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Lee Ranaldo at Fluc, Vienna - supported by Eric Arn.
How was it? I'd say absolutely wonderful, but I think I was able to record one or two decent videos on location and I might just upload them so you can judge for yourself.
Eric was great as usual, picking the chords with style and passion. The set was unfortunately cut short due to one of his strings breaking - something which in nothing short of comedic anticipation he actually saw coming and had commented upon moments before the mic picked it up very clearly. An unfortunate situation, but by that point, he had the crowd rooting hard for him. Great set with a soulful rendition of Jackson C. Frank's "Marcy's Song" and a little quip about this being Eric's trip for the time he's on stage. Well played.
Lee led into his set with his multi-layered composition "In Virus Times" and then went on to play songs off some of his more recent releases. Ever the storyteller, his anecdotes brought a lot of extra-meaning to his compositions. One of the things I admire a lot about his way of performing. Lee busted out a great cover of Lou Reed's "Ocean" as well. Having the crowd fully on his side, he opted to break with the tried and true pre-encore ritual of leaving, only to reappear on stage. Instead, he announced he'd be playing the two last tracks straight away - the cavern-like underground location was incredibly humid on an already pretty damn warm summer night. Perfectly valid reason to forgo the trope.
Great song choices by the resident DJ in between performances too, btw. Young Marble Giants, Suicide, Magazine, good stuff.
Got to talk to Lee for a little while after the performance too. Asked him whether the lyrics to "Paper Cup Exit" were a response to whole Post-9/11, Bush-admin atmosphere of fear and hypernationalism. He pretty much confirmed that it was born out of that Zeitgeist - with "Sonic Nurse" being the first album that actively tackled some of those themes, since "Murray Street" was mostly written beforehand (He also mentioned the situation the band had faced due to the recording studio just being two blocks away from Ground Zero). He also conveyed his intention of using the paper cup metaphor for something you want to grow out of - escape, if you will. And there was a bit of a sense that he may be interested in re-learning the chords to peform it during future gigs. But that was a spur-of-the moment kind of thing. Let's see if it'll happen. I'd love to hear that song live one day.
Really nice guy and an amazing concert.
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