I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 21, 2019] Swervedriver

Back in the 1990s, Swervedriver’s “Son of Mustang Ford” was one of my favorite songs.  I consistently put it on mix CDs at the time.  I still love it and it was the thought of hearing Swervedriver play it live that inspired me to check out this show (which I literally just found out about a few days ago).

The show was at Milkboy in Philadelphia.  I had never been to Milkboy before and really didn’t know much about it–except that it was pretty small.  It’s got a capacity of about 200.  The venue is upstairs from a bar, which looked quite nice.

I arrived early because I didn’t have a ticket (the ticket fee was over $8 for a $25 ticket!).  I arrived just after 7:30 and found a parking space right across the street from the venue (and did my worst driver’s side parallel parking job ever).  I actually couldn’t find the place at first and when I did, I wasn’t even sure which was the entrance.  So I wound up going in the wrong entrance and then having to ask where the band was (I could hear them upstairs).

The nice bartender pointed me the way and said they were running late.  It was actually Swervedriver still doing a soundcheck.  And the stairway to the venue was blocked by a chain.  The bartender said it wasn’t near sold out so not to worry about the ticket.

When the soundcheck was done, they opened the doors at a little after 8 and I went upstairs and was the first one in the venue… (!) [So much for an 8PM start time].

I didn’t know where to stand so I stood off to the side for the opening band, Milly.  The place was pretty empty but as it got closer to 9, it started to fill in.  Somewhat surprisingly, the band didn’t go until until 9:30 (Milly was off by 9).  I guess they needed a full 90 minutes to rest after the soundcheck.

The band came out and I realized that I had no idea what the guys looked like.  I actually thought that the roadie was one of the guys–same age, and who would have guessed that Swervedriver would have roadies?

There are two guys in the band who were there from the beginning: Adam Franklin, the lead vocalist and lead guitarist and Jimmy Hartridge, rhythm guitarist.  The band took a hiatus from 1999-2008 and then reunited and have made two new albums.

The bassist is their third bassist.  I looked at him and was sure he looked familiar–like the guy from Supergrass.  And indeed he is Mick Quinn, he’s been with them since 2016.

The drummer, Mikey Jones is their fourth drummer.  He’s been with them since 2011 and man was he good–pounding the hell out of the kit–I never realized how many fills Swervedriver songs have.

They came out to a recording of “Plan 7 Star Satellite 10” from their Ejector Seat Reservation album and then they jumped right into two new songs “Mary Winter” and “Drone Lover.”  The vocals were a little muffled and I decided I was too close, so I stepped back.  Fortunately it wasn’t packed and I was able to shift back about five or six feet where the vocals sounded much better.

I’ve found that typically if a show isn’t super crowded, people will tend to stand back from the stage.  But once we were getting closer to show time, everyone started inching forward.  I did the same, but wound up behind a couple of guys. My location wound up being not great because of the rather tall, shaggy-haired fellow who stood in front of center stage (he’s in all of my videos).  Initially I was trying to look between him and the other guy up front.  But by the middle of the show, the shaggy-haired guy had drifted about three feet to the right and by then I’d sidled to the left and could see fine on the other side of him.  I was quite jealous of the guys on the left side of the stage who had a completely unobstructed view.

I really didn’t know what the band would play and I see now that they do mix up their set lists quite a bit from show to show.  They played 2 songs from Mezcal Head, first was “Never Lose That Feeling.”  The older songs sound a bit more definitely Swervedriver to me–there is a more persistent sound in those older songs.  Although on all songs, Franklin’s voice is unmistakable.

Then it was on to their first post reunion album for “Setting Sun.”  I have only listened through these records once or twice to make sure the new stuff sounded good.  So I didn’t know these songs at all.  But I was really taken with how they sounded–Adam Franklin’s voice–that sort of soft-spoken singing style was still there (and he sounds fantastic) and his guitar playing, while a little garagey/sloppy sounded great.

Interestingly, Franklin used the same guitar all night long–a really beat up old guitar with the finish completely worn off where he rests his arm.  He did actually switch out for one song, but more on that later.  Meanwhile, Jimmy Hartridge switched out guitars every couple of songs.  I wondered if it was a tuning thing or a sound thing–and I wonder if I could tell the difference.

After running through “99th Dream” (with that really cool opening guitar side) from the album of the same name (some good footage of Mikey Jones in that clip), they played one more new song and then they played the song that I came to hear.

And it was terrible.

Actually “Son of Mustang Ford” started off amazing-everything sounded right (if a little less crisp than I would have imagined).  I was so excited to hear them play it and to hear those riffs.  The riffing was right on, the vocals were…a little off, perhaps.  You’ll see in the setlist below that it says abbreviated lyrics.  After the first verse, Franklin stepped away from the mic and…forgot the words?  didn’t want to sing them?  I thought maybe they were jamming the song out super long and this was an extended verse, but nope.  They moved through the song and when the got to the part in the middle that I love–where the drums and bass take over and its just a cool rumbling feedback section that goes on for 20 seconds before kicking back in with a guitar solo–well, they didn’t do that at all, they just played some fast drums and sort of ended the song.  Dang, that was disappointing

One the other hand, I see that they played in Asbury Park on Wednesday–the other place I might have seen them–and they didn’t play the song at all.  I’d have been super mad if they didn’t play it at all, so half is better than nothing I guess.

The good news is that they played several more songs from Raise and they were all great.  I hadn’t listened closely to that album in a while and when they started “Deep Seat” I’d forgotten how much I liked it.  Franklin’s guitar solo was pretty great too–nice and fuzzy.  I’d also forgotten how great the bass was on their first two albums–some complex and notable bass lines running through those songs.

They only played one song from Ejector Seat Reservation, “The Birds.”  I remember that album being like the mythical white whale over here in the States.  It was released in England and Europe but not here (apparently they were dropped by two record labels in a row).   I read some stellar reviews of the album and really wanted to get it but I just couldn’t–you just couldn’t get your hands on it.  It’s funny now to think how everything is available so easily (including this album) that back then, there was something you really wanted to hear but couldn’t.

By this time, the shaggy-haired guy had moved over entirely and I had a great view of Franklin playing guitar for “For a Day Like Tomorrow.”

They ended the set with a bunch of older songs and it was great trying to remember which one was which.  In fat, the guy who first created the setlist thought that the next song was “Feel So Real,” but it was actually “Sandblasted,” a great song that I had more or less forgotten about.

Then the roadie gave Franklin a new guitar (right).  Amusingly it looked exactly the same as the other one–just a lot newer.  I don’t know why the switch, again, maybe tuning.  I recently read that he did a lot of alternate tuning.  Anyhow, after a good 45 seconds of feed backing and “breaking the guitar in,” he started playing the great opening riff (which everyone was excited by) of the insanely catchy “Duel” from Mezcal Head.  I don’t know if it was having that new guitar out, but Franklin jammed out the solo for a pretty long time before they ended the song.

The setlist lists an encore break here and Franklin said something about that were just going to stay there rather than heading off and coming back.  They played two songs from Raise, the noisy Sunset” with more great drumming from Jones and then ended the show with the outstanding “Rave Down,” which I had totally forgotten about.  How did I forget about this song?

So even though the reason I went to see them didn’t play out the way I wanted, it was still a solid show and I was glad I went.  It has certainly reignited my interest in the band and I’m excited to now finally hear Ejector Seat Reservation (hilariously, not on Spotify).

SETLIST

1. Intro (Plan 7 Star Satellite 10 recording ) €
2. Mary Winter ⊗
3. Drone Lover ⊗
4. Never Lose That Feeling ϖ
5. Setting Sun Ø
6. 99th Dream ‰
7. Future Ruins ⊗
8. Son of Mustang Ford (abbreviated lyrics) ⇑
9. The Lonely Crowd Fades in the Air ⊗
10. These Times ‰
11. Deep Seat ⇑
12. The Birds €
13. For a Day Like Tomorrow Ø
14. Sandblasted ⇑
15. Duel ϖ
16. Sunset ⇑
17. Rave Down ⇑

⇑ Raise (1991)
ϖ Mezcal Head (1993)
€ Ejector Seat Reservation (1995)
‰ 99th Dream (1998)
Ø I Wasn’t Born to Lose You (2015)
⊗ Future Ruins (2019)