Grandaddy at the 9:30

[kosmo vinyl]

I like SFA but most of there stuff is better heard on one's stereo at home...  I wish they wouldn't rely so music on the backing tracks and video on stage, because it takes the sponteniety out of the performance.  Their set really picked up steam when they cranked up the guitars towards the end.  Maybe next time they'll drop the vids and rock out.  
 
 I was tired and Grandaddy bored me so I bailed.

[Aline]

I've seen the Super Furries over 10x now, and last night was the worst I've seen them (excluding the Yeti costumes and rock star poses    I say that cause I wouldn't want anyone to judge SFA only by last night's gig, which was good, don't get me wrong, but not brilliant. They only played from their past two albums, while
 they have so many brilliant songs off earlier albums,and Gruff's guitar was fucked for most of the set. That said, they were still FAR more interesting to watch than Grandaddy. I love Grandaddy albums and music but god their live set is a total snooze-fest.

[Barcelona]

What about "The Gold Rush" between SFA and Grandaddy? That was a brilliant idea, one of the best movies ever.
 
 I liked both bands a lot. I was going there to see Grandaddy, but was really impressed with Super Furry Animals. Got there too late to see Home.
 
 I'll see both of them tomorrow in NYC. Worth the trip.

[ggw]

It's interesting that everyone had different reactions.
 
 I thought SFA were good, but not great.  They got better as the set went on.  No real complaints, but I wasn't blown away.
 
 I liked Grandaddy.  I'm not terribly familiar with them other than the little bit that's been played on WOXY and KEXP in the last couple of years.  But I enjoyed their set.  And they seemed like unpretentious, congenial guys just having fun playing in a band.
 
 The films were alternately good complements to the music or somewhat distracting.  and I guess the band really likes cats....

[bearman🐻]

I had a lot of fun at the show last night...neither band knocked my socks off, but I thought they were both solid performances. Though I have to admit I enjoyed watching Grandaddy simply for the eye candy...their drummer is adorable, though he smokes way too much. But hey, I've got pretty bizarre tastes in everything. I know I should probably have my eyes checked, but WOOF.     Have to say that I'm really looking forward to Supergrass, Travis, and Belle and Sebastian.  The great thing about last night was the ticket price...$15 for 2 bands that I've been meaning to check out for quite a while, and nice visuals to boot. It was nice to see 2 bands put together some interesting stuff instead of just some of the usual lighting.  Not that a band needs to have visuals to make it a good show, but sometimes it's nice to see. I enjoyed the Charlie Chaplin movie between bands too.

[kosmo vinyl]

sfa at the ottobar was an amazing in part because of the surround sound presentation...

[BlueEyedAndDangerous]

Last night was the most people I have seen at a show for an opening band! That's a compliment to the band. SFA was great, but left right after. I thought it was too crowded, and I had seen what I'd come to see.

[Relaxer]

I was really disappointed with SFA. It seems like it's become The Gruff Show, whereas previous shows, like the Black Cat one, seemed much more of a band affair. Maybe it's just me. And as someone pointed out, have they forgotten about Fuzzy Logic, Radiator and Guerrilla? The beauty of a band like U2 is that they acknowledge all of their fans and play material from the first album to the newest. And I thought the version of The Man Don't Give A was pretty weak, though the video they showed was pretty groovy.
 
 Grandaddy was good and they sounded great, but I think they're a better studio band than live one. If it weren't for the cool visuals, that would've been a pretty boring show. And I didn't like how most of the songs ended by the band suddenly slowing down and then stopping. What's wrong with jamming a little or continuing to play the medly and building and building and building? Oh yeah, it would've screwed up the videos, which isn't my idea of rock'n'roll.
 
 Worth fifteen bucks, and a good time overall, but I'm spoiled from such great shows as Black Rebel, where it seemed the songs built to a climax, and then sometimes went on a little further.

[J'Mal]

One of the better shows in a long time.
 
 I was there for Grandaddy but Super Furries were pretty good.   The one song where they played with the flames behind them on the video, zzzzz.... the wookie costumes.... kinda dumb but with a name like super furry animals, why not.
 
 totally agree with the positive review of the grandaddy video for yeah is what we had.... sad, sad, sad....  
 
 Excellent show, both bands, really.

[broadkat]

Unfortunately, i missed most of Super Furry Animals.  Did they play "Fire in My Heart"? (can you tell i'm a girl by that question?      The few songs i did see were really impressive.  I sorta thought that whole like "all govts are liars and bastards" or whatever thing a little heavy handed.  It would have worked much better if they just left it to that that stellar loop of old dictator guys and german black and whites who actually looked like they were singing along -- i've never seen anything like that and you couldn't even see where they were looping most of the time!  and the bigfoot costumes were f-ing hilarious.
   But Grandaddy were the real treat for me.  I though it was so sweet how the lead singer guy was all honored by the guys yelling out songs.  It really makes a fan feel appreciated.  And they played some good choices from sophtware slump.  I bounced along to the whole thing.

[Bags]

NY Times review of the NY show:
 
 POP REVIEW | GRANDADDY; SUPER FURRY ANIMALS
 Tales of Decline With Opulence and Humor
 By JON PARELES
 
 Published: October 8, 2003
 
 
 here's no clear explanation why majestically bemused rock often arrives with goofy animal costumes in tow. It's not just the Flaming Lips, whose touring show features dancers dressed as rabbits. At Irving Plaza on Friday night, Grandaddy, from Modesto, Calif., performed with videos projected behind the band that showed, among other things, a bouncy human-sized bee.
 
 The members of the Welsh band Super Furry Animals, sharing the bill, disappeared backstage during their last song to reappear dressed in hairy suits for a final reprise.
 
 Maybe the costumes are an attempt to dodge rock's lingering postpunk distrust of grandeur, as if no one who envisioned his songs with a woolly chorus line could be accused of taking the music too seriously. That ambivalence reaches into the music, too.
 
 Grandaddy's songs are stately anthems orchestrated with full late-psychedelic pomp: fuzz-toned guitar strumming, rippling keyboards (including what sounded like a Mellotron), brawny drumbeats. Grandaddy's songwriter and singer, Jason Lytle, is a fan of the richly orchestrated late-1960's Beach Boys and Buffalo Springfield. With each Grandaddy album since the group started in 1992, its music has grown more opulent.
 
 But Mr. Lytle's high, plaintive voice keeps the songs fragile and uncertain. Despite the solidity of the music, he sounds adrift. In songs from Grandaddy's most recent album, "Sumday" (V2), he looks around to see trusted things falling apart and looks ahead only to envision further decline. "I feel so far away from home, always so far away," he sang in "El Caminos in the West," between poppy "doo-doo-doo" choruses. "We're all collapsed and futureless." The comedy on the video screen behind the band was belied by the songs.
 
 Super Furry Animals are also Beach Boys fans, that group's music being among the many styles they dip into. Their set also touched on country, punk noise, blipping electronic dance music, blues-rock and 1970's soul.
 
 What keeps the Super Furry Animals from sounding like an anthology is Gruff Rhys's smoky lead vocals. Their blithely eclectic music often holds glum tidings, with even songs about love having a pessimistic streak. "Subtle as a nail bomb in the head, you came to me in peace and left me in pieces," Gruff Rhys sang to a swaying Beach Boys-flavored tune, "Receptacle for the Respectable."
 
 The band's current album, "Phantom Power" (XL/Beggars Group), contemplates the world after Sept. 11. In a somber ballad, "The Piccolo Snare," Gruff Rhys sang, "As brother fights brother, wrapped up in tarnished flags/Banners and body bags, surrender!" The set moved from wistfulness to disgust and fury. For the final song, as the video screen showed ugly demagogues, Gruff Rhys sang about power-mad rulers and citizens "left to bleed whilst vultures glide." Fuzzy suits didn't defuse the music's anger.