Saturday, January 23, 2010

Cracker @ Middle East

What the world needs now is another folk singer, like I need a hole in my head


Cracker with Camper Van Beethoven
Middle East 17-Jan-2010

I'm more of a Cracker fan, but this show also featured David Lowery's other band Camper Van Beethoven. CVB were actually the "rootsier" side this time, with the violin and steel guitar. Cracker was more the rock side, as their new album "Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey" would attest. I thought the sound was great for both bands (although I still prefer Paradise for rock shows) and it was packed for both sets.

Cracker does several well known cover songs, but technically it was CVB who covered Cracker covering The Clash's "White Riot". The song appears on the "Burning London" tribute and is very good, although not at all like the original.

There was no real banter with CVB, but David was more chatty as Cracker. He told a few humorous stories for songs like "Euro Trash Girl" ("the song about a whore") and how "Germans have no sense of humor".

On the new album there are some duets and they did "Friends" with guitarist Johnny Hickman doing the Patterson Hood part. I don't recall hearing them do "We all shine a light", a very X-sounding duet with John Doe.

Toward the end, they did all the hits; "Teen Angst" (my fave) and "Low", etc. They could've just left after that. My only complaint was that I didn't quite "get" the encore, so we left before the end.

[Video: Cracker - "Low"]



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1 comment:

Pamela said...

Hey Jeff

Just scrolling through, showing Scott your stuff. We saw Cracker at The Bluebird a few months back and I thought it was one of their best. (I have seen them many times over the years
Scott's new shop space in Athens is right next door to Dave Barbe's studio, where Cracker recorded their last album. I hope you can make it down some day for a visit. Love your blog. pk