By: Anonymous
I got there at 7, and the STOOPIT owners of the Lost Horizon would not open the doors till 8. This is probably the coldest damn weekend of the year, and gals in miniskirts were freezin' their tails off. Anyway the line was out to the street when I got there. users were complaining about frozen piercings, while I stood in winters breath of filthy snow watching userss lips turn true purple:)
This bar is just way too small, and poorly laid out. I'm gonna go with the estimate of the main area in from of the stage being like 30x35 feet max. They should have played at a high school gym, and had like five times the audience. The place was nice and packed, and the words 'fire hazard' came to mind.
As for the show, it didn't start till about 9. Drain came out and were really good. For some reason I expected them to be real slow and dirty, but they rocked. About three songs in I was astonished when someone reminded me that the band was all female.(I couldn't see, and her voice is real hoarse and dry. But then I think that guy from Rush sounds like a girl...
I can't be too objective towards SisterMachine Gun, because I was getting impatient waiting for Type O. I caught myself shakin my head to a tune or two of theirs. They stopped playing for a while and everyone started the "type-o' and 'you suck' chants. They announced that it was just a guitar problem, and everyone was dissappointed.
Type O kind of botched up their entrance, IMO. Even though the lights were down, you could see Pete and Kenny moving mics and doing roady work. I barely recognized Peter, since his upper body did not appear to be overdeveloped in any way. They started with Glass Walls, and my favorite effect was the sychronization of a strobe light to that ratchety breaking glass sound in the song. Right into Cinammon Girl with the standard apologies to Mr Neil Young, and then "Love you to death." The intro to this was excellent-more psychedelic and powerful than the album. I caught the first of his rolling r's :"Black lipstick stains her glass of rrrrred wine."
I'm probably getting the order of the next songs mixed up, but my best
recollection is as follows:
PS did some shtick of passing his wine bottle around and letting users have a
sip. When he got it back he said "all right, who's been eatin garlic?'
Introducing "Xian Woman" he said '...if you believe in yourself, you don't have
to believe in God." Pete took the hat off and let his hair down here. Everyone
got real excited during the JC Looks like me part.
Then they played "Kill all the white users", which got some sing-along, and puzzled looks from non-fans. At end Pete promised that "in the spirit of fairness, the next time we play here, we will have that song translated into Ebonics (he pronounced it Eubonics)." Someone else please explain this joke to the Europeans.. I think "Hey Bacchus" was next, and then "Wolf Moon". He explained the song, you know menstration and all ending"A little blood shouldn't come between friends." I don'think any howls were done...
"This next song is about one girl, and another girl, and one lucky boy. I wish it were me. I usually go to bed with my left hand." And the keyboards throughout MGG were so heavy that I decided not to take a bathroom break during the song.
"Too late:frozen" started with some Black Sabbath riff. The fake snow came during that altered voice part on the album. After that part I immediately found myself singing 'sitting on a park bench, snot is running down his nose' during the Auqalung riff.
The last song, of course, was Black No.1. Everyone sang along, but I missed a lot of the keys, which I really like on this song. Pete did the standard "without you we are nothing" and then wished everyone a happy new year. "And I realize this may be a little premature, but we'd also like to wish you a happy Halloween."
Anonymous
Return to the '97 US Tour, part 1.