A real emotional trip.
Short story about a trip to see Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks.
First of all three notes:
- I do consider Stephen Malkmus god-like. I love Pavement and & The Jicks and all the other projects he was in.
- I do love all the work with The Jicks at the same level than Pavement.
- Sorry for my shitty english, i’m getting better every day ☺
The story:
I don’t have much money and i work on an area that wont ever have much money (culture). I knew that Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks (from now on, SM&TJ) were on a tour in Europe and i thought that was my chance to see them on an indoor venue (they were in my country, Portugal, some years ago but that was on an outdoor festival in Porto and with very few time to perform, so that sucks). I saved some money and decided to go to Frankfurt because that was the only opportunity where i could travel (because of my work). I did scheduled 4 days to go to the show and visit the town (first time in there).
Weeks before the show, i was daily following setlist.fm for the setlists of the shows and i just loved them. Great setlists, with all my favorite songs (Real Emotional Trash, Animal Midnight, Chartjunk, J Smov, 1% of One, etc).
I arrived to Frankfurt and visited some touristic places and some other local places like ciderhouses, traditional restaurants, etc. Very busy city. Financial one. The birth city of Euro (coin) others may say. I had spent a lot of money on food and drinks, life is kinda expensive in Frankfurt.
On the day of the show, it was raining and was a very cold day. I was too excited and got there two hours before. Waited till venue open (btw, it was Zoom, small spot but very comfy) and then got in there to drink some beers (Becks, a beer i hate). Was talking with some friends about SM&TJ and how they are as good as Pavement. Different moods, but really good ones and i was telling my friends that Real Emotional Trash album changed the view how i look at life. The concert started with The Megaphonic Thrift, they did a really nice show, i’m really looking forward to listen more songs of them. Then the wait. Stephen Malkmus was the only artist from my favorite ones, i never saw live (i saw Neil Young, Radiohead and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds), so Sephen Malkmus was the last one of my top four.
Finally SM&TJ got on stage and the show began. Here it’s the setlist:
Tune Grief
Cinnamon and Lesbians
The Hook
Planetary Motion
Lariat
Jenny and the Ess-Dog
Asking Price
Stick Figures in Love
Rumble At The Rainbo
Shibboleth
Senator
Spazz
J Smoov
Houston Hades
Church on White
Forever 28
Encore:
Touch Of Grey
(Grateful Dead cover)
Father to a Sister of a Thought
(Pavement cover)
You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
(Bachman-Turner Overdrive cover)
Come Out and Play (Keep ‘Em Separated)
(The Offspring cover)
More Than a Feeling
(Boston cover)
Sweet Jane
(The Velvet Underground cover)
Say It Ain’t So
(Weezer cover)
Heaven Is a Truck
(Pavement cover)
Unfair
(Pavement cover)
Horse With No Name
(America cover)
Most of the songs were from Wig Out At Jagbags and Mirror Traffic, the last two albums and those were really good. Wig Out is my second favorite album after Real Emotional Trash which i consider a masterpiece at the same level than Wowee Zowee.
They didn’t played any of my favorite songs, but well i think that was bad luck i suppose. And i kinda was disappointed with the encore… i was looking for The Jicks songs, not Pavement or covers. Sure the encore was really great, Pavement “covers” were awesome, specially Father to a Sister of a Thought.
Stephen Malkmus played almost all the show with eyes closed (maybe shy because of the non-enthusiastic people watching the show, or most probably the lights) and Mike was too quiet, not usual in him. Joana seems the most active wich is really unusual. They did some jokes about the broken micro and the speaker near Stephen’s head. The guy is tall!
After the show i felt kinda bad. I wanted a different setlist. The one that they played on the show on the next day (Berlin) or the ones they played before in UK. Maybe they felt that people were not reacting to The Jicks songs and started to play some covers, i dont know.
But well, after all, i saw SM&TJ, the last of my top four. That will be a day to remember in all my life, a real emotional memory ☺
Thanks to you, Stephen, Mike, Joanna and Jake (and past members) for all the good moments (a lot of them!) i had and still have listening to your songs.
Here are some photos of the show:
