Sloan @ Black Cat this Sunday

[kosmo vinyl]

Yup wish it had been an "Evening with Sloan"  drop the warmup act and add 30 minutes to the set.  To go along with that thought the band should take along a utility player, like The Posies Ken Stringfellow, who can switch between guitar and keyboards.  Would be nice to hear some of the mellowier piano songs from them.  They got a bit jammy especially the Andrew songs.
 
 With so many records I don't even think about what they are going to play.  Not having the setlist, but looking at the Buffalo they played 12 of the 16 tracks form Aside Wins.  But, the new tracks are a bit of dud for them and could have easily been skipped over in favor of "Sugartune", etc.  
 
 Listened  to "Between The Bridges" in the car this am, which IMHO is the bands best record,  and realized they played a number of tracks from that one.  BTB serves as a great summary of the bands previous four releases.  BTB is not the bands Hit record and depending on how you look at is either all hit singles or none at all.  Of course they followed it up with "Pretty Together" the bands weakest effort.
 
 Well lets hope the band doesn't get discouraged by the dimishing lack of response in the US.  Thought they were actually gaining fans as a result of last years Jet tour, but then again that one didn't hit DC...

[saturngrl]

Great show last night!  i agree with xcanuck though, i would love to hear more off of Twice Removed, and Smeared for that matter.  they are still my all time favorite albums.  I didn't know that one song that Chris said was 10-12 years old.  Can someone tell me what song that was?  It's too bad that more people don't know about Sloan.  It would have been cool to see that place packed.

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
   

Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:
  how were the capitol years?

Made me wish it had been an "Evening With Sloan"...
 
 Striving to be like Brian Jonestown Massecure without any of the elements that make BJM good, plus annoying between song filler... [/b]

that's too bad, i had heard good things ...

[kosmo vinyl]

Originally posted by econo:
  Kosmo, I didn't see you.  I saw Bags and Kosmette though.
 
 That was my first time hearing Sloan.  As you can tell from my previous message, I was really impressed.  Any albums to recommend?

hmmm tough choice... I would start with either Navy Blues or One Chord to Another, if like more straight ahead rock.  "Smeared" is the nosiest of the lot, which you might enjoy.  Geffen was hoping they would be the Canadian Nirvana, that is until they recorded "Twice Removed" which is the poppiest record of theirs.  "Between the Bridges" is for me thier best record but may not be the best starting point for a new fan.  Skip "Pretty Together" and "Action Pact" has it's moments.

[ratioci nation]

Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:
 that's too bad, i had heard good things ...

they were pretty good when they played with The High Strung and Carlsonics, maybe they had an off night

[Bags]

Start with "One Chord to Another" or "Twice Removed"...
 
 I liked the Capitol Years -- they remind me of Deathray Davies, fun rock n' roll.  I'm surprised more of you don't like them...
 
 Ah, to Sloan.  As always, a great great show (a bad Sloan show is better than most good shows).  I agree with xcanuck on the set lists, though.  I think of the six or so shows I've seen, that was my least fave set list.
 
 Also, I thought Murph wasn't in rarest form -- very few scissor kicks.  Maybe it was the small crowd (which was more like less than a third of capacity).  It's criminal.  A friend with me, who hadn't seen them, was amazed that they're not bigger and he hadn't heard of them until he moved to DC and I showed him the way.  I agree, I don't get it.
 
 It will be interesting to hear how the NYC shows go, as that's one of the cities in which they opened for Jet last year (and I heard folks at that show raving about this opening band they'd never heard of before...).
 
 Still, I had a great time and treated it like a Saturday night -- which doesn't bode well for me today.  So what, Murph signed a CD for me and the chick at the ticket desk gave me her Sloan pin.  I'm good.
 
 Good to see econo, xcanuck, kosmo and kosmette.  And I hope Kurosawa and Skeeter/Bombay enjoyed the show!!

[TheNomad]

Originally posted by econo:
  Kosmo, I didn't see you.  I saw Bags and Kosmette though.
 
 That was my first time hearing Sloan.  As you can tell from my previous message, I was really impressed.  Any albums to recommend?

Their newest release is a greatest hits album.  While those are not always a good intro to a band, this might work.  Figure out what you like most on it and then get those albums.
 
 Great show.  Much better without the blinding lights from last show.  Criminal that they don't pack the 930 down here.  I'd say they are better than 95% of the bands that play BC or 930 and yet they get terrible draws.  
 
 Props to the peeps that brought their Canadian Flag with them.

[Bombay Chutney]

Originally posted by Bags:
 I liked the Capitol Years -- they remind me of Deathray Davies, fun rock n' roll.  I'm surprised more of you don't like them...

I thought they were great.  I'll agree that the banter was a bit cryptic/long, but I thought they put on a really good show.
 
 

 Good to see econo, xcanuck, kosmo and kosmette.  And I hope Kurosawa and Skeeter/Bombay enjoyed the show!!

I really enjoyed it, but I was beat after a rather long weekend (which technically hasn't ended yet, since I took today off).  I just hung near the back and sat at the bar for a good part of the show.  It's a shame they didn't draw a bigger crowd.  I agree with the 1/3-full estimate.  I enjoyed their set though.  Since all I have is the new singles comp, the setlist was fine with me.
 
 I didn't see kosmo and kosmette until they were walking out. I had to run to see if I could catch the Metro (I failed), or else I would have said hello.  
 
 Glad you got your pin, Bags.  

[kurosawa-b/w]

That was the type of show I was in the mood to see. Thoroughly enjoyable.

[RatBastard]

I had a goof time.  My arm was killing me from being in that damn brace all day long though.  Met xcanuck (again) and chatted things up a bit.  Not sure who all the other 930 regulars were who were in that group but I am guessing that its a few from this thread.  I enjoyed Capitol Years when they were playing.  My drum stick collection crossed the 200 mark with the one I got there.
 
 Would someone PLEASE open a decent club in Richmond and book bands other than local 8th grade garage bands?

[kurosawa-b/w]

Oh, I didn't realize that was you. I was the one standing behind xcanuck and his wife. Sorry - I would have said hello.

[RatBastard]

Well in that case...  Hello!     See you at another show soon.  We are hitting Al Green, The Ells, Secret Machines, and Devo (so far).

[xcanuck]

I thought the Capitol Years put on a really good set. They didn't have their second vocalist (third guitarist) in Philly and it made a substantial difference. I thought it was a good fit for Sloan.
 
 As for an album to start with, I would go with people that recommended Twice Removed or One Chord to Another. These albums seem to have the most diversity of songwriting styles whereas the latter releases seem to be more heavy on the Kiss/ACDC influence.