Portland, Oregon, USA -
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slabtown.net
at the Crystal Ballroom
by Justin McGrotty (slabtown.net)
June 13, 2002
Not including surprise and unannounced shows (December 31, 2001 and June 12, 2002), or shows under different names (Courtney and Brent playing multiple shows under the name “Slimmer Twins”), this was the Dandy Warhols first major show in their hometown of Portland, Oregon in well over a year, and the size of the crowd backed it up, with a line forming to get in long before the show started. And, they didn’t disappoint (for the most part). The night before, Courtney had said that the band would be playing every song they knew, and at times this didn’t appear to be an exaggeration, with a set that eventually came out to be 25 songs long and well over 2 hours.
Starting out with the traditional opener of “Be-In,” (with the rumored new introduction to the song) the band mixed things up pretty well, with all of their most popular songs being played and many of the longtime crowd favorites making appearances as well. As if to get them out of the way, 4 songs into the set, the band played “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth” (also with a new ‘semi-opening’) and “Bohemian Like You,” which definitely got the best response of the night from the crowd. Never quite losing speed, the band roared on, for the most part only stopping once, when Peter broke a string and Courtney just wasn’t “feeling it” during the first attempt at playing “Boys Better.”
Besides all of the classics being played (everything that has ever been released as an actual single), a lot of old classics were whipped out for this show, including “Orange,” “T.V. Theme Song,” (which also got a surprisingly strong reaction from the crowd) “Lou Weed” and Grunge Betty.” Only a few things were missing from the set overall was some of their more popular cover songs, as “Pussycat Fingertips” was the only cover they played, with such staples as “Stars” or any Beatles songs being left out. Also, it was assumed that the band would play some new material at the show, but apparently the band still didn’t feel comfortable enough with it (rumor had it that they were expected to play “Suffered And Sound” and either “Used To Be Friends” or “Rock Bottom”).
As the show started to wind down, the band and the crowd really started to look beat as “A Fast-Driving Rave-Up With The Dandy Warhols” droned on for 14+ minutes. Following this, the band left the stage, with, as usual, only Zia returning to do an encore (her version of “The Tattoo Song”) and the declaration that the boys were too tired to come back out. Understandable, since the show was over 2 hours long.
Overall, the bands return to the Portland scene was a good treat for fans and a nice warm-up gig before the band headed off to Europe for 3 weeks of shows in June-July. Hopefully they will get a chance to have some more local shows before they head back into their studio in July to finish up the new album. But either way, the return show was a crowd-pleasing hit and a treat to have seen.
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