"Is it rayon or is it dust?"

I was lucky enough (thanks to the BeeV's well-timed ticket alert) to procure tix to Stephen Malkmus's show at Maxwell's Sunday night. So combined with his truncated set at the Plug Awards, I was in for a juicy SMalk sandwich, with a spicy little side of Deerhoof.

At 90 minutes, his Maxwell's set was twice as long as the award show set, and the song selection was a fecund mix of old, obscure and new. (He played the song with the Sheepshead Bay line both nights.) Pencil Rot was the opener.

Other personal highlights included Mama, Water and a Seat, Animal Midnight, Baby C'Mon, Dragonfly, Freeze the Saints and, finally, Do Not Feed the Oyster. Mmmm, fecund.

It was a swell time, but SMalk was a little subdued on account of being under the weather. His voice was pretty rough around the edges and at the set's end he informed the crowd that, "for those who haven't seen us in a while, this is not my new voice, not the new sound. I've got some kind of one day flu."

But that didn't stop him from shredding one bit, the trooper. Requests for Vanessa from Queens were met with, "We can play that later." Which, as it turns out, is not to be interpreted as "We will play that later."

There were also numerous requests for Shady Lane, which puzzles me. It's a nice little song, but to me there are plenty of SMalk tunes that are much more shout-out worthy. 1% of One? No More Shoes? Ramp of Death? Shave Your Mustache, Please?

At one point, at the barefoot bassist's request, they skipped ahead in the set list to rip through Baby C'Mon. That done, SMalk said, "Now we're going to go back in time..." Someone else in the band clarified that we were not literally going to go back in time, just back through the setlist.

SMalk: "No, we're going back in time to a song I wrote when I was 13!" And he proceeded to improvise a raging, hormone-driven solo, with repetitive lyrics about being psycho. (I think.) Had to be there?

A couple more close up photos of a skinny, sweaty, sickly mustached SMalk after the jump.

Comments

[Chris Marz]

excellent show last night at Maxwell's. It seems like whenever i'm over in Hoboken for a show, it's always freezing out, and last night was not exception. It was worth freezing for though, SM really jammed.

I left at the end of the set (had to drive back to LI, work today), where I thought he said he wasn't going to play anymore due to his voice being shot.

did they play any encores?

[Chris Marz]

excellent show last night at Maxwell's. It seems like whenever i'm over in Hoboken for a show, it's always freezing out, and last night was not exception. SM really jammed.

I left at the end of the set (had to drive back to LI, work today), where I thought he said he wasn't going to play anymore due to his voice being shot.

did they play any encores?

[Max Power]

There was an informal encore after half the band ran to the bathrooms. (SMalk sat down on stage during the break.) The last song of the night was (Do Not Feed) the Oyster.

[Chris Marz]

thanks Max.

nice blog. The Max Power simpsons episode is one of my favorites, I have it stored on my Tivo. favorite line:

Pony tail 90s liberal: Max Power, great name. We should do lunch. Do you like thai?
Homer: Sure, I like tie, you like shirt?