Electric Six/Yip Deceiver, June 13, 2014 at the Roxy

The Electric Six had a Kickstarter some years before (among the numerous Kickstarter campaigns they’ve had) where one of the level rewards was a ticket to every Electric Six, for the rest of life.  I’ve often thought about how much money I could have saved if I had jumped on that.  As it is, when they play a local show, they might as well charge me for a ticket straight off and let me know since, as anyone knows, I’ll be there.  (Not always the L.A. date, but one nearby if not.)  And so we saw them at the Roxy, one of the only venues smaller than the Troubadour to play without dishonor.  Maybe they just wanted to play such a legendary place, as often some bands do.  So they were there and so were we.  It was much the familiar show, with a few new tracks -- including the death-metal chorus of “Adam Levine” -- though if I minded seeing the same thing I wouldn’t see them so often.  The biggest significance for this show was Dick beginning counting off the numbers of the songs, keeping track of the order as they played them, though it was probably printed on his set-list more than he remembered their numbered order (and hopefully they didn’t play the same set enough to make the latter a simple proposition).  Some apparent technical problems in the middle also gave Dick the space to play “Jimmy Carter” by himself on an acoustic guitar, a rare glimpse of a Valentine solo show that confoundingly Europe gets frequently and we don’t (though he added the song to some encores on later tours).  And if the Six were frustrated with having to play such a small place (after playing increasingly smaller spaces), they took it out with smashing through a set possibly more furious than usual for having been so confined.  One of the more satisfying shows they had done recently.  The opening band was Yip Deceiver, which, even while in the vein of hyperactive indie bands like Hockey, didn’t leave much of an impression for as much as we saw them, until they came back on stage with the Six in the encore and did a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere,” of all songs.  There’s probably a story for picking that one, and it's probably all tongue-in-cheek, but it fit among anything else they played with any more or less irony.  This was also the show when I realized that I should have gotten Dylan to come, and it might have worked out since it was Friday night but I only came up with it when we there.  The next night they were playing Santa Ana but he was away that weekend anyway so it wouldn’t have worked out after all, though it planted the idea for next time.

Electric Six’s set-list (originally posted by me):
”Nom De Plume”
”After Hours”
”Devil Nights”
”Down at McDonnelzzz”
”The New Shampoo”
”Gay Bar”
”Gay Bar Part Two”
”Jimmy Carter”
”Naked Pictures (of Your Mother)”
”Hello! I See You”
”Jam It in the Hole”
”Show Me What Your Lights Mean”
”Future Is in the Future”
”Danger! High Voltage”
”Adam Levine”
”Dance Epidemic”
”I Buy the Drugs”
”We Were Witchy Witchy White Women”

”Everywhere” (Fleetwood Mac cover) (with Yip Deceiver)
”Dance Commander”