(photo by Steve Cohen)
These days, you never know when you're going to be lucky enough to see another Golden Smog show. After seeing them do a few outdoor appearances last summer, it didn't seem outside the realm of possibility that those outings might very well be the last GS shows for a long, long time.
Well, never count the Smoggers out. I never thought i'd see them in a venue as big as the Target Center in Mpls, or at an event as significant as an Obama rally. The fact that Tweedy was in the mix (not surprising since he's a longtime Obama supporter; indeed Obama singled him out for thanks in his opening comments) was just icing on the cake.
They played 6 songs in just under a half an hour to a nearly full house. They sounded surprisingly good considering the circumstances (just a couple of days advance notice) and looked like they were living a dream come true-- not too shabby considering they're all a bunch of grizzled "vets." It was also an appearance rich with irony -- they played to the biggest crowd that i know of for a GS show, yet the percentage of the audience that was familiar with their material was clearly at an all time low. Such is the strangeness that occurs when the worlds of music and politics collide.
Manning the Smog skins for this show was Greg "Wiz" Wieczorek from Joseph Arthur's band, who also was the drummer for the Smoggers at their 2007 appearances. Wiz and Kraigy flew in at the last minute for the gig, just like real rock stars.
Oh yeah, it wasn't that hard to get in, despite all the "sold out" warnings. There were plenty of tickets being given away by those with extras and the "no ticket line" was shockingly short an hour before the doors opened. Everybody in that line got in once it was clear that there was room for them; i saw a fair number of empty seats up in the rafters right before Obama's speech started. The moral of the story: if you stay at home for a "sold out" event, there's 0% chance of getting in.
Here's the 4-1-1:
Golden Smog
Barack Obama Rally
Feb. 2, 2008
Target Center - Minneapolis, MN
Looking Forward To Seeing You
Glad and Sorry
To Call My Own
Love and Mercy
Beautiful Mind
Until You Came Along
Songs on the setlist that weren't played:
I Can't Keep From Talking
Corvette
Easy to be Hard
What's So Funny 'bout Peace, Love and Understanding (performed at soundcheck)
Revolution Blues
Band:
Gary Louris
Kraig Johnson
Marc Perlman
Dan Murphy
Jeff Tweedy
and
Greg Wiz on drums
The boys were originally slated for 45 minutes, but that got cut back. They were "hooked" right after UYCA which really sucked since the Nick Lowe and Neil covers were up next. How cool -- and appropriate -- would it have been to hear either/both of those in such a surreal setting?
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