Which prominent Nineties band was the first to tour one of their classic records? Sonic Youth did some scattered shows playing Daydream Nation; Slint toured their seminal record Spiderland in 2007; The Pixies, who haven’t released a new album in fifteen years, seem to have been touring old material non-stop for the past six years. So, who did it first? Who knows! But Sebadoh jumped on the bandwagon this year to tour two Nineties favorites, Bakesale and Harmacy.
Much like a Nineties costume party, the crowd – older fans and scattered twenty-year-olds draped in Nirvana shirts, plaid, ripped faded Levis and Chucks – was a nice change from the regular crowd of “fashioned” indie hipster fans. It was like a real life throwback to Sebadoh ’93 – as noted by supporting act Dutch.
The lingering worry that Sebadoh’s Lou Barlow and Jason Loewenstein would play two entire records front-to-back was quashed when the first song played wasn’t “License to Confuse” or “On Fire.” Instead, the set consisted of a variety of out-of-sequence songs from both records, which covered most of the material from both anyway. An upbeat and relaxed Barlow joked with the crowd, took extended tuning breaks and switched between guitar and bass with Jason. Even their crushed merch venture (T-shirts confiscated at the border) did not seem to effect Barlow's playful mood. Perhaps that was due to a love for playing Toronto or because playing old songs is an effortless crowd-pleaser… or maybe it’s just that Canada has great weed.
During their self-proclaimed “fake encore” they ended with Sebadoh’s supposed big hit single from Bakesale “Willing to Wait.” Ending the show with that particular song seemed like an odd choice given its soft composure, but perhaps ending on this note was an effort to ‘take back’ the song after its music video blunder which was orchestrated by a manipulative music label. And that very attitude echoed the night’s performance as a whole – intimate, understated but energetic and lawless.
Artist:
www.sebadoh.com/
www.myspace.com/sehbahdough
www.facebook.com/pages/Sebadoh/
www.twitter.com/realSeBADoh
Further Reading:
Ground Control feature article – "Sebadoh Rides Again"
Album:
The reissued, expanded edition of Bakesale will be released on June 14, 2011. The reissue of Harmacy will be released around the same time, but has not yet been given a formal release date. Pre-order Bakesale here on Amazon , and keep an eye out for Harmacy!
