SlipLive

I believe this was the setlist, I'm sure somebody will edit this:

Intro (cumulus or landing teases) >
D'Gary
Even Rats (Sorry teases)
Get Me With Fuji
Motherwolf
Dear Melina
Airplane/Primitive
Paper Birds (with Man In The Mirror teases)
Suffocation Keep
New Tune
Wolof
The Soft Machine
If One Of Us Should Fall (with Marco Benevento on accordion)

Encore:
Weight Of Solomon
Children Of December
England

I think I have the order wrong a little bit but those were the songs played!

Thanks. Solomon! Just to try to nip it in the bud, Motherwolf is one word. I edited your post.

I just put up a show review on my website http://backin15mins.blogspot.com
There are some sweet pics in it and I'll have the video of Dear Melina up on their once it finishes uploading. Enjoy the read!

Wow similar setlists! Where is Ooh Belle, Broke the Promised Land, Life in Disguise, There's A Lie, Moderate Threat > Cowboy Up, Let There Be Horses, Gaunt Debutante, All I Saw Was You ?

I mean those aren't old esoteric chestnuts... I can see they want to get the material down after being a bit rusty and I am psyched to see things like Dear Melina and Vesuvius Fountains in the mix as well as the new stuff but I hope they start mixing it up a little bit...

think of it like this harry, Phish are well Phish, and they really didn't mix up the setlists THAT much
The Slip haven't "toured" in 2 years and the setlists are really not varying a whole lot, they are trying to nail the new songs and treat to some oldies like Wolof and Dear Melina
not that i wouldn't like to see the setlists mixed up a bit, but hey for the 1 show i saw, i couldn't have been happier
i should have requested a song when i was chatting with Brad before the show, well i'm an idiot

Yeah overall I am psyched that the Slip is back, if they wanted to play the same set every night and tell the same jokes I would still happily go. I also understand these are the 1st 3 shows back and they want to get it down as well... I just hope it starts getting mixed up more!

What I really want is some West coast show dates announced! I know I won't get my fix with just 2 High Sierra sets.

jealous! I really wanted a solomon in the paradise set list.

Nice review, Lucas!

CoD note: Brad crowd-surfed (the usual).

Harry...those other tunes they're saving for the West coast!

so is the weight of solomon is that the newer version played on the guitar or the old school version played on the Rhodes? (optimistically hoping it was on the rhodes)

The Bowery Ballroom show was excellent -- as good a Slip show as I've seen in years, dating back before their hiatus. (Thanks for the review Lucas!)

Fired up, having fun, tight-but-loose-in-the-pocket, in command of the material, and straight-up blowing-it-out for adoring fans after a two-year absence from the scene.

Our dozen-strong crew (multiple ten-year Slip vets to novices) of citizen-journalists was grinning ear-to-ear and tearing it up for the whole show.

(Re: Harry’s setlist issue: After a long hiatus, you know they’re working up a smaller list of songs to play VERY WELL. As this mini-tour moves forward, trust that they will bust out some of the old-school classics you want to hear, if not the super-rare esoteric tracks that few people other than us know. The Slip played the best Weight of Solomon I’ve heard in a decade Friday night. You will not be disappointed at HSMF.)

Let me get the bad news out of the way. I was disappointed that on a Friday night in NYC the band didn't garner a better turnout, though I can’t say I was surprised. Maybe 350 people showed up at a club that can hold double that. I know they’ve been on hiatus, but I live within walking distance of the venue, and I saw/heard no promotion.

So where is The Slip’s management? On Friday, a person close to the band told me The Slip currently doesn't have a manager. Pause.

I've worked in the management/booking/promotion business, and I can tell you this is not good. I have no inside knowledge. But if it’s true, I have no doubt that the band must be trying to address this issue if they plan on releasing another album or touring more widely.

Now, the good news. After witnessing Bowery -- and hearing Paradise -- I'm very pleased to report that as of July 1, 2009 The Slip sounds outstanding live: really working it out and grooving hard on recent and older material and prepping interesting new stuff. Crowd response has been fierce.

The band sounds and appears enthusiastic, engaged, forward-looking, and perhaps most important -- very, very sharp. During their long hiatus, The Slip clearly spent quite a bit of time practicing. This is really good news for Slip fans. This band sounds amazing right now. And it's only going to sound better.

In particular, Slip drummer Andrew Barr sounds as good as I've ever heard him -- dating back a decade. At Bowery, this percussion master displayed a blinding show of speed, virtuosity and soul, with an absolute command of his kit. Just incredible. Must be heard and seen to believed!

Marc and Brad are both practiced up and engaged as well. Marc is COMPLETELY dialed in -- even as he deliberately eschews the Lafaro/Pastorious-type melodic bass solos he once reeled off seemingly effortlessly. Brad is fully in the game and playing his ass off, and he sounds great.

I can only imagine this very special band is shopping its new record/tour, and I expect new management will come with that.

About Bowery: We loved the show -- and I think the tape will prove what an outstanding show it truly was. I won't do a song-by-song review, (other than to thank the band for playing Weight of Solomon very well), but suffice it to say the band sounded very enthusiastic and tight. Really on it: knowing the songs well and executing them well.

The key ingredients are here, then, for a Slip resurgence. But they’ll have to prove it on the road, as they always have. At Bowery, all three band-members appeared pumped up and smiling, and most importantly ENJOYING and even REVELING in playing these Slip songs together. The new songs are excellent. There is definitely a new album in here, if not two.

At the Bowery, I was impressed by how crisp the playing was -- much crisper than I expected after the hiatus and doubts about whether The Slip would continue to record and tour. By Brad’s own admission, The Slip has been taking a long break "hiding out" and "happily plotting our next thing." This band is on – or close to – its game.

But will the “next thing” be new Slip material and a tour, or a renamed version of Surprise Me Mr. Davis, the troubadour-rock quartet fronted by rising singer-songwriter (and my friend) Nathan Moore -- that Slip fans have enjoyed in recent years while their favorite band was on hiatus?

“Keep the faith,” Brad Barr sings, during a new song provisionally titled “England,” which is cropping up as a reliable encore during this mini-tour. Hard-core Slip partisans will certainly keep the faith. But how many new fans will the band attract if it changes format to a full-time quartet with a completely new name?

To me, The Slip is a better, more enjoyable band than SMMD, and I think The Slip should focus on building their own valuable brand, rather than messing around with other configurations.

You want to talk about Michael Jackson. The Slip is a national rock institution. It’s time the band -- and it's fans -- get serious about a new album and tour. Hire management, procure a record deal, cut a record, promote the hell out of it, and go on tour. We’ll be there, and we’ll bring our friends.

Ten years later, The Slip still has the right stuff. What’s really encouraging to me is that the band clearly believes it, too.
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Sam

I really like your outlook on the band but unfortunately I don't think there'll be any kind of big "refocusing" of the slip. I think we'll see mini tours and festival one-offs pop up from time to time. The fact is the Bowery sounded so good because they basically played the same show twice before that. I was at NoHo and it was rough, and the paradise was much better granted, but they obviously havent practiced any of the old stuff and just focused on the new. which is fine to push forward but with a band with such a huge repertoire it stinks that they only choose from about 20 songs to play these days. Wolofs and Fuji's are nice but I'm getting tired of those being the only instrumentals they play these days. not to mention playing the shit out of an album released almost 3 years ago (that they played the shit out of for 2 years before it was released). It just seems like a nostalgia act these days and not a cutting edge band.

A friend of mine ran in to Brad at dinner in boston a day before the NoHo show and during their convo brad said something like " we havent really practiced as a band in 2 years"...obviously they have but not with the excitement and intensity of yesteryears (is that a word?). I ran in to Brad outside of the iron horse and he asked which shows i was doing and i said only Noho and Paradise to which he quipped, "Bummer, well. hopefully we'll be warmed up by then" and the walked inside.

anywho, hopefully this mini tour rejuvenated them but I have to say, as someone who has seen them for 13 years now, this is the least exciting theyve been. It seems like they are just going through the motions. Granted the slip "going through the motions" is usually better than any other band.

I agree that the Slip engages me more than SMMD but they are absolutely focused on SMMD right now. With a new album, name change and random dates here on the horizon i feel like we are going to hear a LOT more SMMD before we hear a little more SLip.

Geez...I thought the band sounded great in NoHo. Maybe being right in front of Andrew's grill and being able to see the expressions on their faces had something to do with it. I loved all the new songs except "England", which I thought had a static groove that didn't go anywhere. Other than that, I thought the band was loose and in fine form. To me a rusty Slip was their set at last year's High Sierra.

I'm not sure the band is interested in maintaining themselves as a working entity and I'm not sure they could make a decent living if they did. Watching the crowds get smaller and smaller through each subsequent pass through NoHo was evidence enough that their drawing power was slipping (forgive the pun). Splitting time with Mr. Davis will probably be the order of the day for the mmediate futre.

Whatever guise they take, I'll keep coming out as long as I keep digging the music and the spirit that they bring to it.

I have to echo Bear's sentiments about the nostalgia act. Seems like five years or so now that I've been going to every show possible, or most of the few available to choose from, let's put it that way. In that five years, I haven't heard the real slip. They're more like a glimmer of their past complete domination.

That being said. I did really enjoy the Bowery show last friday. Sure the place wasn't packed to the gills, but it was full and bursting with energy. And the band delivered, especially with the new tunes. The old ones as well... you know, the comparisons to the Phish reunion tour are apt. Sure Phish has been varying their setlist to a higher degree. They're also full-out touring, and have "made it" so to speak, and obviously been practicing more. But their new songs can't hold a candle to the rest. That's sort of sad.

The slip, on the other hand, are just squarely focused on the creative process. That's where their time and energy seems to go: they're pretty prolific at writing fresh new material. What they don't seem to want to be is a cliche, highwire, Phish-inspired jamband.

And yet, that's sort of what they were (and thus are), and what their fans want and expect. The reason is because the more of your catalogue that you have mastered, the more power you have over the live music experience, and the more interesting the show's potential. This, as we all know, used to define the Present Pleasance of the Present Tense (auugh!! I can't even spell it anymore!?) Look, I'm all for them writing interesting new material. But the older stuff is GREAT. Not so much some of the newer songs, especially 90% of the post-eisenhower songs, imo.

I wish the boys would follow Sam no. 2 and Bear's advice and take a page out of Phish's playbook; relearn the old tunes! Rework them if they just don't feel fresh anymore. Milena and Solomon (and even even rats) are a glimmer of hope and a start, but they're a drop in the bucket compared to Ernie Mickey, Air of the Body, Alsoa, Flight of the Peruvian Dragon Fly, TEWDACYATM, and so many jazz standards, reggae tunes, poly-rhythmic rock ballads and amazing covers that we're all just dying to sing along too as well. (to name just a precious few). Even some of the old Davis tunes are getting neglected (before you were born, honey, rubber ball, Ambrosia Drunk, etc.)

I could be way off base with all this, but hey, just my 2 cents. Friday was great.

Yes, I wish they would do more shows and that those shows would be a bit longer and have more variation. They seem to have fallen into the Wilco/My Morning Jacket show model (though those bands tend to do slightly longer sets than the recent Slip sets) of playing a lot of the same material from night to night. It is a bit frustrating how many good songs they have that they never play. It's not that I want it to be all ancient jazzy stuff, I love the newer stuff which is harder rocking or more folky too. I don't want them to feel forced to regurgitate a bunch of stuff just to make the fans happy but there must be stuff in their back catalog which would vibe well with their current material.

Actually I mentioned Wilco earlier (have been really into them lately, just saw a sweet show of theirs at the Greek in Berkeley) and one of the cool things they did was go through all of their old albums in a series of shows in Chicago. Now considering The Slip has written far more songs that never made it on an album than ones that did get laid down in the studio they would really have to dip into material only performed live to get a true authentic experience. I'm sure the good geeks here could get together a roughly chronological list for them. I know they kind of did this NYE 2004 but that was just a smattering throughout the history. I would like to see a very thorough jaunt through the whole catalog over the course of a number of shows. Maybe they could even do the first ones in a jazz club and then move to a rock club for the later ones. Do it in Boston maybe, or San Francisco (lots of dedicated fans out here) or New York. It certainly would get them some good press and if they gave fans advance notice people could try to travel to the shows....

Oh I almost forgot why I came here in the first place - just was reading a good article on the Bowery show on jambase:

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/18656/T ... .26.09-NYC

And they mention that they played Yellow Medicine! That is big news (if it is true..) Anyone???