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When we saw THE FEELIES play at Johnny Brenda’s last year (review here), they played a single set followed by a few encores and they had an opener. On this night, however, there would be no opener, as this was billed as “An Evening with The Feelies”. As such, they played two completely distinct sets of about forty-five minutes to an hour each, which were followed by (count ‘em) four (!) encores. To say that this was an epic Feelies show compared to the previous times we’ve seen them would be an understatement.
The first set was comprised mostly of quieter material such as that found on their second album The Good Earth as well as choice covers like NEIL YOUNG‘s “Barstool Blues” and THE VELVET UNDERGROUND‘s “Sunday Morning”. To be honest, I enjoyed this set, but I wasn’t blown away.
After a thirty-minute break, they came back and opened the second set with “Deep Fascination”, my favorite song from their third album Only Life. This was followed by “Higher Ground”, another brilliant track from Only Life. The rest of their set consisted of more upbeat material like several songs from their debut Lp Crazy Rhythms (“Original Love,” “Moscow Nights” and the title track) along with more upbeat tracks from their later records like “Slipping (into Something)” and “Away”, just to name a few. The entire time, the interplay between guitarists GLENN MERCER and BILL MILLION took center stage as both were simply on fire, with Mercer reminding the audience once again what a great guitar player he is!
As great as the second set was, though, it was the presence of the four encores that made this show even more memorable. It felt as if the band played almost cover they knew. We got a few BEATLES numbers (“Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey” and “She Said, She Said”), THE MODERN LOVERS‘ “I Wanna Sleep in Your Arms”, THE DOORS‘ “Take It As It Comes”, WIRE‘s “Outdoor Miner”, another Velvet Underground tune (“What Goes On”) and even R.E.M.‘s “Carnival of Sorts (Boxcar)”.
To say that this was an epic Feelies show would definitely be an understatement.
