The Feelies with Qatsi - Johnny Brenda's (Philadelphia, PA) - Friday, March 13, 2009

Although both me and my wife had already seen THE FEELIES open for SONIC YOUTH on July 4th last year and though we’d both seen GLENN MERCER play on his own (the last time in support of his 2007 solo album Wheels in Motion), this was our first time seeing them in a small club. It just so happens that their first show since opening for YO LA TENGO this past New Years Eve would be a Philadelphia show, so of course we took advantage of the opportunity.

Thankfully, it was just about everything we’d both hoped for. Simply put, this show was exhilarating! Although the first four or five songs started out slowly (with some material from their 2nd Lp The Good Earth), the show seemed to take on a new life when they performed “Deep Fascination” and “Higher Ground” (both from their 1988 A&M debut Only Life). Everything suddenly fit a little louder and a little more energetic and suddenly it was blast off time as Mercer fired off guitar blasts during every song and we were along for the ride! Overall, lots of songs from Only Life and 1991’s Time for a Witness were played and other highlights included “Sooner or Later,” “Doin’ It Again” and “Slippin’ Into Something”. A new song called “Time is Right” was also played, which gives me the hope that one day they’ll put out a new album as the song sounded great.

After about an hour-long set, they came back and proceeded to become the world’s greatest cover band, tackling THE BEATLES’ “She Said, She Said” (from their 1986 EP No One Knows), and THE ROLLING STONES’ “Paint It Black”. After another encore which featured “Fa Ce La” (from their 1980 debut Crazy Rhythms and also released as a UK single) and a lightning-fast version of THE MODERN LOVERS’ “I Wanna Sleep in Your Arms” (at some point they also played NEIL YOUNG’s “Barstool Blues”), that was it and the entire audience was left blown away. If there was one complaint to be had, it’s a relatively minor one. Only two songs from Crazy Rhythms were played, which was the title track (to conclude their main set) and the aforementioned “Fa Ce La”. While I’d love to hear them do more songs from this record (they are playing the record in its entirety at the ATP festival in upstate New York this September), this was an excellent show nonetheless.

Openers QATSI warmed up the crowd nicely with an early ‘90s style indie-rock sound not too far removed from the headliners, but distinct at the same time.