San
Francisco, CA - Slims - 7/29/2000
By Dan Trudell
My friend
and I arrived in the area at about 6p. We went to Wa Ha Ka to
meet listies, but we were a good hour earlier than I told everybody. I
would have stayed until 7, but I could only listen to the music for so
long, sorry to all the people who showed.
So after a good hour+
wait in line, the doors opened at 8p and We
deposited ourselves front & center on the stage. No Knife started out
strong, lulled, and then rocked a bit more. Then came SDRE.
The setlist was the
same as new orleans, I think:
Fool
Pillars
One
The Ocean
KBAA
G & VG
Snibe
ESTYA
Dissapear
TimH
J'nuh
-----
8
TRT
In Circles
After Fool, which truly
rocked btw, people were shouting out song
names. I thought I'd be cool and show how encyclopaedic my knowlege
was. I looked Jeremy square in the eye (he was 3 feet in front of me) and
shouted "Something I learned from X(Z?)eno", which I promptly remembered
he didn't sing on. How embarrassing for me. That didn't phase him,
though, because the rest of the show blew last years tour clear out of the
water. I had the best time last year, but Man, it was night and day. Dan
looked like the happiest man on earth. His brothers were there, and we
all cheered for them. There were times I was worried that if he jumped
any higher, he'd get stuck in the roof. The floor literally shook during
Tearing in my Heart. The last time my bones rattled that much, I was 20
yards from a supersonic jet taking off. Talk about moving songs, the
earth moved for them. SDRE is too much band for their equipment. Jeremy
broke a string on 8 (or was it j'nuh, I don't remember if it was
before/during the encore).
Okay, let's see...
I won't give any boring details about the crowd there or
my journey into the city. I went with my friends Matt, Chris, and Jonas. We
arrived at Slim's around five and just hung out. Said "Hi" to Jeremy,
Dawson, Adam the drum tech/percussionist, and one of the guys from No Knife.
Met a lister, John, from Redding, inquired what the hell he was doing
driving five hours down here. Went down to Wa Ha Ka and saw no list homies,
so retreated back to the venue after a quesadilla.
Hung around till eight
when the door opened, went in. Talked to Dawson, she
said the tour's going great, she's just started the fifth month of her
pregnancy, and they don't have a name yet. Bout The Rising Tide on gatefold
green vinyl, a sticker, the TSMAP tee, and a poster.
No Knife hit the stage,
and I must say, I was thoroughly impressed, a nice
Jawbox meets Jawbreaker sound, leaning more towards the 'box. I went and
bought their albums after seeing them. I don't know exactly what they played
or the order, but I do remember most of the stuff was off "Hit Man Dreams"
and "Fire in the City of Automatons," with songs like "Your
Albatross,"
"Charades," "Hit Man Dreams," "The Spy," and
they closed with "Mission
Control."
Sunny Day came on and
blew everyone away, because this was primarily a SDRE
gig and there were no bones about it. They played an excellent gig, Dan, as
always, was the happiest guy on the face of the earth, singing along,
dancing, smiling and jumping, he truly is what makes the live show so fun.
Jeremy was intense as always, going as high as he could several times. Will,
like usual, beat the shit out his drums and did it well. More guitars than
last tour, I'll say that. On the slower version of "8" Jeremy broke
a
string, "The Rising Tide" was damn groovy, "In Circles"
had cool intro
before the crowd erupted, but didn't have the extra live verse
unfortunately.
Umm... That's about
it. I give SDRE an A for "effort" and No Knife an A+ for
"ahh, hot damn that's good."