Carla and I were in Hollywood casually celebrating our anniversary on a Saturday night and we ended up doing in one of the best ways possible. We were trying to get lottery tickets for The Book of Mormon but we didn't get in. We wandered over for a nice dinner and happened to stroll by the Fonda, where the Afghan Whigs were having their second night. We saw the show the night before and it was great, why do the second night? Because they were playing an altered set between nights. And "Miles Iz Dead", or so I read. Those few different songs were enough for me, at least, and Carla went along. Besides, seeing them a second time, even if it was the night after the first, would start to help her make up for never seeing them back in the day. We usually don't rely on scalpers but we were going to make the attempt and see what we come up with, and if we couldn't find anything then we would head back home and be none the worse off. As it turns out, there was one sole scalper left since it was so late. With only a few minutes before the show was set to start (as we knew from the night before), he asked us our price. I knew he was desperate and trying to get anything for the tickets or get nothing, so I offered $40 for both and he couldn't jump on it fast enough. He even let us have the tickets before we paid for them while I went back to put more money in the meter. So in we went for the second night of the Whigs, every bit as thrilling as the first. Very similar, though in my mind I'd like to think that Dulli & co. pushed it just a bit more since it was the last night on the entire tour (save for what he said was a planned New Year's show in Cleveland -- of course we were tempted -- and whatever they were going to do as a band after that). Absolutely the different songs were worth it. The show would have been worth a full-price ticket, if we'd planned on it. (We would usually shy away from making plans for Saturday night.) I'd even say I preferred the alternate-night's set, just because the first few songs leaned more toward 1969's cuts (not to the inclusion of anything from Gentlemen, the superior work, just that 1969 sounds better live). And there it was, in the encore (sometimes being aware of their usual set-lists pays off): "Miles Iz Dead," which I had never heard live (along with anything from Congregation or before -- a shame almost as bad as never seeing them before Black Love). And there I was, a screaming maniac. And another great show. Those guys are just made to play live. This reunion tour seemed like a return, but also taking care of past business, like letting the old-school fans or new fans they've gotten since they broke up see the old stuff, as well as going deeper into their catalog than they had in a while, tying that off so they could either go away permanently again without owing anything, or trudging onward as a band if they chose to stay together or even produce new work. Dulli still has the Twilight Singers, though from what I could tell he merged both bands for Afghan Whigs 2.0, so the difference is negligible. And even though I'm always excited for new material from Dulli, in whatever form that may be, it's always the Afghan Whigs that do it for me. Van Hunt opened but we missed him (again), though he performed with the band.
The Afghan Whigs' set-list:
"Heaven on Their Minds" (from Jesus Christ Superstar)/"Somethin' Hot"
"Blame, etc."
"What Jail Is Like"
"Kiss the Floor"
"When We Two Parted"/"Over My Dead Body"
"Gentlemen"
"Crazy"
"Turn On the Water"/"Helter Skelter" (Beatles cover)
"John the Baptist"
"Step Into the Light"
"See and Don't See" (Marie "Queenie" Lyons cover)
"Lovecrimes" (Frank Ocean cover)
"Going to Town"
"Who Do You Love?"/"Fountain and Fairfax"
"Omerta"/"She Loves You"
"The Vampire Lanois"
"My Curse"
"Miles Iz Ded" (with snippet of Kiss's "I Was Made for Lovin' You")
"Into the Floor"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment