By Deborah Karen Watt
The show was fabulous. I had been excited about it for weeks now, and was definitely not disappointed despite the high-level of anticipation. (And apparently I have a lot to say about it. This is kind of long.)
The Quails were great. They started off with an acapella song. Something like “this war will end when we want it to” (apparently inspired by Yoko). I don’t know any of their songs, to tell you the setlist. There was one introduced as “Carmen,” one singalong that was something like “the next one will fall down”?, and another singalong that I can’t remember. They did not play “Memo,” the song on the _Fields+Streams_ comp. I have it taped but haven’t listened yet; I can post more details if anybody is interested.
The drummer was dressed up “in her best Mr. Furley”. SK watched most of their set from the side stage.
Then SK came out and we had a “community blowing of minds.” The setlist follows. Before reading the setlist, does anybody want to take guesses about what the cover was? The hint is, it’s by a band originally out of Athens (which I think I remember somebody picking on the request page).
As soon as they started setting up Janet’s drums, I realized we’ve been using the wrong abbreviation of 1B. The drums read, in some kind of punk-rock font: SK 1BT, with a lightning bolt underneath.
#1 Must Have” was the first old song they played, we were encouraged to sing along if we remembered it, and the band would sing along too, if they remembered it.. LRC was turned into an attempted singalong. Carrie’s response: “Nice try, Denver. We’ll work on that one.”
There were several songs where it seemed like Carrie’s guitar lines were slightly different than on the record. I’m not sure if they’ve changed some things, or if it just sounds different live without all the extra instruments. And, on “Prisstina”, some parts that I had thought were the organ were being reproduced. An effects pedal, I guess? On the record, I had liked the song well enough, but it was especially fun live to see Corin’s expressions while she sang.
Actually, it was great to watch her sing most of the time. This was the most expressive I’ve ever seen Corin, both singing and dancing around onstage. She did quite a bit of jumping and head shaking, and even literally shook her tail during “Step Aside.” Carrie was doing her usual great soccer-player moves. At one point during the encore, they played facing each other - Carrie would jump
and land with legs open while Corin would jump and land with legs together, and then vice versa. It was funny. Janet did her share of head shaking too. They were all smiling at each other a lot as they were playing.
It was great fun all around, I think. With some serious moments too.
Carrie on 9-11: I think for a good time last year, actually on what today is the anniversary of, it felt like a lot of things were really futile, including art. Soon after, at least, I personally came to the realization that it’s sort of more important than ever to be creating art. Art has always been act of passion and an act of resistance. I think in a time that’s sort of spiritually deadening, either the events that happened or the way our gov’t has reacted to it, it’s been
really good to participate in a medium that brings people together. So we’re honored to be sharing this with you guys.
Corin: Today being September 11, it was a weird day. It was a hard day to be away from home for me in some ways. And it was curious to see how some people, in their own right, used symbols to help comfort them. Like Tshirts that are a RWB flag, or signs. This one girl I saw made up her own sign on her back that said ‘I do not support the war in Afghanistan’. I felt inspired to go to the bookstore and get some anti-war poetry, _Campfires of the Resistance_.
[She then read one of the poems, with some pseudo-beat backup from Janet and Carrie. I can try to post the poem if there's interest. The ending was something like "we don't have the leisure to despair / we cannot cope w/o new inspiration."]
On a personal note, my 75-mile bike ride to Denver for the show went pretty well. I put a sign on my bike “Bikes not Bombs / Bike against War” and got a few pressumably supportive honks, one aggressive honk, and two cans of Mountain Dew thrown at me (they missed).
If anybody wants the fashion report..
Janet: all black, of course, with a red belt. The shirt had some sort of ruffles down the right side.
Corin: brown sleeveless T with a cross motif on it, knee-length skirt with a cross-shape loosely sewn on with yarn, knee-high boots with big heels. (”What’s with all the crosses?” I thought to myself.)
Carrie: b+w striped sleeveless T, tight stretch dark-blue jean, retro tan sneakers.
At one point, somebody threw an article of intimate apparel onto the stage (what is it with this? It’s my second show in a row where this has happened.). When Carrie saw it, she held up her hands like wanting nothing to do with it and said they were starting a lost+found on stage.
I think that’s all I have. It should be an awesome tour.
Here’s the setlist for Denver, Bluebird 11 Sept 2002.
Far Away
Oh!
#1 Must Have
O2
Remainder
Turn It On
Funeral Song
Prisstina
1BT
Youth Decay
Combat Rock
Burn, Don’t Freeze
Light-Rail Coyote
Get Up
Sympathy
YNRNRF
Hollywood Ending
Step Aside
——–
CTD
DMO
Private Idaho
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