I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: January 11, 2019] Guster

Guster has a new album coming out this month.  And as part of their tour, they are coming to the Philly Fillmore on S. and my wedding anniversary!  Obviously, we got tickets and plan to have a bizarre Anniversary celebration–no fancy meal, just music–and we hope we are acknowledged from the stage!

[UPDATE: This date, our anniversary show, has been postponed!  Why?  Because the band is going to be on Late Night with Seth Meyers instead.  We love Seth, so if anyone is going to ruin our anniversary plans we’re glad it’s him.  It turns out that the rescheduled date is going to be a 20th anniversary show of Lost and Gone Forever, which means two full sets of Guster.  I think we made out ahead.  Thanks Seth].

I have never been to a Free at Noon show before.  They seem so awesome–a free concert from some amazing bands?  Sign me up!  The problem is that the venue, World Cafe Live, is 75 minutes from my work.  So, an hour show, two and a half hour driving…  that’s about a four-hour lunch.  Well, I had some personal time, so I used it and got myself and S. tickets for Free at Noon.  I didn’t think she’d be able to go and she didn’t think she could either, so I went by myself.

Parking was a lot harder to find during the day and it was very cold.  I never thought if I got there at 11:45 I’d have to wait online, but they were having some kind of technical difficulties and they kept everyone outside.  I specifically took off my sweater in the car figuring the venue wold be roasting, so I was pretty chilly waiting out there.  By five to 12, someone came around and told us that we wouldn’t miss anything.  And indeed, the free at noon started at 12:15 instead of noon.

I don’t know if this means they played one fewer song or if they normally stop around 12:45 or what.  But Guster played 8 songs in about 45 minutes.  They also played a not-broadcast encore.  So that was pretty cool, too.

Helen Leicht came out and introduced them, and even though I was pretty far back on line, I managed to get reasonably close to the stage (but not on camera).  I guess if you have free tickets, you don’t mind leaving early, as several people did in front of me, which let me get really close by the end.

I knew they’d be playing songs from the soon-to-be released album, and they started with “Hard Times.”  Ryan’s voice is crazy processed on this song.  It was a little disconcerting, especially since I hadn’t heard the song before.  And yet, it is totally Guster when the chorus comes around.  A nifty trick, that.

I assumed they’d play all new songs, so I was surprised when they played “Ramona” next, a nice chance for Adam to sing.  And there were no weird effects or anything on it.

Up next was “Mind Kontrol.”  They played this last time, but we didn’t know what it was.  I described then it as trippy and long and very cool.  It wasn’t especially long today–maybe a time crunch thing?  But it was still quite trippy with some great screaming from Ryan–they have really changed things up after 27 years as a band.  It also has a pretty scorching (for Guster) guitar solo.

Ryan told us that the album goes on a journey and is a bit dark but comes out positive in the end–we’re gonna get through this.

Guster is now officially a four piece now, with multi-instrumentalist Luke Reynolds playing bass and keys and guitars.  They also have a fifth guy, whose name I never catch.  He seems to be mostly a drummer for when Brian Rosenworcel is playing bongos.  He also plays keys, so in this one picture I have Reynolds on guitar and the mystery musician on keys

I couldn’t really get any good pictures of the Thundergod behind the kit (a big cymbal was in the way), but when he moved to the bongos he was visible (but often blurry).

Then it was back to old school songs with a wonderful “Manifest Destiny.”  Ryan was at the piano for this and I couldn’t see him at all, so that spot is great for Adam viewing.  I hadn’t thought about the lyrics when he started, but the line “How did everything get so fucked up?” is certainly not radio friendly and at the last second he switched it to ‘messed up’ and laughed.

They Ryan talked about the new album, thanked everyone for coming, gave someone in the front row the donut that was sitting on Ryan’s keyboard and played two new songs, “Terrified” and “Look Alive.”  Despitye the title, “Terrified” has a fun “nananananana” bridge and a great trumpet solo from Adam.  Ryan told us we’d all get through the dark part.

“Look Alive” is a little slower and darker than its title implies, but it’s got a great subtle chorus.   It has some great fuzzy keys and guitar.  He joked that they might need to work on the ending of that one. Some songs have a big baller ending and this one is kind of a “huh.”

Then they played the familiar wonderful riff of “Satellite” and everyone sang along.

I was curious about the new single, “Overexcited,” which Ryan sings with a fairly convincing British accent.  And in deed he did sing it with the accent live as well.  It works really well for the song which does kind of feel like an early Blur song (the first time I heard it I wasn’t even sure it was Ryan singing).

And then they were done.

I was surprised at how short it was, but I knew they were broadcasting and figured they had to end at a certain time.

They said goodbye, gave Helen a hug, and that was that.  Except that it wasn’t that, because Helen asked us if we wanted one more.  I have no idea if this is customary.  They came out and had a hard time setting up–apparently they have all kinds of new gadgets that they need to play around with.

A guy up front requested a song and Ryan had fun with him.  Are you sure that’s the song you want?  It’s a very good song, I like it too, but now its out here…. Did you make the right choice?  Plus, we’re setting up for a song already.

They played “I Spy” in a more stripped down style, it was very cool and once again, we all sang along.

I thought they might play more, but again, I don’t know how these things work.  However, they did say that the band would be signing stuff, so I left the room while everyone else was absorbed in an Eagles chant and I got on line.  I was kicking myself for not bring any CD booklet to sign. After fifteen or so minutes (eavesdropping on the hilarious people around me complaining about parking meters), Adam and Luke came out,.

The people in front of me said they were waiting for Ryan and Brain.  I would have loved to get signatures from them as well, but I did have to get back to work.  So I bought a pin (nothing else to write on! and had them sign that.  I got to chat a little bit about our anniversary show and they were polite in acknowledging my silliness–clearly that is why they cancelled the show for Seth.

Turns out the new show is going to be a 20th anniversary show of Lost and Gone Forever with two sets of Guster.   That’s pretty awesome.

And then I went back to my car.  I had a hell of a time getting out of the parking garage (one exit was blocked, the other was five floors up and hard to find.  And then I got back to work after a four-hour lunch break,

Not a bad way to spend a lunch, I will say, but I can’t imagine going back.  It would have to be someone very special.

	1/11/2019–Free at Noon	11/1/2018–White Eagle Hall
	Hard Times**	Long Night
	Ramona	Happier
	Mind Kontrol**	What You Call Love
	Manifest Destiny	I Spy (haven’t heard since 2004)
	Terrified**	Endlessly
	Look Alive**	Airport Song
	Satellite	Hello Mr. Sun (new)
	Overexcited**	Stay With Me Jesus
	encore	Doin’ It By Myself
	I Spy (not broadcast) acoustic	improv Levi’s bar mitzvah
		Come Downstairs and Say Hello
	** from the new album	Do You Love Me
		Rocketship (never before)
		Manifest Destiny
		Amsterdam (not since 2004)
		Ruby Falls
		Ramona
		Satellite
		Barrel of a Gun
		improv-“False encore” song
		This Could All be Yours
		“encore”
		Mind Kontrol (new)
		Two Points for Honesty
		Demons
		2nd encore
		Jesus on the Radio (acoustic, no mics)

 

6/16/2016–Fillmore	11/21/2015–Wellmont	4/24/2015–TLA
What You Wish For	Ramona	Demons
Satellite	Satellite	Center of Attention
Doin’ It By Myself	Simple Machine	Doin’ It By Myself
Barrel of a Gun	Happier	The Beginning of the End
Ramona	Hercules	Ramona
Never Coming Down	Careful/”Chariots of Fire”	Gangway
Architects & Engineers	Doin’ It By Myself	Endlessly
Lightning Rod	Captain	Stay with Me Jesus
Come Downstairs and Say Hello	Kid Dreams	Come Downstairs and Say Hello
Do You Love Me	Homecoming King	Do You Love Me
Dear Valentine	Come Downstairs and Say Hello	(Everything I Do) I Do It for You
That’s No Way to Get to Heaven	Do You Love Me	Hang On
Red Oyster Cult	Never Coming Down	Lazy Love
Mona Lisa	Demons	Hercules (with Kishi Bashi)
Manifest Destiny	Two Points for Honesty	Satellite (with Kishi Bashi)
Simple Machine	Happy Frappy	Simple Machine
Airport Song	Ruby Falls	Never Coming Down
Kid Dreams	Lazy Love	Two Points for Honesty
Demons	Barrel of a Gun	Diane
This Could All Be Yours	This Could All Be Yours	Careful
encore “Improv”	“encore” (“Zombie Jews”)	This Could All Be Yours
Long Night	Long Night	“encore”
Bad Bad World	One Man Wrecking Machine	Long Night
What You Call Love	Manifest Destiny	Manifest Destiny
Fa Fa	Airport Song	What You Call Love
encore “boooo”	Careless Whisper	Happier
Jesus on the Radio

 

	7/20/2013–PNC Bank Center	7/5/2004–Starland
	The Captain	Happier
	Architects & Engineers	I Spy
	Homecoming King	Airport Song
	Come Downstairs and Say Hello	Demons
	Do You Love Me	Amsterdam
	Airport Song	Come Downstairs and Say Hello
	Hang On	Barrel of a Gun
	Demons	Mona Lisa
	Satellite	Red Oyster Cult
	Barrel of a Gun (with Ed Robertson)	California Dreamin’
	This Could All Be Yours Someday	Fa Fa
		Jam (with Ben Folds)
		Backyard (with Ben Folds)
		All the Way Up to Heaven