Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 57/58 - 2005

57
2005/06/09, Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland
It kills
I am I said (Neil Diamond tease)
Freeze the saints
No more shoes
I've hardly been
Carl the clod
Wow-ass jeans

Spoiled for choice...
There's nothing wrong with this concert recording, nothing at all except it isn't quite as perfect as the recording from one week later at the Crystal Ballroom (up next). The recording is just a little more brittle, more harsh in the high tones (though perfectly listenable). The band is just a little less relaxed and freeflowing (though in excellent shape). The setlist is nearly identical, so I kept the highlights from this date at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland (wonderful names for all these concert halls in the US, btw, sounds so nostalgic and '70s to me).

'I am I said' is just a tease on 'JoJo's jacket''s intro, though we do learn that apparently one of Neil Diamond's nephews lives in Cleveland – why on earth does anyone know that?

The other six tracks are really fine.
'It kills' is nervy and urgent, reveals itself as a prime live song. There's a couple of live performances which bury the studio version for me (though it's no slouch itself).

'No more shoes' is long and exploratory. Less on the drone, more late period Sonic Youth-jam style.
Stephen: 'That one's for the Dungeons & Dragons kids who play piano very well.'
Mike: 'What do you mean by that?'
Stephen: 'You only do one of those things.'
Mike: 'That's right. I don't play piano very well.'
John: Bu-dum tish.

'Carl the clod' gets more unwieldy as time goes on, dragging along all sorts of extemporizations. Actually this version isn't as much fun as the one from a week later, but, you know, it's an unreleased track (sort of), so I hang on to any version I can find.

There's two tracks not duplicated:
'I've hardly been' is primal and minimalist, driving home the repetitive riff. Good to hear they didn't leave this one stranded on the album (like 'Kindling for the master' – did they ever do that live?), but there's a live version from 2013 which is more rewarding, I think. That's for later.

And then, 'Wow ass jeans'!
The only live version of this song?
Could've been developed to fit into the irresistible pop slot ('Jenny...', 'Baby c'mon') alternating nights.
All frills removed (compared to the b-side version) – just killer chords and guitar melodies, lifting wordless backing vocals, focus on the lead vocal, driving backbeat.
Takes me all the way back to 'Give it a day' – for an idea of the hilariously tangled, biting humour of the lyrics.
Could've been Stephen's stab at a prime '70s powerpop single, or maybe US skinny tie new wave pop smash.
Leaves the charming original in the dust.

58
2005/06/17, Crystal ballroom, Portland, OR
Jenny & the Ess-dog
Post paint boy
It kills
Dark wave
Loud cloud crowd
Water and a seat
JoJo's jacket
Freeze the saints
Moustache lady improv
Pencil rot
Malediction
Baby c'mon
No more shoes
Mama
Animal midnight
Church on white
Carl the clod
John & Mike, the least favorite bandmembers
Witch Mountain bridge
Incense cone
Dynamic calories
Thanks for coming jam (go home)

It's funny and it's sad, this show.

Funny – this time round the stand up comedy is musical, with 'Moustache lady improv' (Stephen: 'I'm gonna sell it to Tenacious D. He's always buying songs. He's down in Nashville now.'), the John & Mike song ('the two least favorite band members!'), the 'go home' jam and 'Incense cone' (a real song, but pretty funny). There's also a running gag about beards (Stephen: 'Beards always lose.' 'Make an effort for your old lady. Don't hurt her.' and so on). As is usual, the good natured ribbing is a sure sign the band is in it for a great show.

Sad – This is the final recording with John Moen in my collection. It's not the final show (by a long shot), but just listening with that in mind gives it a bittersweet taste. And maybe it explains why they have difficulty ending the show. They just keep on playing. John's the original Jicks drummer and there's something sad about the first band member from such a wonderful band to get replaced (no matter how good their replacement). He was also Stephen's comic foil on stage – a role which wasn't as easy to replace, Stephen's on his own a lot now with the stage banter.

Following the Jicks through these years, I got this feeling of the Jicks as a tight band on their own – I could see them backing other artists or striking out on their own for a stray single, for instance. They didn't do that, but they had a real band personality, even without Stephen. With the replacements, of course those years of building up the Jicks together fell by the wayside, and the Jicks went back to being Stephen Malkmus' backing band, a really good backing band, yes. But not so easily identifiable on their own. That's just how it feels to me. Mike, for instance, struck me as more 'present' in those years with John (2002-2005), making more distinctive 'Mike'-esque contributions, while afterwards he became more of an expert enabler of Stephen, staying in the background, making sure the backing music is just right for Stephen to shine.

Ah, I don't know where I'm going with this. It's late in the evening and I'm getting kinda nostalgic. Can you tell? So long, John. After Westie, my favorite Malkmus drummer – and that's no mean feat cause he's had excellent drummers all the way.

Anyway, this set –
it's the place to go to hear the Jicks tackle 'Face the truth'. I wrote before about how I'm unsure how much the band members contributed to the album sessions. They were there, as they played at least one show halfway through the session. But then you hear a set like this, and all of them play really cool melodies and ideas to these songs which weren't on the album, really turning them someplace different than the album. Here, it feels that this is a band getting a chance to finally come to grips with these songs like they haven't before. I'd be interested to hear more about this.

The result in any case is the sound of the band translating a studio creation to a great live experience. Nine of the eleven album tracks make up the backbone of the set, with some choice selections from the 1st and 2nd album making up the balance (wonderfully resigned 'Church on white', exciting 'Animal midnight' and 'Witch mountain bridge'). It's also probably the most fully realized version of the epic 'Carl the clod' on record, it's a ball, but still, possibly the most ill-advised song to regularly feature in the Jicks' set.

At the start of this set you hear Stephen stumble blindly onto the stage ('Hello? Hello hello?') right into a perfect version of 'Jenny' (back in its band incarnation), and it just never gets any worse. One of my favorite Jicks shows. The recording quality is also excellent – warm and present, just like being there.

One last point though – with the exception of 'Carl the clod', no new songs are played to point the way to 'Real emotional trash'. This is 10 months after the end of the 'Face the truth' sessions. Stephen was taking his time with the new record.