Wednesday 13 October 2010

337 SEBADOH, Bis, Bristol Bierkeller, Tuesday 29 October 1996

First time at old 80's haunt the Bierkeller for a good long while, and first time ever for my gig buddy, young Tim! Had a couple of games of pool, as is traditional here, before our peace was broken rudely by Bis, who were energetic but a mulchy mess of sub-Shonen Knife and Subway Records shouty DIY crap!

Lou Barlow's Sebadoh sauntered on at 10.15, and played an intriguing set of introspective guitar stuff, slightly left field from Luna, interspersed with some shouty Nirvana-esque head trips led by the young bassist. Lou, a mythical figure in US Alt-rock circles, was a downbeat and introverted little soul onstage, which conversely held the audience's attention well! He dealt with hecklers who kept calling out names of people he resembled ("Woody Allen!" "Rick Moranis!") very politely and matter-of-factly indeed, and overall came across as a nice and genuine caring bloke, a view further underlined by his occasionally brilliantly emotional paeans of love lost and found... and sometimes lost again.

And the band played on... and on! An expected hour-long set became 1 hour 25 minutes, which after a 7 song encore (!) became 1 hour 50! Sebadoh proved tonight, unfortunately, that it is possible to have too much of a good thing; a 1 hour 15 minute gig would have been excellent!

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