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Teenage Fanclub at Varsity Theater Teenage Fanclub Setlist
Tour Dates
03/11/2019 Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA
03/13/2019 The Bowery Ballroom New York, NY 03/14/2019 Music Hall Of Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY 03/15/2019 Union Transfer Philadelphia, PA 03/16/2019 9:30 Club Washington, DC 03/18/2019 Haw River Ballroom Saxapahaw, NC 07/12/2019 Mad Cool Space Madrid, Spain Read More
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Thirty years later, everything still flows--
Legendary power-pop group Teenage Fanclub made a recent return visit to town, stopping by the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis.
The Love Language is a Raleigh/Chapel Hill, NC band fronted by singer/guitarist Stu McLamb, a solo project that sprung into a full-fledged band from some assorted demos ten years ago, and who are in support of last year’s full-length Baby Grand (Merge Records) and recent single, ‘Bees’.
Their forty-minute opening set was a classic blend of lo-fi alt-rock, and before playing the new single, McLamb acknowledged the challenges of making a record in modern times and mentioned the importance of merch sales to a touring act.
Lyrically, break up songs are a common theme for the band’s music, as ‘Independence Day’ from the most recent album pined, “I know we never made valentines, but this would be our fifth 4th of July”.
The band also mentioned their reverence of the headliner, “they’ve been my heroes since I was seventeen years old… and I’m old! I remember trading an army backpack for the Bandwagonesque tape and it melted in my car, I played it so much” before ending with 2013’s ‘Calm Down’, a driving track that thumps, chugs, and does anything but lay back to finish their set with a bang rather than any whisper.
After a brief changeover made seemingly shorter by DJ Jake Rudh playing on-screen videos of the likes of The La’s, Buzzcocks, and other UK power pop stalwarts, the venue screen rose to reveal Scotland’s Teenage Fanclub for their eighty-five minute headlining set, opening with 1995’s ‘About You’ and its Take my time and I can find my way” chorus.
The band has been active on the alternative rock scene since 1989, but this would be their first local appearance since bassist/vocalist Gerard Love decided to leave last year over continued touring plans, but the remainder of the group (Norman Blake – vocals/guitar; Ray McGinley – vocals/guitar; Francis MacDonald – drums; Dave McGowan – keys/guitar; Euros Childs – keys) have hardly lost a musical step.
Fittingly, 1997’s ‘Start Again’ followed, with Blake singing, “Even though it's complicated, we've got time to start again” unintentionally helping explain the Love departure, some decades later. “This is our seventh performance in Minneapolis” Blake announced, saying new keyboardist Childs fancies himself a bit of a statistician on these accountable things.
One of the brand-new songs with the current lineup was ‘Everything is Falling Apart’, recorded recently in Hamburg and was a nice musical addition, fitting well into the band’s ample song catalog. Blake then joked briefly about the chilly weather, being “a bit too cold” for their Scottish kilts before going into the lush, piano-driven ‘Only With You’.
After tweeting to the band just before show, Blake would dedicate the tender ‘Your Love Is the Place Where I Come From’ to an area fan and his wife, originally from Scotland, a song punctuated by five distinctive notes played on a glockenspiel by the singer.
The sound unfortunately, seemed mixed unnecessarily loud, resulting in micro-bursts of feedback throughout most of the show (even into the encore) with Blake partially blaming things on new guitar strings, but the band themselves seemed to overcome things and the crowd mostly didn’t mind.
Their 2016 album, Here (Merge Records) was well represented, particularly on the back-to-back of ‘Hold On’ and ‘I’m in Love’, two solid recent songs that deserved more radio attention than they received. “This is our last song...” Blake said introducing 1991’s ‘The Concept’, “...or may not be”, briefly explaining the traditional encore process of leaving the stage and “pretending to be finished” only to quickly return.
“We’re standing just there” Blake pointed closely off-stage, reiterating the somewhat ridiculous process as the encore started with ‘The Fall’, from 2010’s Shadows, a mid-tempo song of somewhat hindsight regret in its lyric, “Spend my time and never count the cost, crossing lines I'd never thought I'd cross” and crisp guitar work from McGinley.
The night ended with the band’s very beginning- their first single, 1990’s ‘Everything Flows’ an innocent song about growing older, the passing of time, and finding one’s way- one that stills holds up maturing like a fine musical wine, some thirty years after it was written.
Kurt Cobain once declared them “the best band in the world” with Liam Gallagher correcting it to “the second best band in the world” (after Oasis, of course) and the chance to see Teenage Fanclub up close and still producing worthy new music, was a rare and worthwhile instance that shouldn’t be missed, if they play anywhere near you.
(all photos taken by Amy K. - click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)
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Teenage Fanclub at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (04 Mar 2019) |
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