Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 143 - 2014

143
20140412 Neptune theatre, Seattle, WA
Freeze the saints

For a while it looked like this would be the performance on which this overview would end (yes, we're nearing the end – or, at least the present). And what a final chapter that would've been. Last night of the US tour, at the Neptune theatre in Seattle, the Jicks had a special treat for the audience:

a piano and vocals deathly slow ballad version of what might just be the best song Stephen's ever written. With these piano performances, when Stephen doesn't have a guitar to hide behind, there's always a higher risk he's going to shrug it off, make a joke out of it. Not here. He sings it straight. We're all 10 years older, there's a little more sadness in all our gladness, that's experience. But we can still cling to the things that give our lives balance and meaning. Not everything needs to get corrupted or broken or hollow. Hell, maybe that's just my projection on this performance.

Three and a half minutes of perfection – and half a minute of a trainwreck of a solo.
And that's exactly what I love about Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks.

They subsequently pulled out this arrangement (not entirely new, it resembles the 2005 drummer less version at Sonic Boom records and KEXP radio) at a number of shows in 2014 and 2015, but I cling to this 'first' take.