July 25, 2002 - Harry's Music Nightspot, Northampton, MA
HENNING: Here is what someone posted on Masslive about last night's show: _______ 596. Tools for the Shed by Wilco, 7/25/02 23:29 ET ...will be the name of my School for the Dead tribute band. They deserve a tribute band, already. (I'm playing the role of the elusive yet ebullient Max Germer).. Sadly, I had to leave a tad early (and also unfortunately miss Lo-Fine) but SFTD put on a crisp, heartfelt and superb show tonight. Nice job fellas! It makes me proud to know I contributed to the cause by selling Henning the Dano (and now I have my beloved Tele). ________ I had a great time at the show. Yay. You guys all played perfectly. There was a really nice big crowd and I saw a lot of smiles out there through the smoke. Ken I would have to agree with all your highlights. One more that comes to mind is that crazy piano part that you play on the verses of "Pick a Gripe", it makes more sense each time I hear it and now I know that if I play the song solo I will miss that part. Also, I don't know how you did it, but the fast banjo-ish sound AND the strings on "Uncomfortable" at the same time. Awesome. Or did I just imagine that. It's hard for me to hear what you guys all are playing while I am singing and playing guitar but I heard a few beauties from Tony. Did the rest of you know that Tony rocked so hard that his shoe fell off at one point? Brian, I am really glad that we have "Omnivore" in the set because I still get to hear you freak out on the drums. And Max, that Paul McCartney bassline in "Candy Cane" is so excellent. Speaking of Max, this morning Lesa told me that I never introduced you to the crowd. Is that true? I'm sorry. I had an idea that at each show when we went on the stage that I would introduce everyone to the crowd right a way. You know, like "Hello there, crowd, this is Ken here and right here is Max..etc" I wouldn't actually say "etc."...or would I? Anyway I think it might be nice and polite. It was great to see the Connecticut girls there as well as other friends, Zeke, Dan, Ed, Jim, Lesa, Mark, George, Adam, Lori, Tim, Gabe, Andrea, Joe, Alexis, Peter, Trace, and a whole mess of others. And Lo Fine was beautiful as always. Harry's felt like a real music club didn't it? KEN: i am now smoke-flavored. but besides my burning eyes and screwed-up sinuses i am happy happy good show good show!! highlights for me: "soup of the moment," because it's always fun to play. the song has such a breezy feel, like a summer car ride with windows down, and i get to use my pseudo- ? and the Mysterians organ! (luckily it fits in the car) "pick a gripe," because of the crashing Eb sus 2 - Bb - G minor 7 accents after the first couple lines of the verse. it feels so good to play that, and to hear the whole band come rolling in at that point. and it's sort of an epic short pop song. and very unlike any of the other songs we play, i think. "day job" was inspired, especially MR. TONY WESTCOTT (applause, whistles) -- there were a couple times when brian and i found ourselves looking at each other, grinning uncontrollably over his little guitar diddle-ips and softshoes. "omnivore" because i got to play guitar! the song felt so much better to me. it's a guitar song, period. drums and wires! loud wires. and "where the hell is bill" was fun. short, sweet. the four-part harmonies sounded great from where i was, and i enjoyed playing the accordion, although, geez, everybody has it in for that instrument! i carry the accordion into harry's and don jokes, "uh, sorry, we don't allow that in here." and after the set, i bring the accordion out to my car and three baseball hat guys walking by joke, "hey, you got a license for that thing?" and when i strapped the accordion over my shoulders during the show, i had the feeling folks in the audience were snickering or closing their eyes and shaking their heads, saying, "oh man, not one of those." but accordion does not equal 'weird al' yankovic! dammit! i'm sure i'm just imagining all this anti-accordion attitude. hey, there were lots of people at the show! friends, standers, sitters, even a couple of dancers (!). and they didn't dance because we were playing a cover, either! so we need more shows! the torrington gang (nice to officially meet you!) asked when the next show was, and we don't got none. we gotta get some! having more steady experience playing as a group for an audience, i'm all for it. hey, maybe we could do one of those "artists in residence" thing at the iron horse, where we'd play every wednesday night for a month at 10 p.m. i'm sure they'd just jump at the chance for us to do that, right? why not, i ask you? i saw andy stochansky do that one week and there were possibly twenty people at the show, tops. well anyway, i'm excited to learn more new henningsongs. (are we still doing the practicing every monday night thing? starting monday? 6:30 - 8:30?) and i had a great time at the show. now if we could just cover "railway shoes"... BRIAN: Thanks, Harry's cast and crew for everyone being so nice and supportive. Yeah, I felt like I was leaving Hugo's last night. I think the A.C. was blowing smoke back at us, or it. too has taken up smoking (peer pressure!) I too thought Pick a Gripe sounded unexpectedly great. I had no clue how it would turn out. OK, gottsa go.. MAX: ME FIRST ME FIRST ME FIRST ME FIRST... Ok, I just wanted to say that tonight was a bundle of fun, thank you. TONY: Something to consider if you are a Harry's patron or if you conversely might be hesitant to see shows there (you sad, brokenhearted Baystate-lover): I discovered something special this night. We all know how quiet Lo Fine can be but from where I was sitting in the club on the plush couches and then later in the cluster of tables directly in front of the stage in between the columns, I tell you the sound is indeed very good, provided your immediate neighbors aren't making an obscene amount of noise (and no one was). But if you prefer to hang out by the bar and chat, you can do so without the volume of the band obliterating your conversation and best yet, whatever noise you make won't bother those up closer to the stage in the music zones who are intent on hearing the band clearly. The proverbial best of both worlds. The lion's share, if you will. This was a feature of The Baystate too but it was accomplished by separate rooms. You couldn't hang in the bar and check out the band at the same time. So this is better, don't you think? Kudos to Henning and Bruce Tull for making it possible. And a pat on my own back for whipping out a dang good set list. Things flowed well- there was a good balance of uptempo to downbeat songs, a good ratio of more well-known songs to new material. An overdue confession- as long as I have a hand in making the set lists, we will always play Candy Cane. I'm almost hesitant to admit that's my favorite Henning song ever. My rational aesthetics insist that he's written "better" songs (The Screen Door, Remind Yourself, Overs, etc.) that also kill me but Candy Cane is just perfect- it's both hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. The music, the words, the story, the emotion- it all works fabulously. Henning, I'll trade you "Rainy Day Grocery Shopping" for that one. And to make it even sweeter, the band is perfection on that song. Ken's organ intro and understated mood throughout (just the "sound" he uses on the keyboard colors the song nicely), Brian tempers the rhythm beautifully, something many rock drummers would be incapable of. Plus, as Hen already mentioned, Max's McCartneyesque bass flourishes are delicious and I also love the little riff I came up with for the end of the verses (Ken must, too, since he now plays it as well on the keys) and there's also a retarded beauty to playing those same three notes in the Eb chord over and over in the bridge, which should annoy people or at the very least induce uneasiness but what can I say- it's impressionistic the way it underscores the story- that Candy Cane is trudging home and it's a long process, repetitive yet fraught with the calmest of calamity at every intersection. All these words I've spouted and I still don't feel like I'm satisfied explaining how much I adore this piece of music. In other news, I agree with my bandmates that the new Pick A Gripe came out lovely and the Where The Hell Is Bill cover pleased one and all. Downsides? One Lady Dancing a bit of a mess. A few forgotten words by Henning, I'm not sure Ken's accordion was audible and the groove seemed to stumble and falter here and there. The there's my Omnivore dilemma. Everybody loves this song but I'm just not a fan. It's the black sheep in the set- we're nerd rockers for 40 minutes then all of a sudden we're a loud, blunt rock band. As Henning songs go, it's unchallenging, obvious, and undernourished. I know people like a shot of rock in the proceedings and I'm happy to oblige, especially if my bandmates and audience all appreciate but this one song doesn't do much for me. Henning's most impressive talents aren't tailor-made for this kind of song so it comes off as weaker compared to the rest of the songs. Just my opine, mind you. Nice to meet the Torrington crew- does that mean from the city in Connecticut or is this the sisters' surname? One last thing- I wore shorts onstage and caught hell for it. I guess I've seen too many hardcore punk performers to realize that this is frowned upon in the greater, more mainstream rock community. I'll pay the fine but I'm appealing the suspension.	Uncomfortable Soup Of The Moment Pick A Gripe Day Job 1,000 Times V-66 Sitcom Theme Candy Cane Where The Hell Is Bill? (Camper Van Beethoven cover) Kevin O'Rourke (Lofine) on vocals One Lady Dancing Everybody Loves Martha The Wichita Train Whistle Sings Omnivore