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well, the show was fantastic + of course there was the added bonus of the wounded knees as the opening band
here’s the setlist :
he opened with a four-song medley
someone said
the lung
quest
freakscenethen he played all of these in full :
set us free
same day
ammaring
keeblin’
little fury things
flying cloud
repulsion
get me
not you againon these two he was accompanied by suzanne thorpe on flute:
thumb
aloneencore :
the wagon
just like heavenhey rambleon, thanks a lot for capturing the set list so precisely!
J himself didn’t have a setlist on stage, btw.So of course I want to add my view on things, as I made all the way from Germany to see this show (and I can tell, it was worth it
)
the Bush Hall venue is a really lovely concert hall, it must be a quite old building with all the moulding and candelabras, the ceiling is high, so the air remained breathable although the place was packed. the stage there is open (not in a "box"), which must add to a good sight from everywhere.we (rambleon, John and I) were standing in the center of the first row and had a great sight over what was happening on stage.
The opening act the Wounded Knees entered the stage shortly after 9 with a short set of songs. the Wounded knees are Suzanne Thorpe, flautist from Mercury Rev and guitar player and singer Jimi Shields (whose brother Kevin was also seen in the audience). Jimi Shields played a heavily amplified acoustic guitar, which added great with the amplified classical flute tones to a very unique kind of a wall of sound. the general sound wasn’t ideal, though, but there haven’t been made any changes in the stage set up until J came up, and J’s sound was brilliant, so I guess the Wounded knees couldn’t adjust the speaker settings to their needs out of time reasons.
I talked shortly to both of them after the show, and they couldn’t say when their album will be out, but they’re working on it, and they’re signed, so I’m sure it will be worth to have an eye on it.After a not very long break, J came up on stage, which made people stop with everything they were doing, and start cheering. J was plugging his pedals together, saying something like, "good evening, you don’t have to stop talking" then he left the stage waving "thank you, good night"
After a few minutes he came back and jumped into a 4-song medley, with just playing a few lines out of every song, the Lung for example only consisted out of the leading lines. in Freakscene, he started soloing over the words, which gave the song an interesting and new turn (and this must be the song he has been playing most)
the other songs he played in full, and it was great to see how much he was into playing, doing great "to-the-point" solos with an individual touch to them, like he played them in a way he hasn’t exactly played them before, not in just a routine way.
then Suzanne Thorpe came up, playing the flute notes in thumb in her individual way, which was surprising, as she didn’t exactly follow the tune.
Alone beat everything else this evening, as the song was severely extended with only very few of the lyrics, but most of it was an extensive wall of sound out of Suzanne’s flute and J’s guitar (and I guess everyone forgot that it was an acoustic guitar).
together with some sparse light effects out of blinding green spotlights it kept everyone in awe.the encore was short, the wagon w/out a solo, and a short Just like heaven, and it was over.
We were asked to get out of the hall almost immediately after, and soon after it, the bar also closed (in England it might be normal, but it’s so strange to see bars closing down at 11 pm).
We were still standing around, waiting in hope to see J coming back out. At the merch stand a new J shirt was sold, it’s black with neon pink JMascis letters and the bat pic.
Also they had some Wounded knees pics for free, and I got one. it was great that I got it signed both by Suzanne Thorpe and Jimi ShieldsAfter the show we were hanging out in the Bush hall bar area with Craig from the Sweetnothing label, who said that they’ve been working on the reissues with J during his stay in London.
And shortly after we finally were asked to leave we saw J and i got an autograph of his, which he dropped on my piece of paper while walking by without saying anything. not unfriendly but not communicative either. …but we know he’s like that, so it was all nice to get this autograph at last
yeah … i struggled w/a few of the song titles, but i got there in the end
…it was kind of embarassing though b/c just after the show was over, this guy came up to me + asked if he could see what i had written down on my notepad + i was thinking, "oh no, it’s all scribbly + i didn’t know the name of a few of the songs, so i just wrote down a line ot two … ha!" …
anyhow, he v.helpfully pointed out that the last song was just like heaven + i was like, "duh!!!!" … + i felt v.v.small
)overall i thought the show was great …
+ i was soooo thrilled that the wounded knees were the opening band b/c i’ve heard of them + i’ve been curious … for some reason i thought they were going to be more experimental, but in fact their songs were fairly straightforward … (+ awesome i might add!) … it’s just too bad that from where we were standing (ie centre stage right up front) you couldn’t hear the vocals (jimi) or suzanne’s flute that well … i thought that was a shame … like j, jimi was playing an acoustic guitar and instead of a drummer, they had rigged up a backing track to play along with for each song … they played 6 songs + they were off … in the meantime j popped out for a few minutes + then he was off to the backstage area again …
btw, there was NO bag check at all + there were loads of people there w/cameras (digital + 35mm) + also we spotted a few camcorders as well …
there were also a few press-type people there, so hopefully there’ll be some more interviews popping up on the net + in print shortly …
yeah … as we were waiting, my husband + i were playing "spot the j" + "spot the kevin shields" as we had a good view of the backstage door … ha …
the changeover between the bands was pretty quick b/c j + jimi shared the same amp + also the same pedals … suzanne had a load of pedals rigged up for her flute, but j didn’t use those ones …
like flying cloud said, j sort of faked out the audience by coming out two times
… + the 1st time he dumped off his bag + played around w/a few of the pedals + of course everyone started cheering + then went silent … + he said something like, "don’t stop talking on my account!" + then he said something like "thanks a lot, good night" + he walked off stage again … which must have confused the people at the back …then he came on for real + he played for about an hour 15mins i guess … the time of course flew by …
i took some pics too, which came out pretty well, but like i said, i don’t have a scanner …
after the show we were hanging around to see if j would come out again, but the bouncer strongly encouraged
us to move on to the bar area … which was just as well, b/c that was where the toilets were + it seems like there weren’t any toilets backstage b/c all the musicians used those ones ! so that’s how we eventually ran into j + jimi shields …of course afterwards i was thinking, duh !! why didn’t i ask them if i could take their photo ? but i am obviously a total goof b/c the thought never popped into my mind at the time … + also, i thought of all these questions to ask too … like, "hey j how was the benefit concert last weekend ?" + "how’s the new bob’s place coming along ?" … but in a way, he seemed like he didn’t want to stick around … so i guess i didn’t have time to think about that stuff … i was more concentrated on flying could getting her autograph …
next time i’ll be more prepared, i just hope it doesn’t take j another 2 years to get over here again !
anyhow … it was great having flying cloud there ! she’ll have to come over for j’s shows more often … or maybe the next time j plays hamburg, we’ll have to meet her there
Front row center for a J show, can’t get much better than that…
Thanks for the detailed reviews, hoping some audio/video shows up on FreesoFree.net soon
Quote:I especially liked it when a gallon of spit poured out the end of the flute – shows how hard she was playing!yeah, i was feeling for the people who were standing in front of the flute … you could see the spit just flying out … it was soooo disgusting
from what I’ve heard, most of the liquid that comes out of the back end of a flute is just condensation. but bad luck to stand right under a flute back end, anyhow
… first row can be risky…. 
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