Nita’s Hideaway, Tempe, AZ 4-24-01

[laurlaur22]

The show was absolutely awesome! J was standing two feet in front of me, so I was able to see the playlist. For the encore, they were supposed to play the Wagon, but instead they played Freak Scene, and everyone loved it. Mike Watt played with a lot of energy, as did J. Can’t wait to see them again!

[OUTSIDER]

Did he play freak scene as the encore?

[GarlicSoul]

Hey, I was at that show, too. I just wrote about it to a friend. I’ll paste it here, too:

the opening band was a two-piece. Kind of folky. No drums. The singer was pretty funny, though. At one point, he began talking about opening for Mascis and Watt: he said that it just wasn’t fair…that it’s like going up against the Harlem Globetrotters every night…like the Washington whatever their name is. No one will ever even remember their name, because they just get their asses kicked every night (of course, the audience had to prove him wrong and shout out that they were the Washington Generals).

For the last song, Mike Watt came out to play bass for them and one of them switched over to drums. It was a pretty cool little jam and Watt’s presence got the audience’s attention.

Then came Mascis and the Fog. It cracked us up, when the dude came out to tape down their setlists. Watt’s and George’s were common setlist in normal columns. Then he brought out J’s and it was that big ass third grade presentation project poster board with huge lettering! I guess J plays better than he sees. Heheh. Their soundman played clips of Buddy Rich berating his band, before their set and in between songs. It was pretty hilarious.

Anyway, Wow. We got to stand directly in front of Mascis with no one in between (mainly because they put a barrier fence to divide the room for a drinking and non drinking section, to accommodate the all ages crowd. We took advantage of the under 21 side, which wasn’t too packed). First song gets half way through, before Mascis’ guitar goes dead! Technical problems halted the show a couple of times. Which was pretty amusing at one point, when they were standing around waiting for the techs to fix the problem, while Buddy Rich is hollering, "You call yourselves, professionals!" etc.

Too bad those equipment problems interrupted some of the highlights of All The Girls and Out There, but the versions of What Else Is New, Back Before You Go, and Ammaring (which has become my all-time favorite Mascis song) were absolutely incredible! Sound waves have physical effects on the body…like those experiments that I read about where they tried to discover the frequency where something (even a human body) would break down. Like how certain singers can shatter glass, if they hit the right pitch. Anyway, I could definitely feel Mascis rearranging my molecules, with his guitar. It was amazing. Unfortunately, there were difficulties with Watt’s microphone, so I couldn’t hear him singing any of the Stooges classics. Although, he did mime a mean Iggy! Heheh.

It was so nice to see them again. I hadnt seen Mascis since 95 and he’s always just so much more incredible in concert. When I left the venue to go to my car, Mascis walked right in front of us, in the middle of the parking lot. I wanted to thank him for playing my state and for persevering through the equipment difficulties, but I couldn’t get any words to fall outta my mouth.

I got some great pictures. I’ll post them, once they’re scanned.

shawnte

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