The one-two punch of Superchunk and not having to ride over the bridge would have made this the best show in months even if it wasn't pretty damn great. Historically, if I have to wait seven years between a band's releases it's going to be a disappointment, but I'm pleased to report that the new
Majesty Shredding is a great record, even by Superchunk standards. Look for a review soon.
This show had sold out way in advance, and embarassingly enough, I had missed out on getting a ticket. Luckily through the good graces of the Bros. Johnson (the other half of said team whom had saved my ass on the soon to be disappointing Hold Steady show at the Beacon), I ended up with an extra ticket. Motor City proved to be the staging area for a couple hours of warm-up (and convenient missing of openers). Our arrival at Bowery was pretty much coincident with things jumping off and jump things did. Here's the set list:
Learned To Surf
Burn Last Sunday
Detroit Has A Skyline
Digging For Something
Rosemarie
Baxter
My Gap Feels Weird
Like A Fool
Hello Hawk
Crossed Wires
For Tension
Song For Marion Brown
Watery Hands
Punch Me Harder
Cast Iron
Everything At Once
Driveway To Driveway
100,000 Fireflies
Slack Motherfucker
Hyper Enough
Throwing Things
It was pretty great all-around, as you might surmise by the amazing set. The new songs are so good, and it's nice to see the Chunk back in guitar mode. An ill-advised post-set stage invasion found me chastised and stripped of my newly purloined set list by their new roadie personnel, but even that didn't taint the evening. Hear me now and believe me later: Superchunk are the best. The rest are just pretenders.
R
All sorts of awesomeness is brewing in the Superchunk camp. The new record Majesty Shredding is staggeringly awesome on a level that is even surprising for the mighty Chunk. Even I won't see them with that shitty Bright Eyes, but I will take small consolation in the acoustic live set that is currently available at the Superchunk web presence. Just Mac and Jim on this one, featuring three from Majesty Shredding with two other evergreens for good measure. Get it here, for a limited time. 
Nine years. That's how long it's been since we've had ourselves a new Superchunk record. No wonder it's been so shitty for me this last epoch! With the Chinese Democracy precedent of diminishing returns and the low-key manner of '01s Here's To Shutting Up, my hopes were not especially high for an up-tempo keyboard-free Chunk release, to the point where I hadn't even listened to the record a day before the team rolled into town. The Leaves In The Gutter EP bade well, but I was in too fragile a place to find that the new Superchunk disc was a disappoinment. 
Day two of the weekend du Chunk, this one in Colonial Williamsburg. I would have made the usual trip over the bridge regardless, but the Todd Barry as the first opener made me more punctual than usual. Of course, Todd was on by the time I made it in, but was great as always. Stand-up gigs opening for rock bands are some of the toughest, but luckily Todd Barry gives less than a fuck if people are enjoying his sets, pointedly announcing that he was going over length to just irritate bored people up front. He went over well, with a ton a new material that I hope appears in some sort of recorded form very soon. Here's hoping that more good comedians appear (bumping terminally mediocre bands) in these kind of slots in the future.
The one-two punch of Superchunk and not having to ride over the bridge would have made this the best show in months even if it wasn't pretty damn great. Historically, if I have to wait seven years between a band's releases it's going to be a disappointment, but I'm pleased to report that the new Majesty Shredding is a great record, even by Superchunk standards. Look for a review soon. 
