Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 137 - 2014

137
20140221, Ferndale, MI, The loving touch
Cinnamon & lesbians
Tune grief
The janitor revealed
Tigers
Out of reaches
Lariat
Shibboleth
Animal midnight
Brain gallop
Senator
Scattegories
Houston Hades
Church on white
Forever 28
Independence street
1% of 1
J Smoov
Chartjunk
From now on
Range life
Brandy, she's a fine girl
Compared to Englewood the show in Ferndale is the opposite: in Ferndale the encore covers are kinda safe and unexciting, but the main set is a feast. The composition of the set is roughly the same: 14 out of 21 songs are from the last two albums, 3 covers in the encore, 4 older Jicks songs ('Out of reaches', 'Animal midnight', 'Church on white', '1% of 1' – a more promising selection than Englewood for sure). But here, driven on by an enthusiastic crowd (Stephen alludes to it being the first time he's ever played this region) the Jicks launch into it. The cries of 'We're playing three sets tonight, so get in!', 'You're in for the ride of your lives' and also 'You guys have got a weird smoke machine in here' are no put-on. Stephen is less demonstrative in banter, but all the more in playing. To get right down to it, the reason this is my favorite of the recorded shows from 2014 I've heard is the guitar. Stephen's guitar is up high in the mix, it's got amazing tone, and Stephen is into it and plays wildly off-the-cuff, all sorts of fills and ornamentations, sometimes subtly woven into the songs, sometimes he steamrollers right over everything in his path. I mean, it's no coincidence they pull out '1% of 1' at this show. Stephen knows he's in that zone to do it justice.

Some highlights (but the main set is one long thrill ride): 'Tigers' – the first moment where Stephen really goes off the track, he nearly totals the song in the process. That's the sign for me – this is getting exciting! 'Out of reaches' – I'm ready to proclaim this the best live version of the song ever, when just at the end 'the tides will turn', they botch it up (this time it's Joanna, but damn, will they ever play this song without getting lost in it? It must be the most difficult song in their repertoire.) No matter. 'Shibboleth' with some crazily pronounced vocal echo. 'Animal midnight' and 'Brain gallop' both really urgent and raw (and raw is not a word I use a lot to describe the Jicks). Lovely 'Church on white' too, like meeting it again for the first time in a long while. Long jamming on '1%'. Perfect smoldering and boiling over on 'J Smoov'. Heck, let's just say the entire set!

By the time of the encore, it hardly matters 'Brandy' doesn't catch fire, or 'Range life' is curtailed after the first chorus. Actually that's just long enough to be a pleasant addition to the set. It wouldn't have added more if it'd been thrice as long.