Slip + Marco Trio - Jan 2 at Sullivan Hall

[KLUE]

i saw three set of mics

[BrentW]

How was Marco's set with Billy Martin? I am anxious to hear that one as well. Billy is incredible, my favorite drummer out there by far.

[harrymcq]

Here is an updated setlist thanks to nyctaper! He said that he would have the show up on his site most likely later tonight....

Set I
Aurora
Broke The Promised Land
Gaunt Debutante
Give The Devil Back His Heart
If You Knew
The Soft Machine
All I Saw Was You
Happy Snails (with Mike Ibell)
Children of December

Set II
Paper Birds
Motherwolf (with Marco)
Airplane/Primitive
Wolof
Suffocation Keep

E1:
Let There Be Horses
E2:
Pass it On
Heartbreaker (with Marco)

[harrymcq]

It is up on nyctaper! Check it out... they sound great!!!!

http://www.nyctaper.com/?p=2260

[lucasdavidsamuels]

listening now...god damn that Gaunt Debutante is hot

[harrymcq]

Been listening to this one... The guys sound great! (though the crowd is rather chatty...)

A few thoughts....

Aurora - I am guessing a new tune? Nice mellow little instrumental.

So good to hear Broke The Promised Land, Gaunt Debutante, Let There Be Horses and All I Saw was You back in the mix!!! I feel that in their limited outings 2008 and 2009 they were totally ignoring this material in favor of the Eisenhower stuff. If you add the new stuff like Give The Devil, England, and Motherwolf they really have an album already in the can. I hope they get something out even if it is self-released. The Slip have an unfortunate tendency in my book to leave some of their best material unrecorded and/or unreleased.

Also what is up with If You Knew - is it the new Davis/Slip crossover tune like Poor Boy or I Hate Love? I wouldn't mind, it is a good tune.

I noticed that Brad sings the vocal on Motherwolf in a much different way, he has dropped some of the falsetto. Sounds good.

I also like the return to the original arrangement of Pass it on. Not a huge fan of the fast 2008 version.

Also - no Even Rats! When was the last time that happened... I mean I like the tune but I felt for a while we were getting that every set they did. I guess they played the requisite CoD, Soft Machine and Airplane/Primitive...

Here's to hoping the guys get a recording out and plan lots of tour dates for 2010! I have been missing The Slip...

[johnhk4]

hi all --

i was at this show over the weekend so here's my little take on things. This was a pretty cool space for the slip, I felt, since it was a bit smaller and they were more or less at crowd level. Not exactly a coffeehouse feel but certainly more intimate than a stage at a music festival. It started WAY late, at midnight. I was surprised that there was such a huge turnout that seemed intent on only seeing Marco. That's great for him, but kinda weird to see people leaving before the headliner. I wanted to say "wait wait wait." I don't think people there really knew of the connections between all these musicians, particularly Marco + the Slip... and that Marco would (obviously to us) join the Slip later. So I was a little bummed about that.

The instrumental to kick things off was kind of old school. I thought they were going to speed it up into Airplane, or that Andrew would just start up the Rats that are Even. BUT, they went elsewhere, which was cool. Two medium length sets with 2 encores followed. I made it to the middle of suffocation sleep and had to go crash.

I've always felt one of the least discussed / underrated slip shows is 3-21-2007. So I was glad that BAM went the direction of that show in terms of the setlist. Gaunt debutante, Crazy One, All I saw, and a few Eisenhowers in there. If someone has that show around (its only on my iPod) to share, I encourage people to check it out!!

I give the boys a lot of credit. They haven't really played as 'The Slip' much in the last few years. To be blunt, a few of the songs had some snags and dead space. BUT, they all seemed excited about being there and getting the magic going again. The second set was hugely more magical than the first, IMHO. It was as if they were waking up from a deep sleep. Or maybe warming up for a long tour?!!? Excitement!!

Brad officially has 'the bends'. I really thought that guitar was going to snap in half a few times. The solos were really bluesy and rocked out, with a lot of bends and some tapping too. However, on Fuji, when the ES-175 made a (triumphant and iconic) return (literally someone in the crowd was yelling "yeah, GIBSON!"), the licks were a lot jazzier and swingy. Wolof was hot, hot, hot... and although usually a vocal stretch, landlord/paper birds sounded fantastic from where I was standing... and the crowd hanging on to and singing with every note was a welcome surprise. Crowd was also right with Brad on Airplane/Prim. and really into it. If the slip can captivate the NYU crowd, popularity is inevitable, no? What's new, the slip on pitchfork.com?? alongside "Major Lazer" and "xx"? hipsters. slipsters. One can only hope. Maybe they should ironically change their name to "The the Slip".

Andrew was sounding Bonham-y, and I felt that he was trying to keep things moving a few times. He really was the rock that show... so fast but so heavy too. A few times he looked at Brad as if to say: "let's do this, bro!" and do this they would. Happy snails -- whoa! hello happy snails. Andrew was pretty flawless on his PVC pipe contraption... just seeing it out there on stage made me reallllly happy. The guy that came up to drum (I've seen him around before and play with Meowskers at the Narrows) was really good too.

Marc had a new guitar/bass or tenor guitar or something. It was surfshop looking and had a single lipstick pickup. it sounded pretty meaty. No fretless to be seen anywhere . Airplane/Primitive was a highlight for Marc, I thought, and his work (mastery) of that floor keyboard in general is just mind-blowing. Another highlight for Marc was doing the little bass fills on Landlord. Marc also has the best staredowns of crowd members ever.

Marco joined in on a few towards the end. I wish he had told some of his fans earlier to stick around since he might come out with the Slip, or something to that effect.

So in all one has to take away from this the sense of BAM shaking off the dust of this material. One of the really new ones ("Devil back" or D'Gary"?) has kind of a syncopated drum loop that must have been misfiring or maybe Brad couldn't hear it, I wish they had just cut the loop. It was a rough start but it was a start and they had certainly warmed up by the end of the show. I personally felt like after Wolof they gained a bit of swagger to the end of the set. The crowd was loving Brad's announcement of working on a new album in BK. Random person: "Yeahhh Greenpoint!!!". That person later checked stereogum for information on the Decemberists.

oh! Before I go off and pretend not to be a hipster, I have to say "Crazy One", "Airplane", "Landlord", "Wolof", and "Motherwolf" were highlights. "Gaunt debutante" is shaping up to be a monster song. I think it's one of their best in the post eisenhower era. Motherwolf is really great stuff too if you haven't had time to check it out. Brad's guitar is in the open C tuning a la "song" and "portrait of a scientist" but the tune is kind of rocky and funky... very cool.

OK slip fans, signing out, hope you enjoyed my little blurb. I will be checking theslip.com with veracity to find tour dates for this year. I also want to say that I struck up conversations with people more so than usual at this show and a lot of us from the message boards are out there. "Oh, you're Ethan from sliplive.com!"... that sort of thing. I'm thinking name tags of your screen names at the next Boston / Brooklyn area show? It'd be fun!

cheers,
- John

[lucasdavidsamuels]

Motherwolf was interesting, Brad clearly was trying to reach for the falsetto but his voice was definitly too strained to hit the high notes, so he opted for singing it in a more grizzly manner, it worked out okay.

Gaunt Debutante was huge, Brad killed the solo and stretched it out nicely.
Loved hearing the oldschool Pass It On as Brad sings it quite well.

All in all, sweet show with hopefully more Slip shows to come. Hopefully some in Canada again...

[Phrazz]

Hey John,

Thanks for the wonderful review. I appreciate it even more because I could not make the show. I actually had to leave NYC in the morning on Sat. to undergo a grueling move (way too much stuff, and plumbing nightmares at the new place). I even planned to stay Sat. night, but the Fates messed with my dice rolls this time...but I know next time will be real soon from what I've read on NYCTaper's blog sounds like lots of Slip coming up for 2010. I'll give a listen when I get back online at home (can't d/l at work, at least not of any significant size).

Granted, Marco fans may have stayed for his sit-in, but there is SO much going in NYC on NYE weekend. I got invited to 3 other shows that night and for the whole weekend there was major "party collision"...as there are always in NYC on special occasions.

Great to see some oldies trickle in and the great new songs enter rotation...the wheel is turning (and you can't slow down!). When I get back online I'll add a 2010 tab and update SlipBase.

-Phrazzle Rock

[KLUE]

I was surprised that there was such a huge turnout that seemed intent on only seeing Marco.

Really, it ain't 2002 anymore. I was surprised BAM headlined in the first place. Also I didn't notice many people leave before set break. I was trying to get up front and had no luck at all.
I though they weren't shaking off dust but, coming at the song from the more rockin' (but still jammin') angle they've been coming from lately. Change can be nice. Even if it was rust I still dug it.

[bradm]

How was Marco's set with Billy Martin? I am anxious to hear that one as well. Billy is incredible, my favorite drummer out there by far.

http://www.archive.org/details/benevent ... 170.flac16

Aloha,
Brad

[bitchtits]

finally this is what sealed the deal for this show I just wish I could have made the short trip down state. Thanks for the link Marco's trio deal has had some of my favorite musicians cycle through including ROO! but ill tell ya something about billy's rhythm just sets me off this show is sick

[BrentW]

awesome, thanks Brad! Looking forward to checking this out.

[bear]

i like the "Moonlight Mile" quotes in the middle of Suffocation. wish they would do more of this