Last night, Mr. Royale and I went to see Australian band Tame Impala perform at a small club here in San Francisco. They focused on their 2010 album, Innerspeaker, which could probably be safely be described as “retro” a la 1967. The show was all out psychedelia: barefoot musicians, long-neglected hair, oscilloscope images morphing in time with the chords, large amounts of medicinal herb wafting around us. And Tame Impala are clearly old-school in their influences: Wikipedia lists, among them, Cream, Love, Blue Cheer, CSNY, Steppenwolf, Jefferson Airplane. So when it came time for the encores, I was expecting something in a similar vein. Instead, as the distinct bass line and rim shots were painted in, we got an amazing, full court press cover of Massive Attack‘s 1997, “Angel.” It was followed by another cover, which neither of us initially identified, but with a little research found to be Blue Boy‘s 1998 dance hit, “Remember Me.”
I’m used to encores or other performed covers being used to cite PREVIOUS musical influences: for example I can recall Grizzly Bear doing a cover of the 1962 Spector song, “He Hit Me (and It Felt Like a Kiss).” So what was with Tame Impala fast-forwarding 30 years to reference a more recent musical genre (although “trip-hop,” which could be seen as a bastard child of the earlier psychedelia, and “Remember Me” samples a ’60s single by Marlena Shaw)?
Have you had an experience of an unexpected encore? Did it make you change your mind about the band, for better or for worse?
I saw Van Morrison about 20 years ago at an outdoor show in St. Paul. It was a terrific moon lite night and Van was fantastic. Naturally, he played songs from his numerous albums. It just had this great vibe where it all fit together. Then he came out and played a one song encore. He sang “Send in the Clowns”? Weirder yet is that he sang it in very strange way that sounded over the top sarcastic. It almost felt like a f@ck off to the audience. It may not have been intended that way but after it ended he quickly walked off the stage. Show over. It left me and most everyone I noticed puzzled and kind of scratching their head. It also just was so weird and disconnected to the rest of the show that it kind of left me smiling in a “what the hell was that” kind of way.
It didn’t change my mind about the show or him really. Made it even more memorable in a way.
Man, underthefloat, I wish Morrison had done that song when I saw him live, also a little more than 20 years ago at an outdoor venue in Philadelphia. One of my as-yet-unfulfilled fantasies is to sing that song to a live audience, preferably dressed as Robert Goulet in a Canadian mountie uniform. Of course, I would then have to top it off with “To Dream the Impossible Dream.” Seriously, I love those songs for both good and bad reasons. I bet Van the Man was hip to this when he chose that number as his encore.
There was a dragging tempo, lousy sound-ridden Camper Van Beethoven show Hrrundi and I saw where he gave up and left after 2/3 of it, but I stayed to the end and got to hear the Buzzcocks’ Harmony In My Head kick my ass and redeem the entire show.
I know one of Mockcarr’s lasting memories is seeing Camper Van Beethoven rip into the Buzzcocks’ “Harmony In My Head” as an encore — a moment I would have loved to have seen.
For some reason this reminds me of a pre-show moment that I always thought kicked ass. Mike Watt, then touring behind fIREHOSE, clambered up on stage with his band at the old 9:30 club, as the hipster deejay spun “Toys In the Attic” by Aerosmith. Well, the whole band was up there, ready to play — and the audience was hootin’ and hollerin’. But the DJ kept that song spinning. Eventually, the song came to an end, Watt’s mic was finally turned on, and he growled an apology to the audience for making them wait. At the end of it, he shot daggers at the DJ, and said, incredulously: “…and they made you wait for fucking *Aerosmith*?!” The DJ was suitably cowed. Great moment in stage banter!
mockcarr’s moment reminds me of the time I saw The Feelies at Maxwell’s in the mid-’80s, at the relative height of their career. I waited through what seemed like 5 hours of mid-tempo, minor-key jams meant to make people who didn’t take drugs feel like they were on drugs to, thankfully, see them end the night with very spirited takes on The Beatles’ “It’s All Too Much” and Eno’s “Here Come the Warm Jets.” It was the most redeeming, surprising encore I’ve ever witnessed – surprising because it wasn’t a lifeless pool of suck, not because I wouldn’t have figured them for appreciators of weird Beatles songs and Brian Eno.
I haven’t experienced it live myself, but Richard Thompson has been known to blow people’s minds by fast forwarding versions of Prince’s Kiss and Britney Spears’ Oops I Did It Again in a solo with acoustic guitar setting.
I would pay to see you sing the song in that role! 🙂
I bet Van was safely much more hip to that then I or most at the show! It was almost surreal.
Another very memorable encore moment (and cover selection) for me is the first time I saw U2. Now, for you U2 haters, I also lost all interest in U2 and Bono since the 3rd or 4th album. That said, I did see them at First Ave. when they only had released “Boy”. You know, at the time, it was a terrific show.
Anyway, the group came out for the encore and Bono said something like “we’ve played all the songs on our album so we’d like to have someone from the audience lend a hand to the next song because I don’t know all the words”. Many arms go up in hopes of singing with the band (I’m thinking, oh no, this NEVER works). Anyway, this very large man gets hoisted up on stage and they do a cover of Neil Young’s “Southern Man”. It was mind blowing. The guy belted out this song like he was Meatloaf’s talented twin. He’d put his arm on his knee to belt out the notes but he just killed it. Then after he left the stage U2 sang “I will follow” for the second time in the night. Show over.
That’s a cool one!
Thanks Mod!
Interesting, I also saw U2 around that time, and they played I Will Follow twice as well. No Southern Man though, possibly because this was in the South.
Chris Whitley used to do “Some Candy Talkin” by Jesus & Mary Chain at his shows in the early 1990’s when he had only one CD out and was thought of as a southern blues artist. He even added this song to his 2nd CD.
Yeah, they seemed be one song short of an encore. Playing I Will Follow twice did work though, didn’t it?
Last thing about the big guy singing Southern Man…It seemed to even took the band by surprise and they seemed to really enjoy it. I don’t think anybody expected this guy’s powerful voice….
Wow, when was this? I’m a big fan of CVB and have seen them a few times, but don’t recall Harmony in My Head. Their regular covers are pretty interesting, too.
And Deerhunter, on their current tour, have been doing a cover of Scott Walker’s “30th Century Man.” Not a huge stretch for Mr. Cox, but an interesting choice.
Mr. Royale just shared that his experience of the weirdest choice of cover was when he saw Haircut 100 do an encore cover of War’s “Low Rider.” They performed it, and then came back on and did a second playing of “Favorite Shirt.” Really. Here’s proof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RwsjaqI9F8
That’s an especially good one by ladymiss’ example from last night. I wish I could think of such an example. It could be fun to see something like that.
Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum shared that dream. At one show he came out for the encore in sparkly jacket crooning “Rhinestone Cowboy”. Not particularly bad or good but definitely amusing.