Built to Spill/Meat Puppets @ The Blue Note, 03/16/08

I did it. It nearly killed me, but I did it. I stayed for the entire show.

While Doug wobbled behind the microphone and the rest of his band fought off sleep by staring at each others' shoes (I swear I saw Scott Plouf nod off on an upbeat during "Canada") I spent the better part of the set dodging the aggressively latent homosexual next to me (Did anyone see this kid? He was doing chest bumps against his friend's back, the physics of which doesn't take much imagination to recreate in your mind) and brewing up some nasty one-liners to describe what was shaping up to be the worst investment of $17 I've made in recent memory. Among them were:

"Did I seriously pay money for this?"
"Let's get bored!"
"More jams, please!"
and
"Aural vanilla."

Is that how those things usually go down? Was everyone just doing an incredible job of pretending to enjoy it? There's no way that first hour of tepid, soulless rehash could have possibly been classified as remotely enjoyable. Here's another one: J Mascis on Prozac. And asleep. I was actually shooting makeshift portraits of every band member's face to compile a "Faces of Boredom" feature instead of an actual review.

But then they played "Carry the Zero," and then you remembered that this band actually made interesting music at one point in the distant past ("Big Dipper" was too flaccid to be serve this purpose).

And then there was the encore, a kitchen sink-ified "Velvet Waltz," which stretched well beyond the twenty-five minute mark and ultimately included members of all three bands on the stage at the same time. I've actually constructed a flow chart of the madness for anyone who may have left the proceedings mid-jam:

"Velvet Waltz"

Vocals/Guitar 1: Doug Martsch
Guitar 2: Jim Roth
Guitar 3: Brett Netson
Bass: Brett Nelson
Drums: Scott Plouf

Jim Roth sets down Guitar 2
->Effects Pedal

ENTER Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets
->Acoustic Guitar

ENTER Cris Kirkwood of Meat Puppets
->Guitar 3

ENTER Ted Marcus of Meat Puppets
->Rototoms

Curt Kirkwood hands Acoustic Guitar into audience
->Vocals (indistinguishable yelling sounds)

ENTER Jason Albertini of Helvetia
->Dancing, Bass

Brett Nelson
->Drums (w/Scott Plouf)

EXIT Curt Kirkwood

ENTER Curt Kirkwood
->Folding Chairs (beating them together as percussion), Indescribable Dancing

EXIT Curt Kirkwood

Brett Netson
->Vocals (yelling and somewhat alarming chanting sounds)

ENTER Curt Kirkwood
->Vocals (something creepy about "Send you off to Davey Jones")

ENTER Inexplicable Weird Guy from Backstage
->Guitar 3

EXIT Bret Netson

End "Velvet Waltz"

Oh, and Meat Puppets killed. The Kirkwood brothers have apparently aged in the same time zone as Keith Richards, but one bar of "Lake of Fire" was twice as engaging as Built to Spill's entire set. Let's hope these guys are still cheating death for years to come.

Meat Puppets
12
34

Built to Spill
12
34
56

Setlist
?
Nowhere Nothin' Fuckup
Distopian Dream Girl
Gone
Strange
Time Trap
Canada
Third Uncle (Brian Eno)
Car
Liar
Lie for a Lie
? (included the line "not that bad")
Big Dipper
Carry the Zero
(Encore)
Velvet Waltz

If you know either of the two songs I'm missing here, leave it in the comments and I'll thank you by name and then everyone will respect you as that guy who knew those Built to Spill songs. Additionally, you can read a review by a guy who actually enjoyed most of the show [here]. Additionally additionally, if you know why your pets will loo-ook at Doug's t-shirt then you're alright by me. If you don't, click on [this] and skip to number six.

[photos and review by Zach Noland]