PLAYING TRACK SIX, TRACK SEVEN, AGAIN AND AGAIN: A week ago Saturday, Superchunk played the Bowery Ballroom on Delancey, here in New York City. (This is a wonderful place to see a show, with a full bar in the basement, pleasant-but-durable appointments throughout, a great big open floor in front of the stage, and seating for perhaps two-dozen upstairs, all in a room which manages to preserve a sense of intimacy with the band even from the stools at the balcony bar.) The songs from their set (and free-associatively selected favorites from the rest of the Superchunk catalog) are still echoing behind my eyes, surfacing as a hum-alongs while walking to the store, or inspiring full-on unselfconscious wife-has-left-for-work-already singing in the shower. It was an amazing show, in that matter-of-fact manner that Superchunk is often amazing.
The one set list for the Bowery show that I’ve been able to locate on line is wrong. Not through-and-through wrong but at least wrong about the first song, which was Baxter. I am not likely to be wrong about this, as it is one of the more obscure Superchunk songs and one of my favorites. (There’s a poorly captured version of Baxter from a 1995 show here at about 3:10, after Shallow End and some noodling. That’s the only version I could find on the web.) The point is that a room full of people yelling “He’s always happy about something… !” is not something I’m likely to forget, or misremember, or remember out of sequence, particularly because I can contrast the experience with an old roommate looking over at me in the car as I rocked-out to Incidental Music circa 1998 and sneering “Yeah, that fucker. Always happy about something.” Some folks, they get it. Some folks, they don’t. Baxter is a favorite of mine because it reminds me of that. It was really, really great to be in a room full of people who got it last Saturday.
Local fan-favorite Throwing Things was the last song of the show, as stated in the semi-suspect internet set list above, but it came as a stand-alone second encore and not as the end of a single encore, if that matters. (And, I mean, wow. Wow! Does that link make up for the crappy Baxter link, or what? Can you hear them singing along? Yes, yes you can.)
Throwing Things, Cast Iron, Detroit Has a Skyline, and Baxter were surprise all-in sing-alongs. Slack Motherfucker, Hyper Enough, 100,000 Fireflies, Driveway to Driveway, and Foolish were sing-alongs as well, but I don’t think anyone was surprised.
Overall, the band was tight and upbeat, the sound was absolutely fantastic. Songs off the new album worked seamlessly into a show that pulled material from the whole length of their career together, and all the old favorites came with the expected earnest roar and punch.
So, if you get it, or think maybe you'd want it, and there’s a date near you, go. Just go. This year, next year, 2020 if it takes that long. Go. Go go go go go.
