full report on Chicago show

[OriginalPosterLost]

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J, Mike, and George rocked pretty hard last night at the Chicago Metro. The Metro is a good place to see a show – nobody gave me any guff about selling my two extra tickets outside or taking a camera in. I took about 2 dozen pictures of J and crew from an excellent spot on the upper level. You can fit a ton of people in the Metro and there are many, many excellent vantage points. The only tiny complaint I have is that after I bought the LP I wanted to wander back to the stage area and see if J was hanging out and signing anything, but the security shooed us out of there. I was fortunate enough to meet George Berz outside before the gig. I said hi and shook his hand and he probably wondered who the hell I was. I met Watt in Ann Arbor a couple years ago, so the only dude I haven’t met yet is J! I hope to someday.

The opening bands were named Kimball Roeser Effect and Moreno. Both sounded good and reminded me a little of Watt’s previous band fIREHOSE and a band you may have heard of named Scrawl. Moreno’s bass player looks a hell of a lot like J (are they related or something?), and I wasn’t expecting 2 bands before J, just 1, so when Moreno went on it took me a minute to realize that J wasn’t suddenly playing bass with two mysterious guys I didn’t know. Weird.

Anyways, J & the Fog went on at about 11 and started out with Thumb. I believe I have all the songs they played listed here, although they are not in the order they were played last night:

Same Day, Waistin’, Where’d You Go, Back Before You Go (big thumbs up), Ammaring, I’m Not Fine, More Light (J wore a keyboard around his neck for this one, and it was really noisy), Raisins, Little Fury Things, Freak Scene (last song of the night), Maggot Brain (a pleasant surprise), another song Mike sang (which I believe must have been a Germs cover), Severed Lips, Out There, What Else is New (with the usual mind-blowing solo that confirmed by belief that guys like Hendrix, Clapton, Malmsten, etc. have nothing on J), Blowing It / I Live For That Look.

I was looking forward to hearing "Get Me" and "the Wagon", but I guess they can’t play everything. You know what songs I would really like J to do live? How about "The Post" or "Get Out of This", with long solos? That would rock pretty my world.

For those of you who have never been to one of J’s shows, trust me, you need to bring along a decent pair of earplugs. Spare no expense. If you attempt to watch a show of his without any ear protection, YOU WILL REGRET IT. I am totally serious here. I bought the best earplugs I could find and I’m happy I did.

The Metro was pretty packed and the crowd was enthusiastic although kind of laid back too. Chants of "Mike Watt" were common inbetween songs. The band seemed to be having a good time and happy to be there. Another cool thing about seeing J live is watching him work all his pedals and all the different guitars he plays. He swtiches guitars between every song, and some of his guitars are really beautiful.

Merchandise available were t-shirts for $15, (a white one with the bat drawing and a purple one with the More Light cover), cd’s for $15, and LPs for $10.

All in all, it was an excellent show and actually the first time I’ve seen J live. I’ve seen videos and listened to live cd’s and stuff, but as you know it’s just not the same! J’s music has meant a lot to me over the years and has been a big influence on my guitar playing. I’m sure those reading this can relate. I hope J continues to make music and tour for years to come, because he is truly one of the best. ever.

FogLight
[email protected]

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[OriginalPosterLost]

just a note about the show…moreno opened, followed by Kimball-roeser effect. They rocked the house (not as hard as J did). This is Jim Kimball of JESUS LIZARD on drums and ED "KING" ROESER of Urge Overkill on guitar. Nobody knows who the mysterious bass player was, but he looked an awful lot like j. I really enjoyed J’s song selection for this show, I saw them in columbus on the Hand it Over Tour. Having Watt on bass brings the show an "energy" that johnson couldn’t bring.

For you guitar buffs, he went between two jazzmasters and his blue tele.

One of my favorite parts of the show was when J finished playing Thumb, and asked the crowd to sing "Happy B-day" to his rodie. Everyone did.

J just seemed to be a LOT more relaxed.
"That’s going to leave a mark."
-Chris Farley

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[This message has been edited by kingaddict (edited November 06, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by kingaddict (edited November 06, 2000).]

[OriginalPosterLost]

FogLight and kingaddict have accurately covered the show, so I haven’t got much to add. Except that J also played "All The Girls", and some of my thoughts about the show.

First of all, it was so cool that they played "Maggot Brain"! And it’s probably just a coincidence that I requested that song for the Chicago show on this board, but still… [img]http://www.freakscene.net/ubb/smilies/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] I watched most of the show from the balcony, but I went down for the encore to take some pictures of J. And then Mike started to say "Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time…" and I just screamed the rest of the spiel along with him, I was so happy.

They didn’t play a very long version though, I think it lasted about 4 minutes? It could be longer or shorter, because by that time my basic intellectual capacities (such as judging time, and thinking in general) were blown away by the loudness of it all. I didn’t wear earplugs, but I definitely agree with FogLight that you should. My ears are still not fully recovered while I’m writing this.

By the way, I also got to meet Drew (the guy with the cool fiancee) who I knew from the message boards. He’s a cool guy, and was smart enough to wear earplugs…

All in all, it was a great show, but I also have some mixed feelings about it. Because those relate to J albums vs. J live in general, I’ll post about that to the Opinions forum.

Jasper

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"Stop the sleep,
can’t vegetate no more.
Snap me out of it,
I’m done with my old friend."

– J Mascis

[OriginalPosterLost]

i am finally getting to reply…everyone has covered everything else. Metting Jasper wsa really cool, being able to watch someone go through his FIRST dino show after all the years of waiting…

There is a reason why I am a fanatic about Dinosaur.J/Fog, and all you have to do is see them live to knwo whats up.

I’ve got most of the setlist from this show, will post later.

drewby

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"That’s going to leave a mark"
-Chris Farley

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