From PackageThf@aol.comSun Dec 24 20:38:51 1995 Date: Wed, 20 Dec 1995 19:44:49 -0500 From: PackageThf@aol.com Subject: BRAND NEW LOVE - pt. 1 Okay, ladies and gentemen, i know this is a little late in coming, but - as promised - here are the rest of the chunk concert reviews. as some time has gone by, i'm only printng the reviews w/stories and not just set lists... sorry to take so long with this, but there were so many reviews, many of them long, so it took a lot longer to get through than normal. I'll try not to fall this far behind again. Also here are some rebuttals to the guv'nor bashing, some new seeweed bashing, (no comment on either from me - neither band played the L.A. show), varied editorials and much much more. So, if you don't want to read concert reviews, keep skimming through as there is lots of other stuff peppered among the reviews... NOTE: when printing more than one review of the same show, i have deleted set list prints from the subsequent reviews; SO, all second, third (etc) reviews have been edited to accomodate this. (the review i received first got dibs on the top slots for this) +a joint review from Indiette@aol.com and GinaLiz@aol.com: (PHILLY SHOW) First of all, Guv'ner were incredible! Highly recommended to anyone who even slightly digs the boy/girl trading vocals brand of indie-pop. Seaweed was heckled as "fraternity party rock," and it was a fitting insult. The empty-handed frontman was SpinDoctorsesque while everyone else in the band thought they were Green Day. The moshers went wild. I ended up pressed against the stage with Mr. Spin Doctors dripping Seaweed sweat on me while GinaLiz was caught in the fray("help!"). Also, there was a certain sameness to all of Seaweed's songs. Finally, it was Chunk time! This time we were both pressed against the stage! Mac wore a Bats shirt (BTW, he played keyboards for Seaweed and Guv'ner). Jim wore a Butterglory shirt(some guy in the crowd was wearing the orange Polvo de Escoba). The band was uncharacteristically not profane, saving one comment by Jim. Since you've already read what songs were played, we won't detail it.Toward the end of the encore, a bunch of people started chanting "Slack! Slack!", but their request was not obliged. Mac replied, "Who's Jack?"(a clever reference to the original guitarist?). +one from TROY_NIELSEN@HP-Andover-om3.om.hp.com (Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel - Providence, RI - 11/11/95) Ok, Superchunk delivered the goods with presence and attitude at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel. Lupo's is a great venue in Providence. It used to be a department store so it's vast funky space. And it's cheap too: $7.00 for 3 bands at the door. Dang! Guv'nor: well, it was obvious why they were the 1st band. Ho-hum. They're on the Merge label, which probably explains their inclusion on the tour. Mac played the Ace Tone 150 keyboard on a couple of songs. The guitarist from Guv'Nor would later return the favor during SUperchunk's set. Seaweed: Not familar with Seaweed, but they were rockin'. Would definitely recommend them to folks. Never have I seen so much sweat generated on stage. Well, actually Sunny Day Real Estate came close. Superchunk: Came on at 12:15 am and Jim immediately promised the crowd a joke later on in the set. It was the "dunkin' donuts" joke. I forget the first song, but it was good. Interestingly enough, the second song was "Hyper Enough". maybe they just wanted it out of the way. Played a 70 min. set. Didn't recognize 2 of the songs, but I don't have the 1st album. The songs weren't advertised as new either. Played (in no order): Driveway, Silverleaf, Iron On, Animated Airplanes, The First Part, Precision Auto, Seed Toss, From the Curve, Hyperenough, and some others. The encore was (in order) Baxter, Cast Iron. Jon Wurster was immense. He drives the whole rhythm. I was most impressed with his playing. They were all enthusiastic as hell. No major incidents. A couple of nearly empty water cups hurled and a wad of tape (what the hell?) too. It was an all ages show so not much drunkedness, if any. The usual IDIOTIC "I Love You Laura!" "Laura's Hot!" yelling from the crowd. She didn't respond. Mac said at one point "Laura's not hot, I think she's just sweating." Laura agreed. Tips for Song-Requesting Fans: Don't shout out your requests. This only annoys the band. Every silent moment was filled with people shouting requests. Just fuck off, every one of you idiots. The only request played was "Baxter" and the request was WRITTEN on a piece of paper and put in front of the monitors. +from jsm151@psu.edu (Pittsburgh show) Guv'ner is cool. Seaweed I could do without, and kinda wore me out. The crowd sucks. Superchunk appears. Mac is wearing a Bats shirt. Mac insults the radio station supporting the show. "We think its great that they're putting us on, but we wish they'd play our records too." Way to go Mac. >Yeah Its beautiful here too >Detroit has a skyline -- Jim threatens to kill audience members. I forget the order of events from here, but the set included: Seed toss, Tie a rope to the back of the bus, skip steps i and 3 (three times faster), iron on, sunshine state, silverleaf and snowy tears, Animated Airplanes over Germany, Untied, Like a fool, The first part, For tension, 100,00 Fireflies, and Fishing. They just werent in a good mood. Jim requests not to get his teeth kicked out. Mac "Yeah, it was cool at the beginning of the tour, but now its just not cool" Fishing was great. It had the take the tube ending where Mac and Jon switch. Also, THe singer from Seaweed cameout and played guitar on this one, and someone from the crowd took over the vocals so Jon could dive. Great ending, OK show. The crowd sucked. +from jasadl@tiac.net: All in all it was a good show. It was Cornershop's first night of the tour and they were amazing. I didn't know what to expect (especially since one of the guys looked like he could have been in Oasis), but they were great. They have 5 guys, one drummer, one guy playing percussion, a guy playing moog and sitar, a guy who plays some Indian bass instrument and a guy who sings (in Hindi I believe, but don't quote me on this). Really mellow good stuff. Seaweed was next and they seemed to be enjoying themselves, but I couldn't get into it. Then Superchunk. >From what I can remember-Driveway to Driveway, Hyper Enough, yeah, it's beautiful here too, seed toss, iron on, precision auto, punch me harder, animated airplanes over germany, question is how fast, why do you have to put a date on everything, from the curve (great), and throwing things ended the set. They encored with Mower & First Part. Had a great vantage point right in front of Mac, but half the time my legs were getting crushed against the stage and the other half of the time I was trying to avoid getting hit in the face by Mac's guitar. The price of rock and roll. Not much great stage banter. I think they are getting tired. Only 5 more shows left. Hope everyone from New York to Chapel Hill enjoys it. +a response to an earlier query, from Christopher_J._Goodwin@hud.gov: In response to the question concerning opinions on the "strings" album. Honestly, at first I really didn't care for it, but it really has grown on me. Production is a little different from previous albums, but I don't think that much bothered me. I think the change to a more melody type album is what took me off base. But I like it alot more now. My favorites are Silverleaf and Snowy Tears, Eastern Terminal, and Detroit has a Skyline. As far as previous albums, Foolish is my favorite. They change the tempo more on this album than any other album. That album is the album that I can play in it's entirety and not get bored. On The Mouth is a great album too. Two of my favorite superchunk songs are on it. "Precision Auto" and "For Tension". Great rockin' album. Incidental Music is good, but it looses the mood after the 10th song. But for a bunch of B-sides and outtakes, It sure contains some great tunes. Their version of The Magnetic Field's "100,000 Fireflies" is Awsome. I haven't yet bought "Superchunk", "No Pocky For Kitty", or "Tossing Seeds" yet but I shoulda jumped on "Superchunk" the other day when I was in a Used Record Shop in College Park, MD and saw it. I don't see that album around much. Maybe someone can give me their opinion on the albums I'm missing. I'd appreciate that. +NYC Review from trip@eclipse.net: To start out -- a band called Cornerstone opened up - they mix Indian/Middle East music with a rock drum sound. They started and ended their set with the same song, which was surprisingly good. The two drummers in the band had a drum 'duo' near the end of the set that was really cranking! The next band to come on was a Seattle group called Seaweed. My friend and I were in the balcony watching down on the mass of people crowded around the tiny stage. It was kinda funny to watch this one big guy in the audience repeatedly raise his fist in the air and bring it down on the shoulder and back of the poor guy in front of him. Later, when he took a stage dive, everyone moved out of the way and he landed splat on the floor -- I was dying of laughter! Anyway, Seaweed wasn't too bad - they had Jon play the organ on one of their last songs. They really got the crowd moshing. And then, at 11:30, SUPERCHUNK took the stage!!! Everyone was really ready to rock at this point, and the band didn't disappoint. Mac was wearing a 'The Bats' shirt, while the only other thing I noticed was Laura was wearing shorts - she has some strong-looking legs - like she could kick over trees or something. She hopped around all night, and you could bearly see her face because of her long hair. Mac and Jim also jumped around the stage all night - especially Mac. I guess I'll list the songs: Sunshine State, Cast Iron (excellent), Hyper Enough, Yeah It's Beautiful Here Too, Untied, Punch Me Harder, Silverleaf and Snowy Tears, Iron On, Water Wings, Baxter, Animated Airplanes Over Germany, Driveway to Driveway, and Cool. They came out for the encore and did the first song Mac wrote for Superchunk -What Do I. Then they finished up with Mower, The First Part, and Brand New Love. What a fuckin' great concert it was! They sounded really tight, and except for a few minor things, it was great! The only problem I had was that they didn't do a very good job on 'Mower' (my opinion only) and that they didn't really talk to the audience enough. Mac started out by talking about how the rain in the City was screwing up the guitars (the humidity), and Jim told some bad joke that I didn't even hear - but I could tell it was bad because people actually groaned and booed. Jim did make the comment that 'Personally, I can't wait until I'm completely bald', to which Laura said 'Why don't you just shave it off', and Mac chimed in with a 'Yeah'. Jim then said he would shave it later. Mac and Jim in the early songs of the show kept giving weird titles to the songs. People did alot of moshing, and a couple of people stage dived, and everyone was dancing. Being up in the balconey, it was pretty funny to see people slaming into each other, then leaving the concert holding their stomach or head. Well, the band ended at around 1, and it was obvious that everyone had had a great time -- i know I did. +out of the kindness of the heart of suprchunk2@aol.com: hey to everyone! i have that freedom of choice comp & the whole album's really good (except for the cover of wuthering heights). if anyone wants a free dub i'll be happy to give you one if you hook me up w/ a blank tape. other bands on the tape (besides the chunk of course) include (& these are just two of my personal faves) the muffs & redd kross, but there are about a kagillion bands on there. anyone interested just e-mail me! - libby :) +from cgrimsley@scana.com: I was at the November 17 Chunk show at the Masquerade in Atlanta. It was my first Chunk show and it was well worth the 3.5 hour drive from Columbia, SC. The place was packed and it was an energetic, intense show. Seaweed and Cornershop were the opening bands. Songs played (not necessarily in order): Sunshine State (Opening song), Why do you have to put a date on Everything? (My fave..rocked), Hyper Enough, Seed Toss, Mower, On the Mouth, Like a Fool, First Part, Silverleaf and Snowy Tears, Yeah, It's beautiful here too, Eastern Terminal, Driveway to Driveway, Fishing (Encore's Last Song) The playing of Fishing was cool. Two members of Seaweed came out and played guitar during the song allowing Mac to play drums and Jim and Jon took over the vocals. They really had fun goofing around and they ended the song much like a 80's trash band like Poison or something, building up the crowd and ending with flash...was funny. During the show, Laura mentioned that she went to high school in Atlanta at Northside High School for three years. It was sort of a homecoming for her. +ATLANTA REVIEW #2 from Cre8or jvs@aol.com: ...cheers to all fellow 'chunk fans...after reading message after message from others on this list, i've decided to contribute to our discourse after seeing our intrepid NC foursome at the masquerade in atlanta, GA on 11/17/95. (although i myself hail from the northern NJ area & work in NYC, i couldn't pass up an opportunity to head down south to see mccaughanwilburballancewurster) but i digress. the set list was fairly basic (no real surprises or lost classics, but solid all around). **upon taking the stage, mac commented on the "rowdy" crowd, which was quite sedate for starters. (bit of sarcasm as an intro. audience didn't take long to get into it, however.)...after HYPER ENOUGH, mac commented on his beer--evidently a cheap american brand--which jim followed up with "yeah, it's watery domestic." a little nod to malkmus, evidently...after YEAH, IT'S BEAUTIFUL HERE TOO laura mentioned that she lived in the atlanta area for awhile (can anyone corroborate this claim?), and mac joked "yeah, that means she and her friends used to hang out and smoke a lot of pot here."....later, for SILVERLEAF AND SNOWY TEARS, mac introduced clinton, who was backing them up on keyboards...if i recall correctly, he (clinton) also played during seaweed's set 45 minutes before. earlier, mac did guest keys for a couple of seaweed tracks that night too. guess clinton was returning a favor....and that, fellow fans, was that. everyone has tracks they'd love to hear live (for me, "cast iron," "new low," "30 xtra," "for tension," "shallow end" and "100,000 fireflies" among others), but as always, i was not disappointed. this was the third time i've seen the 'chunk...and i've concluded that even on those rare occasions when they're a bit sluggish or out of sorts, they still rawk. (incidentally, anyone else notice about a million oblique sexual references in "sunshine state? hard to miss.) +Atlanta review #3 from biotmkx@gsusgi2.Gsu.EDU: ...during fishing, Jim grabbed his mic and proceeded to yell a lot while Mac pounded a bit on a keyboard and then grabbed a pair of sticks and beat on Jon's floor tom for a bit, then took over the drums entirely while Jon joined Jim in the front of the stage. This built into a final chorus which was enthusiastically sung by Jim and Jon. Mac flaided away on the drums for a bit, perhaps attempting to one-up Jon's bit at the end of the Hyper video...That one group of drunk asshole frat guys who have apparently been following Superchunk around on this tour must've missed this show; everyone was very cool. We were surprised to see a sizable portion of the crowd leave after Seaweed, who were utterly generic. The regular set ended with Precision leading directly into First Part which was neat. well, this is a lot longer than i thought - to keep you from taking hours to download/mail-pull this, i'm breaking it in two...look for part two in 2-3 days and then i'll be up-to-date on putting out all incoming mail...