Frank Black @ Southpaw 8/19/06

Seeing Frank Black in a tiny club was quite the trip. I didn't know what to expect from an all acoustic show and I got a little bit of everything. He played pixies material and hit up almost all of his solo albums.  Highlights were Wave of Mutilation, Fitzgerald and I Burn Today. Here's the set-list for the early 8:30 show I attended courtesy of Product Shop.

Set list (early show):

Nadine / The Water Song / Wave of Mutilation / Rabbit Hole / The Swimmer / Headache / Fitzgerald / Calistan / Horrible Day / My Life Is In Storage / Cactus / I'll Be Blue (incomplete) / Dead Man's Curve / All Around the World / California Bound / Humboldt / County Massacre / Living on Soul / I Burn Today / I'm Not Dead (incomplete) / Bullet / Adda Lee / Massif Central

Here's a brief synopsis by Bvsrant taken from the Frank Black forums:

FB messed with a lot of the arrangements of the songs - for instance, in "Nadine," he sang the bridge again at the end of the song again. The new version of "Wave of Mutilation" is so great - acoustic guitar and screamy vocals - the melody is almost completely transformed. And yes, Violet confirmed that the song is called "Rabbit Hole" - at least for now. During "The Swimmer" he (i think) messed up the chords under the word "pelagic" and so he sang it four times, each time with a different chord behind it - VERY cool and different. The crowd did some nice background vocals on "Headache." "Storage" was great - the end part was very cool - FB strummed, almost mandolin-style, the chords and sang the lines over it. During "Cactus" he elongated the verses quite a bit - taking extra time between each line. He also spelled out T.Rex instead of Pixies - and then said "That's the name of the club i'm going to open - TREX -i'll perform there once a week - aa 5 o'clock matinee." During "I'll Be Blue" FB messed up the chords on the line "I didn't know my place at all." He stopped and said "You know, that's funny, the lyrics are about me not knowing my place, and i really don't." "All Around The World" was similar to the unreleased HONEYCOMB version, a nice surprise. During "California Bound" he sang the guitar solo which was different and cool. "Humboldt County Massacre," as always, was a pleasure to hear live. During "I'm Not Dead (I'm in Pittsbugh)" someone started screaming at FB - something about "Play it like the album" or something - this was the only part of the set that FB seemed a bit disturbed. He said something along the lines of "You know, this is a bar, so i can't tell you to be quiet, so make all the noise you want." The guy didn't stop and FB yelled out "HEY, WHERE'S KIM DEAL?" Hi-larious. "Adda Lee" was such a shock to hear, but a great surprise. For "Massif Central," FB didn't go up to the falsetto for the 2nd verse

More Links:
Photos: Frank Black @ Southpaw 8/19/06
Product Shop has a review up

Comments

[Ryan's Smashing Life]

Wow - some awesome feedback! One of my posts today is about Frank Black today!

Please stop by and check it out.

[bobby Mcfern]

yo yo, Frank Black is the most prolific singer song writer this side of dylan and if you don't agree you can shut the f up.

[merik]

hello world!

[murava]

my name is murava! are you? http://www.benimblog.com/murava/

[wwgt]

Hey thanks for the insightful review,
As a guitar player ( and try to sing as well )
I can totally understand the occasional
" missed chord progression "
and as vast MR FB's collection is one can imagine how easy it is even for the writer to sometimes struggle with his own tunes,,
which says alot , given his steady stream of output musically...
and he is a family man too ..
god bless FB ...and may he keep on rocking!!

[wwgt]

Hey thanks for the insightful review,
As a guitar player ( and try to sing as well )
I can totally understand the occasional
" missed chord progression "
and as vast MR FB's collection is one can imagine how easy it is even for the writer to sometimes struggle with his own tunes,,
which says alot , given his steady stream of output musically...
and he is a family man too ..
god bless FB ...and may he keep on rocking!!