Teenage Fanclub
Bowery Ballroom
7/12/01 w/Autumn Project
7/13/01 w/Laura Cantrell

Rarely have I been more excited to see a pair of shows. After being cruelly deprived of seeing them on the last Radiohead tour, and then on their subsequently cancelled headlining tour, I was pretty bummed, but two dates at the Bowery Ballroom were more than enough to set things straight. Of course, we almost didn’t see them again, owing to visa problems that cancelled their first two shows in Philly and DC, but even flights that delayed their arrival until two hours before showtime couldn’t keep them from a rabid NY crowd.

The Autumn Project is John Stiratt from Wilco and Uncle Tupelo’s side project. If you liked his song on the first Wilco record, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what they sound like. Augmented by horns, they played a decent mix of Bakersfield meets Liverpool rock that got the crowd warmed up, but we all knew who we were there for. A jet-lagged Fanclub took the stage to cheers and promptly slayed the audience with their huge canon of Byrds-y pop rock. Their new record Howdy hasn’t been released in the States, but you wouldn’t have known it from the response. Despite their aggressive jet-lag, they played long and it was good. Even better when you knew they were coming back the next night.

Night two had WFMU DJ Laura Cantrell opening the proceedings with some down-home songs that were reminiscent of Nancy Griffith’s dust bowl tales. She was backed by the usual suspects and was pretty impressive, especially in light of the presence of most of the British Isles, who seemed to have consumed much of the bar. They were respectful, but exploded when the Fannies took the Stage. The rest did the boys well, as they played even harder, dipping way into the back catalogue for Alcoholiday as well as a romp through b-side Some People Try To Fuck With You. Not too shabby. Here’s hoping it won’t be another four years ‘til they come around next time.

Sirenfest
featuring Rainer Maria
Quasi
Man Or Astroman
Superchunk
Guided By Voices
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Coney Island, NY
7/21/01

So the Village Voice steps up to the plate and has a music festival. Now I really hate Coney Island, but a show like this was worth the trip. The Voice seemed to have had their shit together, with adequate (although coin-operated) bathrooms and really decent sound. Not too shabby, although I still never read anything other than the Voice Choices.

Rainer Maria opened up the day by preaching to a choir of the converted. They have good songs and a great drummer, but Caithlin still has trouble keeping her voice in tune. Not that their fans cared. They played hard and had the small arriving crowd jumping.

Why do people like Quasi? Is it the Sleater Kinney connection? Their link to the poor man’s Mark Eitzel: Elliot Smith? And while I’m waxing rhetorical, why not a full band?

You might surmise that I don’t (and didn’t) care for the Quasi. You’d be right.

Now I hear that there are at least two Man Or Astroman? franchises around. I’m not sure which one this was, but it sounded like they always do. Now I have no love for analog keyboards, and I would say that the MOA? are better at night, but they had the crowd jumping themselves to dehydration and put it some work. Not bad, not bad at all.

Superchunk are as consistently good as Quasi suck. This was an interesting show, as original guitarist Chuck Garrison sat in and helped out Jim, who had hurt his finger. It appeared to be nothing that some beer couldn’t fix, as they rocked like hell, as per usual. Nothing remarkable in the set: some new songs to be released soon, Slack Motherfucker, but still better than most bands.

I had been concerned at the last two Guided Voices shows I had seen, as Bob only appeared to consume maybe a six pack the whole set. Well, Anheiser Busch needn’t worry, as Bob was hammered par excellence from note one. You’re not going to get any surprises from the GbV boys, no Layla codas or space jams, just quality songs mixed with some half-baked works in progress. The set was short in comparison to their normal ones, but if you’re going to have a rock show on a sunny Summer’s day, the GbV are the ones to host it. They are BBQ rock to beat the band.

And beat Jon Spencer they did, although unfortunately not literally. Never have I wished for a freak tsunami more. Fortunately I was able to make it to the train before I was utterly nauseated by their sub-par white boy blues stylings. Not sure why they were headlining the proceedings, as they seemed to drive most people homeward, but all in all the Village Voice and Co. really put together a really impressive fest. Hope it was successful enough to do it again next year.