Lupos 12/29

[bear]

All I Saw Was You*
Even Rats
Airplane/Primitive
There's A Lie
First Panda in Space >
The Soft Machine
Words to a Little Song
I Hate Love**
The Original Blue Air >
Paper Birds
Moderate Threat >
Cowboy Up
The Weight of Solomon***
Let There be Horses
Sometime True to Nothing

E1: Baba O'Reilly
Children of December

E2: If One of Us Should Fall

* more rockin arrangement. I missed this, but I heard its not the a capella slow version any more. don't know if they've done this before or not.** w/ Birdland (Weather Report) tease by Brad *** w/ Brad on guitar. never heard this arrangement before either.

I'm not going to get crazy with the review because although the show was good, it was nothing special. Unfortunately, I'm one of the older fans who is getting sick of the same songs every show. Paper Birds was good and the Solomon was a treat. Other than that. standard issue slip rock show. this is why you will not be seeing me at any other NYE run shows. baba o'reilly was a perfect encore because the slip crowd is a teenage wasteland. people jumping around like idiots during december and no one even recognizing Solomon. I feel old. also, apparently Alsoa was one the setlist (tentatively) after december. but they bailed on it and played "if One of Us". Argh!

[Alsoa74]

Damn...I missed the second encore. I thought it was solid but I do see what you're saying about the same songs. I enjoyed it, especially after all the rowdy people I am sorry to say I know were kicked out. That was probably the worst crowd I've seen at a Slip show...only my 5th, but still. Oh well. I enjoyed it nonetheless.

[MATT]

I don't think that I can see The Slip at Lupos anymore which breaks my heart. After there was no love for Weight of Solomon, and I felt that the best place for me was in the back, I was frustrated. I loved the show, and I love their music, but felt distracted by the crowd at this show. The mix in the venue wasn't great either, I missed Sam at the board. Unfortunately, all of the Lupo's shows I've been too in the last 2-3 years have been this much of a letdown in terms of the vibe of the crowd. With all that said, I'm damn proud of the guys and hope they have the success that they deserve.

Bear, I wish you hadn't told me that about Alsoa.

[tyler]

One more vote for a lame crowd. But I found a nice spot way over on Brad's side, actually past Brad, near where there used to be couches (that's another thing--Lupos looked like a Home Depot last night). Front row, leaned on a wooden railing in the front with plenty of room, and had a good experience, except for the guy who was half-passed out next to me. The performance was fucking awesome, especially towards the end of the show, although the rocked-out All I Saw Was You was pretty mindblowing. And if there was one redeeming factor about the crowd, it was pretty awesome that the band was basically forced into that 2nd encore. So despite some negatives it was a good night overall. Wish I could make it to Noho but I'm broke, and so is my car. (I really like the first panda in space poster, too.)

One more thing: anyone else feel like Words to a Little Song is completely amazing? I hadn't heard it live until last night and it blew me away.

[francis]

i really want to hear words to a little song live. it feels like it would be rocking.

[Alsoa74]

ANd what'd you guys think of the Bon Savants and Meowskers? I enjoyed the Savants and have been checking out their stuff, but Meowskers soon got on my nerves. I'm not going to start bashing a band that I'm not familiar with, but I couldn't take the keyboardist. I enjoyed the first few songs, but after a little while they seemed pretty similar. Das just my opinion...

[harrymcq]

It was a good show! It started up kind of by the book but got increasingly more interesting. Weight Of Solomon was awesome, a more rock oriented interpretation of the song. All and all the crowd wasn't too bad although Andrew and then Brad chastised the crowd for some guy pushing up front. I am very psyched for New Years!!!!

[Dan]

haha that guy was not pushing his way up front, he was fighting another guy because that guy was trying to get with his girl... then The tall lanky guy was taken away and the guy with the beanie (not boyfriend) was with the girl haha

[gabe]

Meowskers rocks hard.

haha that guy was not pushing his way up front, ... and the guy with the beanie (not boyfriend) was with the girl haha

Basically, stupid shit.

[Alsoa74]

i know that kid, his girlfriend took about 3 rolls and drank half a handle of Mr. Boston's. She's a fucking idiot. Basically he was trying to keep her from getting kicked out because she was falling all over the place, they thought he was harrassing her, and he got the boot. Was the beanie kid wearing a black beanie with a bass clef on it? Did he look like an eskimo? Cause that was me.

[Dan]

then i was mistaken

-apologies

[harrymcq]

As far as the crowd goes I'm originally an east coaster but have lived in the Bay Area for the past 10 years. I've been seeing the Slip since '99 but only on the west coast until this Lupo's show so I have very little to compare it to but I really didn't have any personal complaints regarding the crowd. I have though seen tons of GD/Phish/post-GD and other east coast shows (MMW, SCI, Allmans etc.) both when I lived out East and after I headed west so I am used to east coast crowds. There were some drunk talkers and some folks with a bit too much energy but no one who really bothered me though I didn't really stray much forward from my taping rig.

On the whole people seemed pretty respectful to me and into the music. I did notice a fairly big response to Weight of Solomon. Personally, I was psyched and many others seemed really happy as well. The crowd did get a lot better and more synchronistic towards the end of the show. (which probably coincided to some degree with borderline/new fans leaving.)

As far as setlists and the 'new' (but not really new) rock sound I am a bit torn. On one hand I love their new material and they can really rock the house with it in a big way but I do wish on the whole that they would re-integrate the older material a bit more because there is so much good stuff in their back catalog and I personally love long crazed acid jazz jams.

They do seem to be keeping the old tunes alive to a certain extent which does make me happy and I can also totally understand that they want not only to promote the new record but that these are the songs they are really into at the moment. I also think if they had message boards in 1969 I'm sure deadheads would be complaining that they were playing Dark Star > St. Stephen > 11 > Lovelight every night and complaining that they had dropped Cream Puff War and Viola Lee Blues.

All in all though I really liked the Lupo's show a lot and feel that not EVERY show has to be a barn-burner though I did feel that they did get cookin' by the end for sure.

One thing I noticed was that Brad didn't try to climb anything during CoD which is just fine by me!

[Chris]

Hey Alsoa are you from Southboro, cuz I'm pretty sure said kid is my buddy based on what I've heard back here and on the board. It's too bad he got kicked out trying to keep shit in line, but then again I wasn't there to see it go down.

[Dan]

well
at one point he started just flailing around and yelling but that only happened once

[nathan q]

"folks with a bit too much energy"
that's a good one
seriously cowboy up solomon was some serious business, not textbook, not runofthemill. I had to sprint through the crowd to get to charlie when they started that.
And words to a little song.... not a great title, but what a tremendous song... I'd like to hear a little more bustout or technicality or something, but I was certainly rocked. Definitely my favorite new one.
I didn't think the sound was as great as it usually is at lupus. except they always nail the bass so it massages all your internal organs.
Contrarily, other than narrows, lupus might be my favorite place to see this band. And did you check out that hardwood floor? damn.