[ATTENDED: August 3, 2025] The Schizophonics
I had not heard of The Schizophonics before this tour. I looked them up just to see what their deal was and the reviews universally talked about how amazing the live shows are.
About 15 moinutes after Kate Clover left the stage, three people came on stage wearing black jackets with their names on them (fifties style)–Pat, Lety, Sarah. They removed the jackets and began playing.
Lety Beers on drums and Sarah Linton on bass are great players–Lety’s drums are perfectly timed and Sarah’s bass is perfect for holding the songs together while Pat … does his thing.
Which is… being everywhere all the time. Pat Beers sings and plays guitar. And when he is not singing, he is dancing from one side of the stage to the other–skipping, spinning, dropping, rolling. He ran down the steps on the side of the stage and ran back up on the stage. All the while, he was still playing guitar. Even as he dropped to the ground, did a backwards somersault and got back to his feet, the solo was still going on. Were the solos intricate? No. But did he keep the solos going? Yes indeed. He plays guitar with one hand in an astonishingly powerful way. At times he took his guitar off and held it aloft with his left hand and still played with one hand.
I took so many videos and I don’t think I ever captured the full insanity of his stage presence.
Near the end of the set, he put his mic stand on the floor, jumped down and then hopped the barrier. He put his mic in the middle of the floor and then proceeded to sing and play and run around like a one-man mosh pit. Even on the floor of the venue, he dropped to his knees, rolled on his back and almost crashed into everyone. He also had fun singing to a 9-year old in the audience (Lety gave the girl a shout out).
Later, he jumped down without his guitar and sang in the audience,
It was phenomenal and the crowd responded in kind.
What were the songs like? I have no idea. They were fast, three chord rockers. He sang words but mostly screamed and yelped. And then he soloed for ages. The songs were all catchy and simple, but I couldn’t tell you if they were original or covers or what.
I was exhausted just watching him and I was very jealous at his ability to bounce around and get back up so easily.
I enjoyed the heck out of the set and so did everyone else. They made a ton of new fans, at least of their live show.
I looked at setlists to see what songs they played and yet there’s no recorded setlists for any of their shows this year. There’s a few shows from 2024 that have songs but I don’t think that’s what they played for us,
They played for about 45 minutes. Pat was a sweaty mess by the end (although his button down shirt remained tucked in all night). Pat even broke the heel of his shoe running up and down the stairs. But he carried on regardless.
I’ve never seen anything like it and I can recommend seeing them one hundred percent. They may work better as an opening act as I can’t imagine what 90 minutes of that behavior would do to the guy, but if they’re on the bill, don’t miss them!
I have no idea what songs they played and I don’t care what they might play next time. I’m a convert!
Nothing could have excited me more than an evening with Wilco. They are an amazing live band and I would have been so excited to be in the pit for this one.
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