Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 136 - 2014

136
20140212, Gothic theater, Englewood CO
Tigers
Planetary motion
Rumble at the rainbo
No one is (as I are be)
Cinnamon and lesbians
Spazz
Shibboleth
Lariat
Jenny and the Ess-dog
Senator
The janitor revealed
J Smoov
Scattegories
Animal midnight
Houston Hades
Independence street
Forever 28 >
Come sail away (Styx)
Asking price >
Stick figures in love
Father to a sister of thought
Swingtown
Box elder
Baby C'mon

Dreaded first night of the tour leg ('Wig out across America' is what Mike calls it). The Jicks deliver an enjoyable set, but they're only gearing up. They're a little rusty, so they play it relatively safe. Nothing embarasses, but not much made me sit up and marvel either.

Noticeably, the Morris-era Jicks define themselves by their own repertoire, not so much as a continuation of 15 years of the Jicks. 17 out of 24 tracks here are from the last two albums. Of the 7 others 4 are covers (two by Pavement). Only three songs ('Jenny', 'Animal midnight', 'Baby C'mon') date from earlier Jicks times. It works remarkably well. Listening to this show, it struck me how rich that core repertoire from the last two albums is. I mean, 17 tracks from two albums, that's an enormous amount of songs. And I don't hear any weak spots. AND they manage to not play a bunch of my favorites from those albums as well ('Long hard book', 'Gorgeous Georgie', 'Fall away', 'Chartjunk', 'Surreal teenagers'). It's impressive when you think about it. The material from 'Mirror traffic' and 'Wig out' goes together well, the 'Wig out' songs lighten up the mood considerably.

But it's only when 'Forever 28' segues into a chanted jam on 'Come sail away' that the first unexpected moment of the set occurs, and that's 15 songs into the set, right before the encore break. The encore covers include a credible take on 'Father to a sister of thought', a ramshackle 'Box elder', but mostly an intriguingly messy jam on 'Swingtown'. It's not that good, but it's a most welcome 'off the beaten track' intrusion on an otherwise safe evening.