Electric Six, March 2 at the Troubadour

It's no surprise that with all the shows we go to, it's often that we're seeing a band that we just make a habit of seeing every time they tour.  Of course this counts for most of our favorite bands, just going to see them when they're in town, and most bands tour so infrequently that it's at least a few years between dates anyway.  Electric Six are a band that bucks that trend, that they tour and put out albums with a frequency that puts all other bands to lazy shame.  And as much new material as they put out I'll get and as many shows as they play locally I'll try to get out to see them.  Of course this volume of material is necessarily inconsistent, especially with a band past their commercial prime, but they're still doing it.  A band can pull off a good show on a band album (though I still didn't regret not being able to get out to see the show they did for Heartbeats and Brainwaves).  And a band could still play a great show no matter how many they play on a tour, though there can be all manner of other factors when they can't bring a great performance or one as good as others have been.  It's also unfair to compare a show to a past one, since it's a different place they're coming from now, but it's not unfair to hope that a show can be at least as good as past ones -- that's why you go to the show.  So call it what you will, this E6 show was not the best they'd played.  They didn't have a new album out to tour for, which might have been good for a best-of set, but they were also playing the Troubadour, a step smaller from the Key Club up the street, where they would usually play but recently went away.  Could they have sold the Key Club if it was still around?  The Troubadour actually might have been a better fit for them, like it was when they played there when they were coming up (Carla was there for that, I wasn't), but the place contained their sound way too much. They might have even known as much since they didn't seem to put as much fire into it as they often do.  All of Dick's banter and acts on stage might have been recycled from show to show, and we didn't know since we usually only saw them once, but what there was seemed worn, like he wasn't putting much into it, and the rest was just the music, which the band was just pushing through.  I don't know what might have contributed to a lackluster show but it didn't compare, for whatever reason. Though to be fair: even a poor show from the Electric Six destroys most shows from any other band, and I've seen them enough times that I can't help but be critical.  But they're still one of the best and funnest live bands around, and they'll probably -- hopefully -- keep grinding through it, year after year.

Electric Six's set-list:
"Crazy Horses" (The Osmonds cover)
"It Ain't Punk Rock"
"Devil Nights"
"Jam It in the Hole"
"Gay Bar"
"Gay Bar Part Two"
"She's White"
"I Wish This Song Was Louder"
"Hello! I See You"
"Future Is in the Future"
"Danger! High Voltage"
"I Invented the Night"
"Gridlock!"
"Formula 409"
"Down at McDonnelzzz"
"I Buy the Drugs"
"We Were Witchy Witchy White Women"

"Dance Commander"