I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: March 9, 2018] Nada Surf

Nada Surf has been on my bands-to-see-live list for some time.   Matthew Caws the lead singer and primary songwriter had played a solo gig nearby recently, but I wanted to see the whole band.  So I was really excited to see that they were going to play An Evening, which always means “no opener.”  I love a good opening band, but if I can see twice as much of a headliner, well, that’s even better!

And this was going to be a celebration of their album Let Go.  This was the fifteenth anniversary of this, their third album, and it was going to be played in its entirety.  Which is  great since pretty much the whole album is terrific.

Nada Surf has a fascinating history.  They were huge with their sorta-novelty hit “Popular.”  When they put out their second album, The Proximity Effect, the label thought there were no hits, so the band was dropped.  The guys went to France (Matthew Caws and bassist Daniel Lorca initially met at The Lycée Français de New York (The French High School of New York) a private, independent bilingual French school and also spent time in Belgium and France as kids).  The album was released and well received.  They eventually self-released it back home.

Then they released Let Go in Europe and the U.S. (with different track listings).  Caws thanked Barsuk for releasing the album basically sight-unseen back in 2002.

And the entire first set was the album front to back.

I had never been to World Cafe Live before.

It is a gorgeous venue. The sound is amazing.  It is warm and welcoming.  The only problem for me is that on a Friday night it is a pain in the ass to get to.  The traffic on the main roads coming into Philly is a nightmare.  When I got to the venue, there was a surprisingly long line to get to the place.  I had will call tickets but didn’t know where to get them, so I waited on the line only to be told I had to go back up to the counter.  Then I waited on the line again and just as I walked in, they started playing “Blizzard of ’77”

It sounded great, an all acoustic set up.  But I couldn’t find a good place to stand during the song because people were all crowded around in bunches.

By the end of the song I found my spot on the right side of the crowd and prepared for the rest of the album.

It was tremendous.  The band sounded great.  They recently (like six years ago) added Doug Gillard from Guided By Voices to the band.  They’ve been a four piece ever since.  Gillard was like a vampire–I couldn’t get a good picture of him all night, although I did get him in a video for “The Way You Wear Your Head.”

They also had a keyboardist with them whose name I didn’t catch. I gather he doesn’t play with them all that much so this was an extra treat (he’s behind Daniel below).

There are so many good songs on this album.  It was great hearing how spot on they sounded singing “Happy Kid” and “Inside of Love.”   Caws told a brief story before nearly each one.  Like how Fruit Fly” was absolutely true and was written in about five minutes.  How “Blonde on Blonde” was kind of a tribute to the discman.

It was really cool when Daniel sang “Là Pour Ça.”  (That’s when Matthew explained that they met at French school).  His voice is so different I don’t know how I didn’t realize it was someone else singing on the record.

I also realized that I don’t really know the final two songs all that well.  I wonder why, since I love the rest of the disc.

The crowd was a little irritating in that the guy in front of me was a left/right dancer so he was constantly moving in and out of my view.  And there were a few loud drunk idiots near me.  But the sound was great and the view for the most part was excellent.

And then they left for intermission.  And half of the audience left for the bar.  Which meant I got to get really close for set 2.

Set two was eighteen songs and since they didn’t play any from Let Go, it was like a greatest songs pick-list from their other albums.

I was right in front of Daniel for the set (It amused me that at times he looked like Bill Murray) and pretty close to Matthew.

They played the majority of songs from 2005’s The Weight is a Gift.  I hadn’t really thought about which songs they might play (turns out that I love Lucky more than WiaG, but just by a little).  But the songs sounded great.  And it was really cool to be up close for this set where I could really see the intricate bass work that Daniel added to these songs.

But the songs would be nothing without Matthew.  And he voice sounded great.  I was psyched to have the come out and play “Imaginary Friends.”  and then “Teenage Dreams” (one of two songs from 2012’s The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy.)  Then back to Weight for “What is Your Secret.”

Most of the songs’ names are obvious, but I didn’t know that the great rocker with the chorus, “Whatever I do… the radio took me the radio radio made me / What can I do… but dream” was called “Cold to See Clear.”  It was one of two songs from their latest album.   I thought they might play more from it, but I assume they did that on the last tour, so it was fun to mix it up more.

I didn’t get too many pictures of drummer Ira Elliot, but I love thee video of him and Matthew playing “No Snow on the Mountain.”  I was really psyched that they played “Your Legs Grow,” a sweet ballad.  I really enjoyed his explanation of the song too–he imagined someone in the water, possibly drowning whose legs grew to reach the bottom when they were able to walk out.

Then they turned up the rocking a bit with “Dispossessed” and then back to Weight for “Do It Again” (with its interesting bassline).

A few songs from the end I saw Ira Elliot break a drum stick.  He tried to snap it in half but couldn’t and I watched as he hit it off of his cymbal and let it fly into the audience a few people to the left of me.  They had no idea what happened and I knew I had no chance of grabbing it as I watched them confusedly figure out what had fallen at their feet.  Rats!

Caws joked that they were going to play the entire Let Go album which included the bonus track on the European edition, “No Quick Fix” (which I’d never heard).

For a poppy, almost sweet band, when Caws goes on the offensive, he can be quite harsh.  “Firecracker” has an intense high-pitched riff that opens the song and then a relentlessly intense verse.  But there’s also the intensity of lyrics masked by a poppy song.  Like “Robot” with its bouncy chorus

You are just a robot / Executing a program / You are just a robot / An imitation of a man

Which hides this really dark verse:

She said to me / As she turned on the light
“There’s something you don’t know / That keeps me from feeling right
I once knew a guy, I’d seen him around / He knew all my friends, he came from town

One night at a party, we both were there / He followed me into the bathroom, he grabbed my hair”
And she said “I still remember / Just how the floor felt / And how my head would hit the tub.”

Now where is that robot / Is he alive or is he done? / Does he breathe air that I breathe? / Is he kept warm by the same sun?

They even played two songs from their debut High/Low.  “Stalemate” sounded great.  They’ve been merging that song with Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” since like 2004, and it works well.  They did it for us too, which was pretty cool.

Caws said that they had recorded their covers album back in 2010 and that for this tour, they had arranged for bands to cover their album Let Go. They thought it was really audacious to ask people to do that, and for fans to buy it.  But “Standing at the Gates: The Songs of Nada Surf’s Let Go” is a charity album benefitting the ACLU and The Pablove Foundation (which helps children with cancer).  See the great list of artists on it and order it here.

Then they played one of my favorite deep cuts.  “The Fox” is about Fox News, as well as being an allegory about foxes.  Lyrically it’s really clever, but I can’t get enough of the music of the song.  I love the creepy opening picked notes and the way the bass seems to sort of wander in playing all kinds of weird notes that just work perfectly.  I loved watching Daniel play it.

Caws said that he didn’t want anyone to think that professional help was a bad thing.  It just wasn’t the right thing for him.  A fascinating introduction to “Amateur.”  They ended the set with the gorgeous song “See These Bones,” an encouragement for getting out there and living life:

Look alive, see these bones
What you are now, we were once
Just like we are, you’ll be dust
And just like we are, permanent

Then they left for an encore break.  When they came back they launched into a really fast punky version of “Popular” and then followed it with their sweetest song, “Always Love.”

Always Love, Hate will get you every time
Always Love, Even when you wanna fight

And then ended the song with the most cathartic sing along ever:

Oh, fuck it / I’m gonna have a party

from Weight’s “Blankest Year.”

It was such a great show.  And then afterwards, Matthew said he’d hang around and sign autographs and such.  He was super friendly, talking to everyone who came by.  He signed their (gorgeous) poster for me.  And I told him that when my kids were little we loved listening to their children’s song “Meow Meow Lullaby.”  He said they do actually play it and they love to get the whole audience to meow along with them.   I told him if they had done it I would have freaked out in excitement.  But that the show was fantastic regardless.

I took a picture of him meeting a fan.  I have no idea who the woman is, but it’s a nice picture if she ever sees it.

 

Set One

1. “Blizzard of ’77”
2. “Happy Kid”
3. “Inside of Love”
4. “Fruit Fly”
5. “Blonde on Blonde”
6. “Hi-Speed Soul”
7. “Killian’s Red“
8. “The Way You Wear Your Head”
9. “Neither Heaven nor Space”
10. “Là Pour Ça”
11. “Treading Water”
12. “Paper Boats”

Set 2

1. Imaginary Friends   [WiaG]
2. Teenage Dreams [Stars]
3. What Is Your Secret?   [WiaG]
4. Cold To See Clear [YKWYA]
5. No Snow on the Mountain  [Stars]
6. Out of the Dark [YKWYA]
7. Your Legs Grow   [WiaG]
8. Dispossession  [TPE]
9. Do It Again   [WiaG]
10. No Quick Fix [European version of Let Go]
11. Firecracker  [TPE]
12. Robot  [TPE]
13. Stalemate / Love Will Tear Us Apart [H/L]/(Joy Division cover)
14. The Fox  [*L]
15. Amateur  [TPE]
16. See These Bones  [*L]

Encore

1. Popular [H/L]
2. Always Love   [WiaG]
3. Blankest Year    [WiaG]

[H/L] = High/Low, 1996; [TPE] = The Proximity Effect, 1998; Let Go, 2002; [WiaG] = The Weight is a Gift, 2005; [*L] = Lucky, 2008; [Stars] = The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, 2012; [YKWYA] = You Know Who You Are, 2016.