Of all The Tragically Hip shows I’ve been too, and I’ve been to a lot, this is the most hazy. In fact, I really have no recollection of their set at all, whereas other shows I have clear memories of moments or songs. I should have loved this set, it’s chalk full of most of my favorite Hip tunes, but… nothing.
The opening band, however, I do remember. I had just moved to Columbus the previous fall, and that winter was spent to trying to find a place to live (instead of on my friend’s floor), a drummer and a job. All three were accomplished in a few months, and we started going to see bands. I just so happened that one of the bands we heard about from a lot of people were opening for the Hip.
For some reason, we all walked away from seeing Pretty Mighty Mighty thinking they were heavy in the Hum/Smashing Pumpkins vein, but that turned out to be less true the more times we saw them live. What did happen is they turned into one of not only my favorite local bands from that scene in the late 90s/early 00s, but one of my favorite bands period, combining loud by melodic guitar, Bob Mould-esque vocals, a tight rhythm section and the wild onstage antics of a very untraditional violinist.
SETLIST
Gift Shop
Poets
Fireworks
Pigeon Camera
Fully Completely
Bobcaygeon
Nautical Disaster
Ahead By A Century
Vapour Trails
The Luxury
Something On
Locked In The Trunk Of A Car
Chagrin Falls
New Orleans Is Sinking
Membership
Inevitability Of Death
Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin’ Man
This Week In Music: 9/17-9/23
This week in music listening, featuring patent-pending two-word reviews:
Radio 4: Stealing of a Nation – average dancepunk
Ministry: The Last Sucker – pummeling rhythms
FireHouse: Hold Your Fire – plentiful riffs
ZZ Top: La Futura – couple gems
Vandenberg: Vandenberg – quality debut
Rush: Hemispheres – difficult ambition
Stereolab: Refried Ectoplasm (Switched on Vol. 2) – mixed bag
Superdrag: The Fabulous 8-Track Sound of Superdrag – urgent rock
Ben Folds Five: The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind – welcome return
Robert Pollard With Doug Gillard: Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department – matured songwriting
Minus The Bear: Infinity Overhead – better Bear
Radio 4: Stealing of a Nation – average dancepunk
Ministry: The Last Sucker – pummeling rhythms
FireHouse: Hold Your Fire – plentiful riffs
ZZ Top: La Futura – couple gems
Vandenberg: Vandenberg – quality debut
Rush: Hemispheres – difficult ambition
Stereolab: Refried Ectoplasm (Switched on Vol. 2) – mixed bag
Superdrag: The Fabulous 8-Track Sound of Superdrag – urgent rock
Ben Folds Five: The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind – welcome return
Robert Pollard With Doug Gillard: Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department – matured songwriting
Minus The Bear: Infinity Overhead – better Bear
Concert Review: Duran Duran & TSAR @ the Polaris Amphitheatre, Columbus, OH (8/20/00)
Believe it or not, the main draw for this show was TSAR. Hear me out.
TSAR was a band my friend Jason happened upon and shared during the summer of 2000. It was over-the-top, glimmering, sugary-sweet power pop that would make Cheap Trick and Big Star proud, but with a twist of California punk and glam metal. Songs like Kathy Fong Is The Bomb were mindless and wonderful, a perfect summer soundtrack album for driving around.
The band, in a short opening set, were brash and bratty, just what you’d expect, but dwarfed by the giant stage. Clearly a band meant for smaller venues, where the audience could get up close and personal, sweat and bodies bouncing around. They concluded their set with a rocking version of a Backstreet Boys song, and that’s about all you need to know.
Duran Duran were fine, but the most memorable aspect of their show was what an awkward dancer Simon LeBond was/is. He didn’t so much as dance as spasm to the music. Very weird stuff.
DURAN DURAN SETLIST
Last Day On Earth
Hungry Like The Wolf
New Moon On Monday
Playing With Uranium
Come Undone
Big Bang Generation
Ordinary World
Save A Prayer
Hallucinating Elvis
White Lines
Mars Meets Venus
Lava Lamp
Skin Trade
Too Much Information
The Wild Boys
Rio
Notorious
Girls On Film
The Reflex
TSAR was a band my friend Jason happened upon and shared during the summer of 2000. It was over-the-top, glimmering, sugary-sweet power pop that would make Cheap Trick and Big Star proud, but with a twist of California punk and glam metal. Songs like Kathy Fong Is The Bomb were mindless and wonderful, a perfect summer soundtrack album for driving around.
The band, in a short opening set, were brash and bratty, just what you’d expect, but dwarfed by the giant stage. Clearly a band meant for smaller venues, where the audience could get up close and personal, sweat and bodies bouncing around. They concluded their set with a rocking version of a Backstreet Boys song, and that’s about all you need to know.
Duran Duran were fine, but the most memorable aspect of their show was what an awkward dancer Simon LeBond was/is. He didn’t so much as dance as spasm to the music. Very weird stuff.
DURAN DURAN SETLIST
Last Day On Earth
Hungry Like The Wolf
New Moon On Monday
Playing With Uranium
Come Undone
Big Bang Generation
Ordinary World
Save A Prayer
Hallucinating Elvis
White Lines
Mars Meets Venus
Lava Lamp
Skin Trade
Too Much Information
The Wild Boys
Rio
Notorious
Girls On Film
The Reflex
This Week In Music: 9/10-9/16
This week in music listening, featuring patent-pending two-word reviews:
Quasi: When the Going Gets Dark – mixed variety
Rocket From The Crypt: Paint As a Fragrance – quality introduction
Cabaret Voltaire: The Crackdown – dance variant
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Orange – flavorful blues
Mudhoney: Under a Billion Suns – sludgy grunge
Robert Pollard: We All Got Out of the Army – more meandering
Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments: No Old Guy Lo-Fi Cry – no go
Jon Brion: Paranorman Soundtrack – playful fun
It Was Made in Northeast Ohio Compilation – time capsule
Trixter: Trixter – catchy pop-metal
Juliana Hatfield: How to Walk Away – mature pop
Nuggets of American College Rock 1987: interesting archive
Sloan: Pretty Together – varied styles
The Twilight Singers: Live in Amsterdam, 11-28-06 – ripping live
Quasi: When the Going Gets Dark – mixed variety
Rocket From The Crypt: Paint As a Fragrance – quality introduction
Cabaret Voltaire: The Crackdown – dance variant
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Orange – flavorful blues
Mudhoney: Under a Billion Suns – sludgy grunge
Robert Pollard: We All Got Out of the Army – more meandering
Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments: No Old Guy Lo-Fi Cry – no go
Jon Brion: Paranorman Soundtrack – playful fun
It Was Made in Northeast Ohio Compilation – time capsule
Trixter: Trixter – catchy pop-metal
Juliana Hatfield: How to Walk Away – mature pop
Nuggets of American College Rock 1987: interesting archive
Sloan: Pretty Together – varied styles
The Twilight Singers: Live in Amsterdam, 11-28-06 – ripping live
Concert Review: The Twilight Singers & After Hours @ Little Brothers, Columbus, OH (5/23/06)
By the time The Twilight Singers were touring for their third album, Power Burns, the band around front man Greg Dulli had solidified into a blisteringly good unit. The ad hoc approach to the first tour in 1999 was replaced with more permanent members, in addition to accompaniment from tourmates After Hours and Jeff Klein.
Little Brothers was packed to the ceiling for this show, which I attended with a co-worker and some friends, and ran into even more friends at the show. If Cincinnati was Greg’s hometown, Columbus certainly a close second in terms of support.
The set was all Twilight Singers, with some old and new covers included, and not a single Afghan Whigs song. During Candy Cane Crawl, Greg did his best Springsteen/preacher interpretation, getting down on both knees, pleading as much as singing, and holding the audience 100% in the palm of his hand.
TWILIGHT SINGERS SETLIST
I’m Ready
Esta Noche
Too Tough To Die
Bonnie Brae
That’s Just How That Bird Sings
Teenage Wristband
Hyperballad
Love
Annie Mae
Candy Can Crawl
There’s Been An Accident
Decatur St.
Martin Eden
Forty Dollars
Encore:
The Killer
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley)
Underneath The Waves
Black Is The Color Of My True Loves Hair
Little Brothers was packed to the ceiling for this show, which I attended with a co-worker and some friends, and ran into even more friends at the show. If Cincinnati was Greg’s hometown, Columbus certainly a close second in terms of support.
The set was all Twilight Singers, with some old and new covers included, and not a single Afghan Whigs song. During Candy Cane Crawl, Greg did his best Springsteen/preacher interpretation, getting down on both knees, pleading as much as singing, and holding the audience 100% in the palm of his hand.
TWILIGHT SINGERS SETLIST
I’m Ready
Esta Noche
Too Tough To Die
Bonnie Brae
That’s Just How That Bird Sings
Teenage Wristband
Hyperballad
Love
Annie Mae
Candy Can Crawl
There’s Been An Accident
Decatur St.
Martin Eden
Forty Dollars
Encore:
The Killer
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley)
Underneath The Waves
Black Is The Color Of My True Loves Hair
Concert Review: Ratt & Chlorine @ the Newport Music Hall, Columbus, OH (10/1/99)
From what I recall of this show, Chlorine opened and were geniunely annoying, posing more than playing their brand of 80s metal syphoned through grunge, with little sense of melody or dynamics. In other words, I didn’t like them.
Ratt were touring with a new line-up and a new album released during the summer of 1999, weren’t much better. The album was subpar compared to their prime 1980s material, a shame considering their 2010 comeback album was far superior, and lead singer Stephen Pearcy was, vocally speaking, a shell of his former self.
So, I guess you could say I found this show to be lacking, to put it mildly.
Ratt were touring with a new line-up and a new album released during the summer of 1999, weren’t much better. The album was subpar compared to their prime 1980s material, a shame considering their 2010 comeback album was far superior, and lead singer Stephen Pearcy was, vocally speaking, a shell of his former self.
So, I guess you could say I found this show to be lacking, to put it mildly.
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