I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: April 4, 2018] Superchunk

I’ve been a fan of Superchunk for what seems like ever.  Their music is reliably punky and poppy.  Fun, sometimes funny, with clever lyrics and always a big hook.

I’ll admit that their music sounds pretty samey, but there is something to be said about that.  After they put out their 2001 album Here’s to Shutting Up, they didn’t exactly go on hiatus, they just kept a low profile for a half a dozen years or so, releasing limited edition records and such.  When they returned in 2007 I realized just how much I’d missed them.

When I saw that they were playing Philly I knew it was time to go see them.

It was really cool that the band was the (nearly) original members: Mac McCaughan of course, Jim Wilbur on guitar (he joined after their first album) and Jon Wurster on drums (he joined after the third album)–they’re both bonafides!  The only one missing was bassist Laura Ballance.  She plays on the albums but because of her hyperacusis, she no longer tours.  So, on bass we had Jason Narducy who has played with anybody who is anybody.

And man, were they a great and fun live band!  Narducy did some big high kicks and jumped around and Mac was bouncing around the stage like the kid who wrote their first single.  His voice sounded perfect and his guitar playing was great.

Because of large heads I couldn’t see guitarist Jim Wilbur all that well.  But I could hear his contributions.

Then there was Jon Wurster, legendary Philly based drummer (who has drummed with everyone as well).  I did not know that he also had a comedy career, which explains an awful lot.

Superchunk have some 16 albums out so that’s a lot of music to choose from.  Plus they have a new album out, and they were touring that.  Which meant that of the twenty songs they played almost half of them were from What a Time to Be Alive.  It’s a good thing the new album is great (and doesn’t sound all that different from their other albums).

They opened with four new songs and they ripped.  “I Got Cut” sounded great, “Reagan Youth” brought in that political edge and “What  Time to Be Alive” is simply a great soaring Superchunk song.

They went all the way back to their first album with “Sick to Move” and then to Shutting Up for “Art Class (Song for Yayoi Kusama)–which was quite a treat.

I imagine most die-hard fans like their early records On the Mouth and No Pocky for Kitty, so there was “Package Thief” and “Seed Toss” for them.

Then it was back to the new album

Mac told us that they were going to play “Black Thread” from the new album for the first time.  It’s a mellow song but it sounded fantastic.  They followed it with rocking new one “Bad Choices.”

During one of these songs, there was a funny moment when Wurster’s bass drum came loose or something.  He tried to wave to Mac to stop so he could fix it but the band plugged on without drums for a verse.  He fixed what he ha to and then he joined in right on time to much applause from the audience.

Allison Crutchfield came out to sing a duet on “Erasure.”(her sister Katie sings on the album).  She sounded great, but as they started the song Narducy had some kind of minor malfunction they joked that Wurster handled it much more professionally.

It was followed by the excellent new song “Break the Glass” and the older song “Driveway to Driveway.”

I had initially gotten into Superchunk Here’s Where the Stings Come In, so I love their late 90s’ output the most,  “Hyper Enough” is one of my favorite songs.  They played “Detroit Has a Skyline” from that album instead.  It wasn’t as great, but it was still great.

I had kind of missed their previous album I Hate Music when it came out but I really liked the single “Me & You & Jackie Mittoo” so I was glad that they played that as the only song from Hate.

I don’t know if they always play “Slack Motherfucker,” but, man, I was really hoping they would. As were most of the audience.  So when the song started we all went  pretty wild and we made sure to sing along.

I’ve noticed that during the encore a lot of people have taken to changing “one more song,” which I think is selling yourselves short because some bands will do more than one song.  Like Superchunk, who did four encores.

“Learned to Surf” is a fun song from their 2007 comeback album and was great to hear.  It was followed by the rather dark “Cloud of Hate” which was great live.

They played a cover of Sebadoh’s “Brand New Love” (which they had done years ago on their compilation album Tossing Seeds).  It was followed by another song from Seeds.

Allsison Cructhfield came out to play guitar and sing on the manic insanity of “Fishin.”

It was heavy and rocking and midway through the song Mac stepped behind the drums and he–seamlessly I might add–switched placed with Wurster.  That was a very cool thing to see.

The crowd had earlier called out for th ePhilly local and he was ready to be a front man for a bit.  The band kept playing the same simple heavy riff while Wurster did his thing.

He sang a couple local songs including this blistering take on The Dead Milkmen’s “Punk Rock Girl.”

He had been jumping around so much that by the time the song was over, he had collapsed on the floor and said something about taking the train to Paoli.

The whole set was energetic and a lot of fun.  A few younger fans tried to get a mosh pit going but the average age of the guys up front (like me) was perhaps too old for that (even if Mac was pogoing like a young punk).  For twenty songs they didn’t really play that long–maybe 90 minutes.  But it was a full show and very satisfying.

SETLIST

1. I Got Cut
2. Reagan Youth
3. Lost My Brain
4. What a Time to Be Alive
5. Sick to Move
6. Art Class (Song for Yayoi Kusama)
7. Package Thief
8. Black Thread
9. Bad Choices
10. Seed Toss
11. Erasure (with Allison Crutchfield)
12. Break the Glass
13. Driveway to Driveway
14. Detroit Has a Skyline
15. Me & You & Jackie Mittoo
16. Slack Motherfucker
17. encore
18. Learned to Surf
19. Cloud of Hate
20. Brand New Love (Sebadoh cover)
21. Fishing