I actually hadn’t originally planned to see Garbage for their 20th anniversary show for their self-titled debut album. I won’t say I’ve seen them enough, though I’ve seen them plenty, and they’d already played most of it over all the times I’ve seen them since they played their first club show for those songs. But Corey got tickets for the San Diego stop and would have needed someone to go with, and since it was around the time of the wedding, it became another bachelor party. Though for my other bachelor party event we were drinking and carousing and partying, I didn't necessarily need to do all those things to celebrate the end of my bachelorhood, and just getting to see a show is totally fine. So I drove down for the evening and left the next day, and I got to see a new venue. Humphrey’s By The Bay is a place I’ve noticed many mid-range bands use as their San Diego stop. It’s basically the court-yard of a hotel that might as well be a concert venue for the open space, but it’s near the water so it has a romantic ambiance, then no seats (at least for that show), and most of all, it’s not a large place, much more intimate than most of the places those bands would play in L.A., especially the Greek (where I normally would have seen them). Maybe there are bigger places to play in San Diego, or maybe that’s just the size of the crowd they’re playing to, or their fair-weather fans there for the hits have drifted away, but it fit well for the show. A run-through of their first album is fairly unnecessary, as those songs are still cherished enough to play well and enjoyed even still in their standard set, but if they can sell a show with it, they might as well. They only get one year to celebrate an anniversary. It might be more encouraging to get old-school fans out to see that album since they might not be getting as many new ones with new material. It was a trend for a while for bands to play whole albums and they did pretty well with them, at least as a reason to tour without new stuff that was grabbing anyone like it once it did. For that night they laid on the strategic nostalgia, opening with “Subhuman,” their first, pre-album single (and what would have gotten me to the show if I'd known they were going to play it), then stopping half-way through to play a set of era-appropriate B-sides, which was a treasure enough to make it a show unique from every other time we’d seen them, even the very first. The album, played chronologically except for the mid-set pause, could have been said to have come in remixed cuts, some heavier than others, or could be said to have been updated into new versions, since they’ve been playing those songs for 20 years and have found new arrangements and ways to make them fresh to play. It might have thrown those fans who wanted to hear the album just as they have for two decades -- which doesn't make much sense since they already have it that way -- but it sounded fine to me, especially as I get to hear the evolution of those tunes (“Vow”) and the few they rarely play ("A Stroke of Luck"), haven't in years (“Fix Me Now”), or I haven't heard ("Dog New Tricks"). Then of course an encore with some tracks from other albums, maybe some hits, as per the usual for bands doing this. The whole thing was unnecessary but if this keeps them going and helps to get new music out so we can get a new show next time, it’s good enough. It’s not likely I would be completely content with anything but a show of rarities and deep cuts anyway, so any time they’re playing the hits in a standard set is a version of another show anyway, though the change of scenery did more than anything to change up the familiar formula. And I finally got “Subhuman” (albeit heavily remixed). Torres opened, which we didn’t feel we had to give much attention to, so we wandered for a bit, not drinking, but partying in our own way. And plenty fantastical, to be in a setting close to the water with a great band that has held up all these years.
"Alien Sex Fiend" (20 Years Queer video intro)
"Subhuman"
"Supervixen"
"Queer"
"Only Happy When It Rains"
"As Heaven Is Wide"
"Not My Idea"
"A Stroke of Luck"
"Girl Don't Come"
"The Butterfly Collector" (the Jam cover)
"Trip My Wire"
"Sleep"
"Vow"
"Stupid Girl"
"Dog New Tricks"
"My Lover's Box"
"Fix Me Now"
"Milk"
"Kick My Ass" (Vic Chesnutt cover)
"Driving Lesson"
"Push It"
"Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)"
"#1 Crush"
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