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Roughly one year after their last visit to Philadelphia, The Feelies once again played World Cafe Live and once again played two separate sets. Just like last year’s show, the first set consisted mainly of more slow to mid-tempo, folksier material while the second set and the encores (more on that to come) went for the jugular, blowing the roof of the place with a torrential wall of guitar noise and fury.
So what, might you ask, differentiated this year’s visit to World Cafe Live from their two previous Philadelphia appearances since their 2008 reunion? The first thing is that they played material from the newly released Here Before, their first new album in 20 years. The second is the choice of covers they played for the encore. Once again, we got R.E.M.‘s “Carnival of Sorts” (Boxcar) as well as The Beatles‘ “She Said, She Said”, but I’d NEVER heard them do The Rolling Stones‘ “Rocks Off” or The Stooges‘ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” before, live or in any other setting! They proved that in addition to being a great band period, in an alternate universe they’re also the world’s greatest cover band, too!
It’s their originals that deserve mention, too, though, and during the second set in particular, they were on fire! In fact, in the 4 times we’ve now seen them play, we’d never heard Glenn Mercer (who should be mentioned in the same breath as Greg Sage, Doug Martsch and J Mascis along with younger stalwart Marissa Paternoster in the post-punk guitar heroes category) sing so forcefully. Partially, this could be because they actually turned up his vocals whereas in the past he would bury them underneath the guitar squall, but whatever the case was, he just sounded possessed on this evening! From the incredible second set opener “Deep Fascination” (on 1989’s Only Life) to that album’s “Higher Ground”, material from their debut Crazy Rhythms (including “Original Love”, my favorite track from that period of their existence), the new album’s ringing “Time is Right” and all the aforementioned covers as well as others like The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” and The Beatles’ “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey” (both of which appeared on the 1990 A&M version of Crazy Rhythms in recorded form; the former was an outtake recorded 10 years after the original 1st Lp by the still current lineup whereas the Beatles Lp appeared on the original version).
In any case, what a show! I don’t know how long they’re planning to this and if they’ll continue with more shows and records (one can only hope), but here’s to hoping for another World Cafe Live appearance next spring as well!
