Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 107/108 - 2011

107
2011/10/05(?), Indianapolis, IN
Church on white
White light/White heat

In Indianapolis they end the set with an irreverent performance of 'Church on white' (hmm, I can't escape the impression they miss the feel of the song by about half a mile), a little mystery tuning, and a rocking cover of 'White light/White heat'.

It's not an amazing cover, but it starts off a series of iconic '60s rock songs-covers: this one, 'Mr Soul', 'Hey Joe', 'Wild thing' and probably others unrecorded. We'll discuss them the coming days.
It's a change from the habitual '70s nuggets and soft rock/wedding band hits. And a couple of them are wild and great. It could've been a great tour EP (maybe throw in 'I heard it through the grapevine' as well).

By the way, is there anyone who call tell me by what play of telepathy the band eventually know what song they're going to play? After 'Church on white' you see Joanna asking Stephen what comes next, but Stephen doesn't say. There's a lot of banter and then they all start the song together without hesitation. How do they know?

108
2011/10/06, Metro, Chicago, IL
Discretion grove
Scattegories
Polvo
Independence street
Senator
Real emotional trash
Share the red
Brandy (You're a fine girl)
Benny and the Jets

The next day, this time at the Metro in Chicago. I've mostly selected the later stages of the show, just before the encore and the encore itself. I felt it took the Jicks a while to get into it on this occasion. The first four tracks I mostly hung onto cause of the songs, not so much the performances. A rare appearance of 'Discretion grove'. Two of the new songs: 'Scattegories' (near identical to the Variety Playhouse version) and another version of 'Indenpendence street' (by far the most played new song on this trek). And a b-side. There's something unexpected to them that adds to my perspective on this particular tour. Of course there were a lot of 'Mirror traffic' songs, but none that offered anything unique, anything noteworthy. Fine on the night, sure, but not to listen to regularly.

Later in the set, they get bitten by the improv bug. And that is noteworthy, as it didn't often happen in 2011. When I saw them (a little later, in november) they made a point of telling us they didn't do the 'Real emotional trash' jamsongs anymore cause they were so fed up with playing them. But here for a moment, they hit the groove. And this moment, cause it's a spur of the moment thing and you can hear it, I like it. 'Senator' gets blurry and tuneless for a little bit but then erupts into a very melodic variation on the chords and melody. They pass it around for a bit and then faultlessly dive into the song again. Nice version. And so they proceed with an equally nice 'Real emotional trash' and even a long piano coda on 'Share the red'.

Two ok covers 'Brandy (You're a fine girl)' and 'Benny and the jets' – not the best versions of either, fun though – end the night.