This was billed as Dean Wareham plays GALAXIE 500 and that’s exactly what we got. Backed by his wife and frequent musical collaborator BRITTA PHILLIPS on bass, MATT SUMROW on guitar and drummer JASON LAWRENCE, we got an hour and fifteen minutes of Galaxie 500 classics. They opened with “Flowers” and after that “Pictures,” “Don’t Let Our Youth Go to Waste,” “Decomposing Trees” (with Sumrow’s melodica replacing the sax in the recorded version), “Blue Thunder” and “Fourth of July”, just to name a few, were performed. For the encore, we got “Tugboat” and NEW ORDER‘s “Ceremony”, which Galaxie 500 also recorded and performed. This was as close to the real thing as we’re ever likely to get given the relations (or lack thereof) between Wareham and his Galaxie 500 bandmates NAOMI YANG and DAMON KRUKOWSKI.
It was notable that “Listen, the Snow is Falling”, a YOKO ONO cover that Yang sang, wasn’t performed. Other than than that and them not playing other great songs like “Sorry” or their cover of GEORGE HARRISON‘s “Isn’t It a Pity”, it was hard to complain about anything when they played as well as they did and of course, these are very minor complaints to boot.
As for openers CRYSTAL STILTS, I was unimpressed with what I’ve heard by them on record and seeing them live didn’t change my opinion. On one hand, I can see why they opened the show. Their sound is a hybrid of THE CRAMPS, early JESUS AND MARY CHAIN and SUICIDE along with dashes of THE VELVET UNDERGROUND and perhaps ’80s Flying Nun bands as well. Theoretically, I should love them. While the music is great, there’s one major problem. Vocalist BRAD HARGETT just stands there, shows absolutely no emotion and it’s to the point where one thinks that he’d prefer to be waiting in line at a bank as opposed to being on stage. Plus, while the music is enjoyable, it’s not particularly memorable, either.
