with a little whiskey and i was feeling fine.  i got right up front and boogied hard.
there were no t-shirts, but they were selling cool posters.  i got both:  a labor day festival one & the edge of the world.  they were also selling all of the quarterstick albums.  cassettes for two dollars!

here's what's on the set list i snagged:

fletcher
poxy lips
heaven & bips
brutal
king arthur
ugly band
oblivion
big zombie
my song at night
into the strange
orpheus
bomb
amnesia
lyric
hard to be human
_________________
ghosts / curse / memphis
_________________
wwy - s. dreams


About New York, September 12, 1997

Neil deMause wrote:
The first night (Sept. 12) was odd -- they were extremely tight musically,but sort of out of it, especially Tom, who could only be pursuaded to hang a guitar around his neck for a song or two at a time. "Extremely competent" was the phrase my friend Peet used, which is the last thing you expect from the Mekons, and was kind of oddly disappointing.
That was Friday. 
The next day was something else entirely. It began with a scheduled 3 p.m. gig live on WFMU, the noted New Jerseyfreeform radio station. As 3 pm approached, Hova (the WFMU DJ and habitual Mekon-goer) was pleading desperately that if the Mekons were in the area, would they please step on the gas pedal? Finally, at 3:30, they took to the airwaves for a half-hour profanity-filled set during which they forgot the lyrics, laughed uncontrollably, and generally acted up. ("No, we won't play any songs! Bring us more sandwiches!" shouted Jon.) That evening's show picked up where the radio show left off. Determining that roughly 90% of the audience had been there the night before, and that the set list was exactly the same, Jon began lobbying for everyone just to go home and pretend they'd seen a show. "You all know what we sound like!" Then the band decided that, since it was their night, they wouldn't play at all, and would rather just stand up on stage chatting. Jon demanded that the audience remove their clothes. (A few shirts, socks, and one bra flew up onstage.) Tom, knowing the next song was "Amnesia," announced, "I start this next song, so no one plays until I say so." Jon complained that they'd already been paid, so what was the point of playing, at which point several balled-up dollar bills flew onto the stage. (Sally scooped them up and stuffed them in the bra, which she was by this point wearing over her dress.)  Finally, after about 30 minutes of no music at all, but by far the best comedy routine I've ever seen at a rock show, they resumed. 
It was that kind of night. At another point, Rico announced a song that they had decided not to play, whereupon Jon declared him a revisionist and had Mitch drag him offstage. (Tom promptly announced, "I'm off, too," and left as well; "That's alright, I felt a purge coming on," responded Jon.)  Sally complained about the rigors of touring: "You've no idea what it's like to be stuck in a van together for three whole days!" During one encore, Mitch sang "Where Were You?" and stage-dove into the crowd, immediately followed by Tom, and then by an unwilling Rico -- unwilling because he was still wearing his accordion, and had to be pushed by a Langford boot to the rump.
It was chaotic, unkempt, musically uneven (even Sally forgot some words this time), and the most fun I've had in a long, long time.
The set list, as I recall it:
Fletcher Christian
Poxy Lips
Heaven and Back 
Brutal
King Arthur
Ugly Band
Orpheus ("This is a song off our last book," announced Jon)
[a Pussy King of the Pirates song I don't know]
The Bomb
Oblivion
Amnesia
Hard to Be Human
(First encore:)
Memphis, Egypt
Big Zombie
Lyric
(Second encore:)
Where Were YouSweet Dreams
The first night finally concluded with an unmemorable Sally song about dreams; the second ended with one off the new album (so they promised) that went, in its entirety:
Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough
Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough
Come on have a go
Oh shit -- [something something]
Oh fuck -- [something something]
Oh shit -- [something something]
Oh-oh-oh-oh fuck!
Based on an English football cheer, so I've been told. Absolutely fucking brilliant.
Neil
P.S. Almost forgot: Someone in the audience asked Sally where Susie was,and she replied, "She'll be in Chicago. She only comes to the high-payinggigs." Someone else shouted out that we'd take up a collection to pay forher, and Sally snapped back, "You can keep her." Ooooooo.


Same shows - Another review (from Addicted to noise):

 
A Tale Of Two Mekons Shows

Band's first shows in N.Y.C. in a long time show the band at its best and at its most rockin'.
Addicted To Noise correspondent Jeffrey
Golick reports : NEW YORK -- When the Mekons are on, they're great. When they're not, well, they're even better.
This past Friday and Saturday the Mekons played to packed houses at New York's small, brick-walled Mercury Lounge. It was the group's first New York-area performances in well over a year, and it offered the faithful a welcome burst of brackish Mekons air.

But Saturday night brought a very different Mekons than had shown up the night before.
The first show was perhaps the more expressly "musical" of the two, relatively speaking. The focus was on the songs and the set moved along briskly, especially considering the usual Mekons' penchant for lengthy discourses on matters historical or sexual or both. It was only the second day of this mini-tour, and the band seemed content to leave the chatting aside, except for the occasional "boy are we old" comments, and concentrated instead on raising the roof and demonstrating that not only do the Mekons rock'n'roll, the Mekons are rock'n'roll.

There is a power, after all, in hearing a room full of people chant "Destroy your safe and happy homes before it is too late" with only a trace of irony.

The songs were culled from a number of periods in the group's 20-year run; one from Rock'n'Roll, several from Original Sin, a bunch from last year's re-released Edge of the World, and a song or two from their recent collaboration with writer Kathy Acker, Pussy, Queen of the Pirates.

All Mekons were in fine fettle. Guitarist Jon Langford played, by his own admission, as if he could do no wrong, giving one of those virtuoso performances that seem to make the guitar player grow in stature until it looks as if he is strapped to a ukulele. Tom Greenhalgh and Sally Timms sang and shouted beautifully, and led all present in a mid-set, drum-machine-fueled arm dance that I believe was a paean to the sense of security we all feel knowing we have the Bomb. The rhythm section was brilliant, aided immeasurably by the accordionist and occasional harpist Rico Bell.

The music was as mysterious and inexplicable as any I've heard, the songs seeming to swirl around the stage, each band member adding something new and beautiful before the songs spilled gracefully like mercury into the crowd.

Saturday night was a different story entirely. Same set, different telling.
The group seemed as though they had had enough of being on the road, this on night three of the tour. There was much more chatting among themselves, and with the audience, particularly one Frenchman who was singled out for a bit of ribbing. Timms did, of course, amiably suggest that all repeat customers (judging from the audience reaction, a solid portion of Saturday's crowd) go home.

Some of the conversational segments of the evening -- impossible to recreate with any accuracy-- went on so long, and with so little apparent aggravation on the audience's part, that the Mekons demanded recompense.

Soon, crumpled dollar bills, socks, shoes and bras were flying toward the stage. Timms happily collected the group's take ($18) and stowed it, for safe keeping, in the bra, which she took to wearing on the outside of her Mrs. Pink dress. So rewarded, the Mekons then nearly demolished all memory of the preceding evening. Not so awesome as the night before (I had already heard what they can do), but faster and messier and harder.

More arm waving and jumping, less rapt head bobbing (in the audience, that is). The extra songs were extemporaneous: "Money," during the collection phase of the evening; "Come On Have a Go (If You Think You're Hard Enough)," created, it seemed, on the spot, during the more confrontational of the interactive portions of the evening, and, then again, as a final number -- a more complete and more ferocious rendition.

One of the Mekons led the band off the stage by diving into the waiting arms of the audience, followed by the rest of the group, including Greenhalgh, who used the opportunity to get to leave the stage and get to the back of the room over, rather than through, the crowd.

Timms couldn't quite manage the final encore, having retired to the bar at the front of the Lounge to drink with friends (it seemed) as the show wound down.

We passed her there, in the front window, on our way out. She was waiting in the bar.

Where were you?

Copyright © 1997 Addicted To Noise. All rights reserved.
Addicted To Noise, the on-line rock & roll magazine -


A third review on the same show:

 Mekons eat up the Big Apple

It was time to end my visit to New York City and head home to Chicago, so I went down to the Mercury Lounge and caught The Mekons for my last night in the Big Apple. It's always a big event when The Mekons converge on a city, and this weekend's festivities were no exception. The band was in town to debut an exhibition of their art at the Threadwaxing Space on Broadway and they managed to sandwich the exhibit's opening night in between two gigs at the Mercury and a live radio performance on WFMU.

The Mekons have been together (in one form or another) since 1977 when they emerged from Leeds, England in the same punk explosion that brought us the legendary Gang of Four. A neo-socialist outfit that once occupied a musical realm somewhere between The Clash and The Pouges, The Mekons have survived and endured in various manifestations playing twisted versions of punk, reggae, country and even electronica.

Founding members Jon Langford and Tom Greenhalgh were present and accounted for last night, as well as long-standing members Sally Timms, Rico Bell and Steve Goulding. There were a few other assorted Mekons on-stage, but the vision of Jon, Tom, Sally and Rico all joyfully singing as the crowd danced is an image that I will not soon forget.

Sally sang a wonderful version of "Ghosts of American Astronauts" and Tom stepped forward to croon "(Sometimes I Feel Like) Fletcher Christian." They also rocked out with an urgent version of "Memphis, Egypt" and a rousing rendition of "Heaven and Back." The band played plenty of other favorites from their twenty years of music making. If you're interested, The Mekons will be coming back to Chicago along with Kathy Acker to perform their trash-rock opera, "Pussy, King Of The Pirates," on Sept. 19 and 20 at the Museum of Contemporary Art. See you there? (Mitch Myers)

From:http://www.newcitynet.com/ 


'Pussy, King of the Pirates' at Museum of Contemporary Art

Chicago Sun-Times /September 22, 1997, MONDAY
BY: Dave Hoekstra

Yo-ho-ho. Huh?
Novelist Kathy Acker and rock 'n' roll's the Mekons launched the Museum of Contemporary Art's 1997-98 performance programs series this past weekend with the Chicago premiere of the bawdy spoken word/musical "Pussy, King of the Pirates."
Anchored in seaweed punk sensibility, "Pussy, King of the Pirates" is a journey through a real and imagined history centered on the high seas adventures of a female pirate and her grungy gal pals. The women, who hang around a dive called Ye Olde Bald Head Pub in Brighton, England (at the bottom of the world), set out in search of mystical treasure.
Acker and the Mekons premiered the work in March, 1996, at the Ship Inn in Brighton. Its only previous American performance was last fall at Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival.
In January, 1996, Acker and the Mekons released a companion CD, "Pussy, King of the Pirates" on Quarterstick Records. Repeated listenings of the CD will help people who caught this weekend's performances at the MCA better understand just what they saw.
Acker's writing is dark, angry and dotted with a sensible amount of profanity. But her juxtapositions and satellite referencing made "Pussy, King of the Pirates" difficult to navigate. The Mekons, however, are a perfect conduit for Acker's work, playing sea chanties, waltzes and reggae-punk from the bottom of their humble souls.
The Mekons' Jon Langford was a stitch, performing and singing in a hula skirt with a mop top over his head. Sally Timms' soothing vocals on songs like "Ostracism's Song to Pussycat" were a fine counterpoint for the understated performance of Mekons' violinist Suzie Honeyman. Sarah Corina's curt style has always made her one of my favorite rock 'n' roll bassists, and "Pussy, King of the Pirates" is a superb forum for her feisty chops.
At least Acker is not self-indulgent. The New York post-punk feminist makes her points about obsession and the loss of innocence and gets out. So track down the CD. Drink a bottle of rum. And hide the women and children.


Chicago Tribune /September 21, 1997 Sunday
'PUSSY, KING OF THE PIRATES' AWASH IN SEA OF ROCK
BY: By Achy Obejas, Tribune Staff Writer.

There was much merriment and camp, delightful rock 'n' roll and good humor at the Museum of Contemporary Arts' season opening of its performing arts theater.
Featuring punk novelist Kathy Acker and The Mekons, one of rock's most original ensembles, in "Pussy, King of the Pirates," the show was billed as one of the MCA's performance arts highlights this year.
There was just one problem: While it was a heckuva rock concert, there wasn't much performance art to be found.
"Pussy, King of the Pirates," is supposedly a collaboration between Acker--known for her dramatic post-modernist writings, including the novel "Don Quixote" and the screenplay for Betty Gordon's "Variety"--and The Mekons. And in fact Acker has written a script for "Pussy," based presumably on the novel of the same name, which is spun into a kind of rock opera by the band.
But "Pussy's" narrative is actually quite facile. Acker's narrator meets a bunch of girl pirates at the Bald Head Pub who pretend to offer help in finding buried treasure, but instead kidnap her to an island where they proceed to have great sex. So much for buried treasure.
At the MCA, the narrative was also hampered by Acker's inability to be heard over the band most of the time. And while the stage was filled with giant, cartoonish props that seemed to offer hope for some performative elements, everything--the cardboard pub, the giant ship, the palm tree, the curling paper waves, even the big video projection--was merely decorative.
Acker herself ran hot and cold as a reader. Sometimes engaging, emotive, other times deadpan, she was fine so long as the spotlight was on her. But as soon as The Mekons took over--and they filled most of the evening since Acker's job seemed to be mostly as a bridge between songs--she seemed to lose interest, at one time even leaning back, putting her head down and closing her eyes.
No matter. The Mekons played on, often sounding more like their early selves--full of quick, quirky changes, chunky rhythms and lovely, ethereal singing by Sally Timms and Rico Bell, and haunting violin playing by Suzie Honeyman.
At show's end, Mekons founder Jon Langford--wearing a grass skirt and a mop on his head--offered the audience a couple of Acker-free numbers (actually, she joined in on the chorus of the last one). It seemed clear he understood "Pussy, King of the Pirates" was hardly enough for an evening's entertainment.

Chicago Tribune /September 19, 1


997 Friday
THE MEKONS PUT ON A PLAY;
THIS TIME, IT'S THE BAND AS PIRATES
BY: Greg Kot
In one of the Mekons' best songs, "Sorcerer," the abyss beckons in the form of Tom Greenhalgh's eerie, incantatory vocal. Only the band doesn't fret; instead, the music dances on the edge of chaos, as though emboldened by its proximity.
With the Mekons you take the good with the godawful, sometimes within the space of a song. They're punk-era veterans who have dabbled in everything from hard-core country (before there was such a thing as an insurgent country movement) to techno (before techno was "cool"). This weekend, the odds are we'll get a little of everything because the Mekons are putting on their version of a school play, Friday through Sunday at the Museum of Contemporary Art (312-397-4010), with the local premiere of their collaborative performance-art piece with author Kathy Acker, "Pussy, King of the Pirates."
They've got painted scenery and pretty lights and costumes to make them look like pirates and milkmaids. Acker will read from her taboo-smashing novel and the Mekons -- a band whose membership seems to encompass half the punks, lapsed art students and pub philosophers who ever lived in Leeds, England, the last 20 years -- will perform songs from the "Pussy" soundtrack, released last year on the Quarterstick label.
"There will be a cast of thousands," says Mekons co-founder Jon Langford, who now lives in Chicago. "We found plenty of Mekons past and present who wanted to dress up. There will be lots of cheap vaudeville routines, bad makeup, bawdy jokes, screaming and shouting -- audience participation will be encouraged."
Greenhalgh, the other original Mekon, says Acker's book prompted the Mekons to "think a lot about what pirates meant historically, how there were these pirate communities that truly were free spaces," and how that relates to the limits placed on freedom in supposedly free societies today.
"It's got this nursery rhyme quality to it," says Langford of the Acker-Mekons collaboration. "But if you listen closely to some nursery rhymes, there's a deeply disturbing undercurrent."
Which means that the Mekons and Acker are kindred spirits? "I wouldn't push that one too far," Greenhalgh says. "In different areas, we probably are. What's more apparent to me is that people like Kathy are not out there alone in some of their beliefs."
The Mekons will follow the Saturday performance of "Pussy" with a 20th anniversary concert, in which they may preview material from a forthcoming album that they're recording in Chicago at Kingsize studios.
Moonlighting Mekons
The Waco Brothers (a sextet that includes Mekons Langford and Steve Goulding) will headline a showcase for punk-country label Bloodshot at the Metro on Sept. 27. Also on the bill are Mekons Sally Timms and Rico Bell, performing material from their Bloodshoot solo releases, and local twang-core merchants Moonshine Willy. The Wacos have a new EP, "Do You Think About Me?" (Bloodshot), with liner notes nearly worth the price of admission, a brisk romp through Neil Young's nasty white-trash militia-bashing 1974 obscurity "Revolution Blues" ("Well, it's so good to be here asleep on your lawn") and, amid all the loose and rowdy yucks, some genuine honky-tonk heartbreak ("You don't know how bad it feels to be back here again," sings Dean Schlabowske in his best Merle Haggard baritone on "South Bend").


About Lounge Ax, Nov 20th 1997

 Nobby: I wanted to let you and other Mekons fans know about the show on Thursday. My friends went with every intention of taping it and sending you a copy, but they decided not to because the show was not what they expected. Sorry. I'm sure you and I would have found it interesting but my friends were disappointed because the show comprised only Jon Langford, Sally Timms and Tom Greenlagh doing readings and singing backed by a sequencer. I talked to some others tonight who went and they said most people left early. Too bad. Anyway, I guess it was more to the "art" end of the Mekons performance continuum. I thought I should let you know in case you were feeling bad about having missed a big Mekons performance including lots of your favorite songs.
Last night, though, I saw Skull Orchard and it was wonderful. Send me your address; I didn't tape the show but I have something else for you. Skull Orchard is unique in that it is entirely in Jon Langford's voice: his songs, his singing. The songs mostly are about his home in Wales, but they're an awful lot about some painful inward vision, too. Skull Orchard is much more of a conventional rock band with him as a leader than the collaborative efforts the Wacos and particularly the Mekons are.

 (By Linda Ray)


 

About Saturday Dec 13th 1997 (Bob Willis tribute):

To the record review: Pine Valley Cosmonauts

Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 00:57:24 -0600
From: Jim Moran
To: postcard2@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: Langford Wills Tribute
christopher.m.knaus--who has realized that *most* suburbanites are in bed long before the headliner goes on--wrote:

> Saturday - picked up Boston Bob ride-whore (any El stop, any one at all) Soron
> to head out to the Pine Valley Cosmonauts Bob Wills tribute.... All >the Wills songs you know and love, a cavalcade of Chicago alt.country >stars - most of the Waco's, Sally Timms, Chris Mills, Jane Baxter >Miller, Bret Sparks, Edith Frost, and Kelly Hogan (who, as was >mentioned before, can sing the birds out of the sky, and I'm not just >saying that so she won't beat the stuffing out of me).
and Bob Soron--who asks for water but gets whiskey--wrote:
> ...Hogan lit a fire under a crowd that was already having a good time...
Splunge for me on Kelly--that was my first time seeing/hearing her, and I found it to be one of the many highlights of a fun night. Hopefully we'll see more of Kelly on Chicago stages in the future. I would also add that Tom Ray on bass, John Rice(formerly of Chicago's legendary Sundowners) on fiddle, Paul Mertons(?) (From Poi Dog?)on sax, Mark Durante on steel, and of course Steve Goulding on drums made up a killer of a backing band.
> > So what's up with the recording of the show, Mr. Moran?
The first set was recorded by Aadam "Mr. Archives" Jacobs, who has been documenting the Chicago music scene on tape for like 15 years. We're planning to air this on a future Southbound Train show, though some details still need to be worked out. For Chicagoans, I'll announce when a date has been set for the airing.
While I'm at it, I'll remind the Chicago crowd that Neko Case will be at Lounge Ax on Saturday 12/20 and will be performing live on WNUR's Southbound Train on Sunday 12/21 at 9:30pm.
--
Jim Moran
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 09:14:51 -0600 (CST)
From: Jim Fagan
To: postcard2@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: Langford Wills Tribute
> > ...Hogan lit a fire under a crowd that was already having a good time...
>
> Splunge for me on Kelly--that was my first time seeing/hearing her, and
> I found it to be one of the many highlights of a fun night. Hopefully
> we'll see more of Kelly on Chicago stages in the future. I would also
> add that Tom Ray on bass, John Rice(formerly of Chicago's legendary
> Sundowners) on fiddle, Paul Mertons(?) (From Poi Dog?)on sax, Mark
> Durante on steel, and of course Steve Goulding on drums made up a killer
> of a backing band.
Let me jump on the bandwagon here and say that Kelly was the highlight of the show for me. In fact, a couple sitting next to us were impressed with her voice and asked the waitress who she was. I chimed in and told them, and they wanted to hear more.
This is the second "all-star" show I've been to where Kelly has stolen the show. The first was the Jesus Christ Superstar presentation during SXSW in 1995 with the whole Atlanta contingent.
At any rate, Saturday's tribute show was a lot of fun, and the songs were wonderful. However, I have one small complaint, and it's about John Langford himself. Was anyone else who was there getting slightly annoyed at John telling us who was playing every 12-16 bar solo, in every song. It seemed quite tiresome and most interruptive to the flow of the song.
Still, the first two sets were stellar, with the second one standing out a bit more than the first since Kelly and Robbie Fulks sang in that one.
Sorry I couldn't have met up with anyone there. Maybe next time....

Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 10:59:12 -0500 (EST)
From: Bob Soron
To: passenger side
Subject: Re: Langford Wills Tribute
On Wed, 17 Dec 1997, Jim Fagan wrote:
> At any rate, Saturday's tribute show was a lot of fun, and the songs
> were wonderful. However, I have one small complaint, and it's about
> John Langford himself. Was anyone else who was there getting slightly
> annoyed at John telling us who was playing every 12-16 bar solo,
> in every song. It seemed quite tiresome and most interruptive to the
> flow of the song.

But that was one of Wills' trademarks. Obviously Langford was taking it to an extreme, but that isn't much of a surprise knowing him. I've got a brief video clip of Keith Coleman doing his own Wills impression and he wasn't acting all that much different. And Langford was also doing those "Aaaaah"s and whatnot -- he managed to fit most of the Wills trademarks (except the cigar, and that's OK) over the course of the night.
Ride whore Bob

Waco Brothers at Schuba's Chicago, December 31, 1997

New Year's Eve in flames ...
was the working title for the sold-out Waco Bros. show at Schubas Tavern in Chicago last Wednesday, alternately known as "Death to '97." (Schubas kindly set up a video camera and let the people in the bar watch the show from the "obstructed view" seats.) The show would've started at 10, but I'm guessing the band didn't considered themselves drunk enough to start, so they took the stage at 10:30 announcing, "We're the last crap alternative band you'll have to see in 1997, and the first crap alternative band you'll see in 1998." Jon Langford, who is apparently starting to grow a mustache (it's in its Wayne Newton stage right now), made it about three or four songs into the set before falling down, and then did a slow motion replay of it for those who might've missed it two seconds earlier.
The drummer was new (named Frank?)--I was told their regular drummer was most likely playing with Poi Dog Pondering that night, which was unfortunate because the alleged-Frank wasn't very good, and when given a microphone to add something to the show, made an obscene penis remark that left both band and crowd a little shocked (not much) and unable to decide how to react.
I'm not too familiar with COWBOY IN FLAMES, but the set was pretty evenly divided between CIF and DO YOU THINK ABOUT ME? They played "the hit" (title track of DYTAM?), which a local radio station has been playing, as Jon says, "as regularly as a bowel movement." They played two sets, with a 20-minute break in between.
They came back about 10 minutes to midnight, and fit two songs in, including "Wickedest City," and then had the crowd sing "Auld Lang Syne" (sp?) to them. "Revolution Blues" was the first song of 1998, followed by "Arizona Rose," which briefly turned the place into a high school prom, with everyone grabbing a partner and slow dancing.
They played a four-song encore that included covers of "Money (that's what I want)" and "Another Saturday Night." Everyone was in good spirits (in the alcoholic sense, as well) and enjoyed every minute of it.
Jeanne Casey wrote this.


Thanks to all who wrote these reviews.


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