Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 43/44 - 2003

43
2003/05/18, Lee's place, Toronto, Ontario

Dynamic calories
Us
Discretion grove
Dark wave
Craw song
Church on white
Ramp of death
Witch mountain bridge
Phantasies
Animal midnight
Water and a seat
Vanessa from Queens
The hook
(Do not feed the) Oyster
Jenny & the Ess-dog
100 years from now
1% of 1

I have a feeling I've been saying this a lot, but here goes – this is totally one of my five or so favorite Jicks concert recordings (up there with 2001 Sydney, 2005 Crystal ballroom and january 2007 Portland).

It's not a show where special, unique things happen, there are no remarkable feats or tales. Just great playing, a band with the urge to be THERE. Stephen plays amazing guitar throughout, no sign of sloppiness at all. Great band chemistry, everybody's in a great mood, John's is firing off wisecracks every which way. And the sound is nice and direct, lots of guitar in your face.

The translation of 'Pig lib' to the stage is all complete at this point. Gone are the clean, uncluttered lines of the record, in favour of ragga-like psychedelic guitar solos, crunching riffs and absolute controlled chaos.

Not that the first half of the set disappoints, it most certainly does not – they fire off a series of compact performances to start off the show, one after another, hardly without a break (except to veer into 'Sunday bloody Sunday' for just 5 seconds and declare tomorrow 'sex orgy day' – 'it's a holiday and a rebel song').

'Us' offers what sound like stoner rock imitations during the solos (Steve's a great fan, right?, and they played with Dead Meadow some of the shows in 2003). The performance of 'Dark wave' is almost metalic, so crunchingly loud.

Not that the first half disappoints, but at one point, right after finishing 'Vanessa from Queens' (some great guitar solos), John spots a couple of people leaving and says 'Yeah, If I were you, I wouldn't hesitate, the rest of the set is gonna just go downhill, just head off'.

That's when it really starts.

They ditch 'Sheets' (shame) to burst into my favorite all-time version of 'The hook'. Unrehearsed, Stephen's pretty adamant he's not going to remember the lyrics (he gets away with some fumbles which always put a smile on my face), but 'cause someone requested it. Everything about it is perfect, the rhythm, the bass, John talking to Stephen while he's singing throughout the song, the one note guitar solo (John: 'Don't wear it out!'). It's never been this loose and so tight.

'Oyster' is the mad, heavy trip it always promised it could be. 'Jenny & the Ess-dog' is piano and vocal. Just Mike and Steve. I mean, the first few times you hear this, it sounds like lounge comedy. But when it hits you, it's lounge comedy with heart. A spot on cover of '100 years from now' (Byrds version) sung by John.

They even do a version of 'In da club' by 50 Cent!

And finally, one of the best jammed out versions of '1% of 1' ever. Sounds like it's going to fall apart every other note, but it just keeps going. Steve's singing these wordless imitations of his guitar lines, like he's diving off a cliff or something, totally unselfconscious, lost in the moment.

Like I said, not that the first half disappoints, but not much in life beats that.
And all because some folks left early!

44
2003/05/18, Lee's place, Toronto, Ontario
1% of 1 jam

When I got this track it was dated 2005/05/18, two years later than its actual date. Right until I was writing these notes, I thought it was from the 'Face the truth' tour. Here's what I initially wrote:

This is an edit of an epic performance of '1% of one', pared down to 6 minutes of pure guitar improvisation. No need to go through two verses and choruses, just cut straight into the action. I don't know where I got this fragment from or who performed this edit, but whoever did it was acting on inspiration.

It's probably my fave performance of the Jicks cutting loose – heavy repetitive bassline, Stephen just flying off while Mike is busy shredding in the background tying together in these crazy guitar knots, John is talking to Stephen the whole time, commenting on every guitar move with drum responses. It's telepathy. (It probably falls apart completely right after the end fade of this edit.)

In that way, it's a precursor to the 'Real Emotional Trash' years. You see that sometimes in artists. They set out to master a particular idiom seemingly unaware that right at the start of their search they're already spontaneously achieving higher peaks (or at least as high) than they will subsequently consciously master. They want to control the thing they sometimes achieve without knowing exactly how they're doing it.

– – –

But careful listening (and re-listening) has led me to the conclusion that it's from the '1% of 1' performance at Lee's place in 2003 (the same '1 %' from the last note). A myth, then, but still, a crazy edit of an amazing jam. My favorite '1% of 1'.