Setlist:
What Time Is It,
Big Fat Funky Booty,
Hungry Hamed´s,
Yo Mama´s A Pajama,
Cleopatra´s Cat,
Off My Line,
“Uncle Joe” rant*,
How Could You Want Him,
Little Miss Can´t Be Wrong,
Freeway of the Plains ->
Lady Kerosene,
Refrigerator Car ->
Shinbone Alley ->
drums ->
bass ->
closing jam,
Jimmy Olsen´s Blues
E:
Little Piece of My Heart^,
Two Princes,
More Than She Knows
Details:
Last show of the “below The Radar” reunion tour.
*Off My Line was dedicated to Eric´s “Uncle Joe” who I think lives in Philly. To note, Chris introduced Eric before Line, saying “you´ve seen him around Philly,” and Eric came into the venue just a few minutes before coming on stage, so perhaps he spent a day around town and with his Uncle Joe.
^With Spanish pop star Luzan who opened on vocals. This is the Janis Joplin song, I think the first time played (and played very well, but the vocals were pretty uninspired).
Review (written by Kurt Straub, provided by Sinko):
I got to the TLA about 7:35 PM for an advertised 8 PM show, and there were about, oh, twelve other people there. I was afraid this was going to be a bomb.
This was my first trip to the TLA. It looks like an old movie theatre, but gutted of all the seats. The audience is just supposed to stand for the whole show. If you sit down, it was on unpainted and imperfectly maintained concrete. There was a balcony in the rear, but it was roped off– another sign of poor ticket sales, I feared. Happily there was a bar off to one side of the stage, elevated a bit over the concrete level, and with a few empty bar stools. So I got my “over 21” wrist band and settled in on a bar stool facing the stage with an overpriced Guinness Stout. It turned out to be a good seat for the show, right at eye level with the performers. Slowly, slowly, the crowd filled in at the concrete “orchestra” level. There were not too many folks in the bar section with me . . . once again it seemed like I was two decades older than everybody else at the show.
There were two un-announced warm-up acts. The first was a Spanish singer, “Luzan” or something close to that, accompanied by an amplified acoustic guitar and a mushy-sounding keyboard. Luzan had a great set of pipes, but the songs (not rock ´n roll) were not my cup of tea. She sang in Spanish, and had great difficulty with English on the introductions. For her last number, she bravely sang an old Janis Joplin chestnut, “Piece of My Heart,” in English. The second act was a local band called “Chordeline,” which I´ve probably mis-spelled. These fellows were OK but it was plain they spent a lot of time listening to Soul Asylum in their formative years. On one tune, the bass player dragged out a zither and the band played an old Bowie song from the Ziggy Stardust album, which was fun.
The Spins hit the stage shortly after 10 PM. By now the crowd had grown to roughly 200, which was plenty for this small room. The Spins opened with “What Time Is It,” and the set list was pretty much the same as what has been posted for previous stops on this tour. To my mind, this was the only disappointing part of the show: the boys did not attempt any songs from the post-Eric era, i.e., YGTBIS or HCTB. You could have closed your eyes, and believed it was 1994. I would d to hear Eric rip through Waiting for the Blow or To Make Me Blue. I wonder why the band decided to restrict the set list this way. Surely a high caliber musician like Schenkmann could have easily learned the newer compositions. Perhaps there is still some wounded pride left over?
Mark looked quite different. No dark glasses. Very short hair, receding hair line. Gone was the sullen demeanor onstage; he smiled and joked with Chris and the folks standing near the stage (who were literally at the feet of the players). He played his rainbow bass. Chris was in good spirits, and looking more fit and healthy than I remembered him at the Grape Street Pub a year or so ago. Eric maintained the band “balance of hair,” compensating Mark´s loss with a long, straggly beard. Aaron looked the same as ever.
Musically the boys were incredibly tight, The performance level was just outstanding. I agree 100% with the previous poster who said the Spins are actually getting better with age. Chris was vocals only (no guitar, harmonica or ukulele) and sounded magnificent. Schenkmann was just otherworldly, what a talent this guy is. Mark had two extended bass solos which were excellent. The first was his traditional intro to Freeway of the Plains, which after jamming became Lady Kerosene, similar to the HG cut. Kerosene had so much energy, I thought the roof would blow off the TLA. The second bass solo came during the segue in between Refrigerator Car –> Shinbone Alley, which was followed by a very fine long drum solo by Aaron. The overall musicianship and virtuosity of the Spins was just plain stunning. At one break between songs, Chris announced to the audience that the Sixers had just beaten the Celtics in their playoff game. Thanks, Chris, I appreciated that! (Mostly the crowd did not notice.)
For one of the songs in the encore, Chris brought out the Spanish lady, Luzan, and told us we were so lucky to hear her sing, that she usually performed to fifty thousand people at a time in her native country. At that they launched into a duet reprise of “Piece of My Heart,” which Aaron, Mark, and Eric played perfectly, indeed made the “Big Brother” performance on the classic album sound charmingly amateurish by comparison.
It was quite a night. Chris made some remarks at the end, about how this was the last stop on “this tour” which led me to believe that the Spins want to do this some more, and are probably waiting to assess the public reaction to this tour to decide what to do next. It was plain to at whatever problems there were in the past, the boys all related well to each other, and had as good a time on stage as I did watching the show.
Is it too much to hope for another Spins Doctors studio album? Let´s keep our fingers crossed.
Kurt Straub
