Massive Nights '21 | Scene Report

[star18]

Hey clever kids, hope everyone is well.  Haven't posted much here lately due to a busy fall, but hope everyone is staying safe and rockin' their way into '22.

I thought it might be fun to have a thread where we can share impressions and memories from the Massive Nights, for those who attended, and those living vicariously through us. I'll start with a few thoughts from Night 1, please add your own!

Venue/Vibe: Brooklyn Bowl has this on lockdown by now. Entry moved quickly, no terrible lines for bar, bathroom, etc. For beer fans, they were serving the "Riptown IPA" Dogfish Head collaboration, which was a pretty tasty hazy.  I also like that they station a tiny cash bar halfway back on the side of the main viewing area, which makes it easy to grab a quick mid-set refill.

Opener: I have to say, I wasn't very impressed with ZOPA.  I gave them a few listens on Spotify earlier this week and liked it well enough, but Michael Imperioli is not a super strong singer and he definitely benefits from a bit of studio treatment. Kind of a Dinosaur Jr. vibe in the sense that every song is a lot of droning guitar chords with not a lot of space, but unfortunately the melodies aren't memorable enough to make that approach work very well.

THS: The band came out to Manilow's "Looks Like We Made It" as they did in MN, and immediately ripped into a muscular 1-2-3 punch of "Constructive Summer," "Barfruit Blues," and "Lanyards."  My buddy and I were talking pre-show about whether they would use the full BAGIA experience as a show opener or closer, and the answer was neither -- they stuck it in the middle. After those three, Craig gave a tiny little mention of the 15th anniversary, and then they dove right into "Stations."

BAGIA: It was definitely a cool experience to get the entire album in a row, although the fact that so many of those songs are live staples anyway didn't make it feel all that different from a regular set. "Same Kooks" had a real fun energy, and it was neat to hear Franz add some spooky keys to "Citrus".  The question of who would play the "boy and girl" in "Chillout Tent" was answered by Michael Imperioli (of the opener, ZOPA) and Augusta Koch, of the Philly band Gladie.  She was great -- giving the song a brassy edge, a bit punkier than the "sweet" vocals on the original.  He was, uh, fine.  The BAGIA set ended with both "Girls Like Status" and "Arms & Hearts," which is always magnificent live.  

THS 2: The main set finished up with a few more bangers, including the 2nd ODP track of the night -- "Me & Magdalena," wonderfully groovy, and "Denver Haircut," the only "Passion" cut to make an appearance.  No album cuts from "Heaven is Whenever " or "Teeth Dreams" were played.

ENCORE: After a fantastic "Hoodrat" > "Slapped Actress" finish, the band came back out for a truly memorable encore.  First, Craig described how he'd tried to learn some piano during the pandemic, and wanted to show his progress on a "holiday song."  Franz stepped aside, and Craig fingered his way through the first verse of the Counting Crows' "A Long December," which turned into a joyful singalong on the "na-na-nahhh" bits. That led to the big surprise of the evening -- a rare sighting of "Ballad of the Midnight Hauler!" -- before a slamming "You Gotta Dance" and ultimately winding it down with some Killer Parties and "so much joy."

OVERALL:  This was a great THS show, and a welcome return to form.  Not the best THS show of my life, but an amazing way to spend an evening.  

I'd love to hear anyone else's thoughts, and I'll try to share my experiences on the subsequent nights as well!

[bigontheinside]

Wow, Arms & Hearts! And Midnight Hauler! Very cool. Surprised at how little they played from ODP, but I'm guessing more will be played on the less BAGIA-dominated nights. Cool to see they're doing Me & Magdalena too, with 8 albums now and limited set space it would be more 'safe' to stick to Family Farm, Lanyards and Heavy Covenant

[star18]

Massive Nights '21 | Thursday Night 


Venue/Vibe: Another top-notch night at the Brooklyn Bowl! This is totally anecdotal, but Thursday did feel a bit more crowded, and the crowd more lively as compared to Wednesday. At least in the area around me, I was seeing a lot more of the "strangers throwing arms around each other" kind of stuff than I did on night #1.

Opener: I only caught the back-half of St. Lenox's set, but they sounded cool -- definitely a lot more melody than we got from ZOPA on Weds.  Andrew Choi, the singer and songwriter, has a very distinctive voice and delivery: rapid-fire syllables and a lot of melisma/warble on his notes, not entirely dissimilar from John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats. The songs have big poppy hooks, I recommend you check 'em out.

THS: Tonight the band walked out to the Beatles tune "I've Got A Feeling," and kicked things off with "Positive Jam" directly into "Adderall."  Tonight's set list was a really fantastic representation of their entire catalog; all of the albums were represented, plus a good mix of hits and deeper cuts. Unsurprisingly given the previous night, the set was fairly light on "Boys & Girls" material.  "Stay Positive" and "Separation Sunday" songs got the most love, with 7 and 5 tracks respectively, while "Teeth Dreams" and "Thrashing" were on the other end of that spectrum, with just one track each ("On With The Business" and a bouncy "Entitlement Crew.")

There was very little crossover material from Night #1 -- in fact, only 7 songs were repeated.  Those were all the usual suspects: "Chips Ahoy," "Stations," "You Can Make Him Like You," "Hoodrat," "Constructive Summer," "Sequestered in Memphis," and of course, "Killer Parties."

For the second night in a row we did not see the Horn Steady, although I do have an insider tip that they will be appearing before the Massive Nights conclude!

Some personal highlights for me were "Prior Procedure," which I've been really hyped to see live ever since ODP was released, a rare performance of "One for the Cutters," and then the real deep cut of the evening, "Separate Vacations."  It was also sick as hell to see Tad break out the double-neck and absolutely shred the "Lord, I'm Discouraged" solo.  (Side note, 95% sure I passed Tad on the sidewalk on my walk to the venue.  I gave the absolute minimal head-nod possible.)

Encore:  "Parade Days" sighting! Then a nice dancy "Sequestered" into a Mosh Pit Josh-aided "Stay Positive" before they closed it down with KP & so much joy.

Overall: Based on my entirely-subjective observations, while Wednesday's show was perfectly lovely, the band stepped it up tonight. They're always tight of course, but tonight had that little extra oomph, and the band members all seemed to be having more fun with it, which was reflected in the crowd as well. 

Can't wait for tonight!  I'm predicting a mix of very old and very new -- we're still waiting to hear some of the biggest ODP hits, like "Covenant," "Family Farm," and "Breakfast," and I also have a feeling we may hear some more AKM, maybe a "Hostile, Mass" or a "Most People Are DJs." I'd also love to hear some "Thrashing"-era stuff, especially the non-album cuts like "Esther," or "Snake in the Shower."  We'll see!

[star18]

Massive Nights '21 | Friday Night





Venue/Vibe: Not much to say about the 'Bowl on Friday that I haven't already said. Tonight was the most crowded show yet, but still was pretty comfortable and well-run.  Always nice to see some familiar faces in the crowd from the two previous nights. Maybe it was my position in the crowd (I was a little closer to the stage) but the audience was in especially exuberant voice, every single whoa-oh-oh was an massive singalong and a few times Craig even looked surprised/amused by just how much people were singing along. 


Opener: THICK is three women with fun riot-grrl energy and holy-mother-of-god amplifiers.  I'm fine with loud music (as evidenced by my going to four THS shows in a row) but in this case it was actually pretty rough to appreciate the songs, just because everything was SO cranked-to-11 on every song. We retreated back to the bar just to get a little distance. Definitely check out their recorded tracks, but if you see this band live, bring earplugs! I also noticed that the singer/guitarist Nikki Sisti was hanging out at the merch table talking to fans after the show, which is always worth extra points in my book.


THS: The band took the stage to Boz Scaggs' classic "Lido Shuffle," which felt apropos since lots of fans recognized some similarities between that tune and "Hanover Camera" when ODP was released.  Then we were off to the races with the first appearance of "Hornets!" during this run.

Wednesday and Thursday's sets both had a few curveballs in them, but tonight was decidedly a fastball right down the middle. Just hit after hit after hit, with nary a B-side or deep cut in sight. The closest thing to "unexpected" in terms of song picks was a mid-set run of "Blackout Sam" into "Navy Sheets," both of which sounded divine.  My prediction of more ODP material tonight was borne out -- we heard four songs from that album, including the second appearance of "Lanyards" -- but besides that, the band stuck firmly to the Sep Sunday-BAGIA-Stay Positive trinity.  They again avoided Heaven is Whenever & Teeth Dreams material, with "Hurricane J" being the only representative from albums 5 & 6. One thing that I really appreciate is how the band will still vary their material even when picking from the most popular albums -- both Thursday and Friday featured a ton of Sep Sunday and Stay Positive, but they varied which tracks they played from both.  After three nights, we've now gotten every Sep Sunday track except for "Charlemagne," and everything from Stay Positive except for "Both Crosses" and "Joke About Jamaica."

The same 7 songs that got played on both Weds & Thurs were here again (that's "Chips Ahoy," "Stations," "You Can Make Him Like You," "Hoodrat," "Constructive Summer," "Sequestered in Memphis," and "Killer Parties.")  Those seem to be the staples at this point, and of course they're always a good time (although personally I wouldn't mind if they wanted to ease off "YCMHLY" a little bit.)

Horn Steady: We got the horns tonight! They came out for three separate segments, one earlier in the set ("Family Farm" > "Cattle" > "Sequestered" > "Blackout Sam"), another in the back half ("Hot Soft Light" > "Heavy Covenant" >  "Banging Camp" > "Massive Nights"), and then again for the encore. The new tunes, of course, often really need the horns, but it's also cool to hear them worked into material where there wasn't an original horn part. 

Encore: They began the encore in laid-back fashion with "The Feelers," before barreling into "Entitlement Crew," (one of the few newer songs to make two appearances over three nights), then closing it out with "Chicago" and a particularly uptempo "Killer Parties.")


Overall: Just another amazing night. The fanboy in me would've liked to hear a few more deep cuts, but the band has so many great hits at this point, it's hard to fault them for just slamming through as many as possible. The new material was especially great, "Family Farm," "Blackout Sam," and "Heavy Covenant" were all highlights for me.

It's hard to believe we're almost to the end of the run already!  Can't wait to see what they cook up for tonight. I'm definitely expecting them to round out the rest of ODP (the only cuts we haven't heard yet are "Breakfast," "Riptown," and "Hanover"). I'm hoping that we get to hear some more Heaven is Whenever and Thrashing cuts, but I know that whatever they pick, we're gonna have a really good time. 

[john k]

Good to see the return of scene reports. Well done star18

[hitchhiker]

Great show Saturday night. I went to the last night of the first year in Brooklyn (5 years ago! With lifter puller opening! And when I was five years younger and five years cooler enough that a dude offered me some of his molly - no one’s offering me anything these days), the last night of the third year, and was planning to go for last night last year but....

Show highlight was the Swish in its traditional song 2 spot. Never ever gets any better than that.

Runners up were Unpleasant Breakfast and Spices. Goddamn are those some good numbers. It’s crazy that one of my favorite bands had issued two records since I’d last seen em.

And Stevie Nix was great. Again. What a number that one is. Hell I was having such a good time I didn’t even mind Sequestered which is usually when I make a bathroom/beer run.

Hadn’t been in New York since the pandemic. It was very very good to be in New York again. Looking forward to Saturday night 2023.

[star18]

Massive Nights '21 | Saturday Night



Venue/Vibe: A solid 4/4 run for the esteemed 'Bowl. I don't want to keep repeating myself, but they just do a great job of hosting. Security staff, coat-check, bar staff all just friendly and competent.  Sure, the drinks are pricy, but that's every NYC venue, and at least BB has a pretty respectable beer list. I'm really glad that THS has picked this as their home base as opposed to some others in town I could name. (I also want to mention that the pre-show house playlist on Saturday was just a ton of great tunes.)

Opener: "I Get Wild" was the only opener that I hadn't researched at all, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they're a Talking Heads tribute band, of all things, with all the energy and auxiliary percussion that implies. They ran through 8 or 9 'Heads tunes, my favorite of which was a fun take on "Flowers." The THS connection here was Annie Nero, who played bass and sang backup in "I Get Wild," and has also performed backing vocals on the last few THS albums.

THS: Another fun pick for entrance music; tonight the band came on to Nick Lowe's hit "So It Goes," (which, with its lyrics about kids losing arms, backstage passes, and "50 thousand watts of power" fits right into the THS lyrical milieu). 


My previous recaps mentioned that Wednesday and Thursday each featured a few deep cuts, while Friday was pretty much "just the hits." Saturday, for my money, was an almost pitch-perfect blend of material, my undisputed favorite set of all four nights. They didn't play any truly deep cuts -- no B-sides or unreleased songs -- but they did spotlight a few under-appreciated gems while mixing in new and old favorites.

The boys opened up with four classics back to back, barely pausing for air between "Stations," "The Swish" (always feels good at #2), "Party Pit," and "Chips Ahoy." That led them into the first Horn Steady set, and one of my favorite stretches of the entire 4-night run.  First, we got a repeat of "Spices," then the horns really got a chance to shine on "You Did Good, Kid." The horns brought the New-Orleans style swing to that tune and got everyone dancing. We went back-to-back Thrashing with some "Entitlement Crew," before we finally got our "Unpleasant Breakfast."  The woos were exuberant and Craig thanked us for the help. 


After the horns set, the band gave us a truly memorable "Stevie Nix." Here's where I confess that as much I adore this band (obviously), I do sometimes wish they would stretch out or improvise a little bit more during live performance. That's probably not conducive to their current mode of rehearsing/touring, but I enjoy it when a band gives you a version of the song that's markedly different from the album, whether in tempo, arrangement, etc.  Well, for Saturday's "Stevie," the band let Franz go off a bit more during his spotlight moment (the piano breakdown right before "she got screwed up by religion").  Franz played for maybe 3x as long as normal, working in some gorgeous bluesy notes and orchestral chords, before returning to the playbook.  It was only maybe 15 extra seconds of music, but it really made the song feel special.

Speaking of the standards, one day after I joked that I could stand a little less "You Can Make Him Like You," the band apparently agreed and nixed that one for the final night.  So we ended up with six songs that were played 4x: "Chips Ahoy," "Stations," "Hoodrat," "Constructive Summer," "Sequestered in Memphis," and "Killer Parties."  Hard to argue with any of those. 

The back half of the set was also glorious. Craig used an extended intro of "We Can Get Together" to talk about how much the Unified Scene has meant to him over the last years, and how great it felt to be back together again in the same room.  Tad used the end of "We Can Get Together" to blow the roof off the fucking place with a devastating solo.  The crowd went nuts, and I actually saw a genuine smile from Tad (who generally looks pretty stoic up there.) Another highlight was "I Hope This Whole Thing Didn't Frighten You," just the second "Teeth" track of the whole run, which was incredibly tight and energetic.


As I'd predicted, the band did end up playing 100% of Open Door Policy over the course of the run, which meant that we got the in-person debuts of both "Riptown" and "Hanover Camera" during the second-half.  I'm on record as saying "Riptown" is my least-favorite ODP cut but damn if it didn't absolutely whip ass live (Tad stuck to the electric guitar, so it felt less plodding than the record.) We also got more "Thrashing" love, with a rambunctious "Tee-Shirt Tux."  Someone in the front threw piano-key neckties onto the stage; Franz wrapped one around his trilby hat. The main set ended with "Massive Nights," into "Southtown Girls," into "Resurrection," by which point we were all delirious.

Encore:  The lights start to come up, and there's Franz . . . and there's Craig . . . where's everyone else?  Franz hits the keys, and, "Guess you're old enough to know . . ."  Hell yeah, certain songs they get so scratched into our souls!  The rest of the boys snuck onstage a minute or two later to complete the song, which was melancholic and perfect. Then they ramped it back up again with some "Confusion in the Marketplace" (yes!) before the 1-2 punch of "Stay Positive" and "Killer Parties" to shut it all down.

Overall: My favorite THS show of my life. 

Final Thoughts: When THS played "Massive Nights" 2019, my buddy & I went to the Friday night show, and had so much fun that on the way out the door, we swore the next time they came, we'd hit all four. Of course '20 was a bust, but I'm so glad we stuck to our plan for '21.  While there was a certain "Groundhog Day" element to going through the same rituals 4 nights in a row (coat check, bar tab, opening band, etc.), it was also fascinating to see how each night was different in terms of crowd, energy, and of course set list. 

The band seems to be in a positive place (as much as we can discern this kind of stuff as outsiders.)  Lots of smiles, seemed to be having a great time up there. Craig, of course, is as exuberant and manic as ever. I noticed a little more on-stage shenanigans between the other guys than in '19 -- Franz fanning Galen with his hat, Steve and Tad throwing guitar picks at each other after trading off solos. Steve stuck around and gave the front-row fans a bunch of high-fives after the encore.

As though I needed one more thing to love about this band, I'm truly amazed by how much care they took in crafting the sets for all four nights, and the overall run.  If they were simply playing the same set each night, I wouldn't recommend doing what we did, but having each night be a broadly different experience, with such a deep back catalog, is just incredibly satisfying for a super-fan like me. They played exactly 25 songs each night, and again, only 6 showed up every single night.* Two whole albums were literally played in their entirely; another two albums nearly so. I suppose if your favorite record is "Teeth Dreams" you might have reason to be disappointed, but besides that, they really covered all their bases. 

Goddamn, I love this band.


*Because I'm a weirdo who likes analyzing art, I'm going to do an addendum post breaking down their song selections a little more -- stay tuned for that coming soon.

[skepticatfirst]

Thanks a lot for writing these up --- fun to read, *and* make me feel less shitty about missing out this year.

Dec 6, 2021 17:08:14 GMT -5 star18 said:

*Because I'm a weirdo who likes analyzing art, I'm going to do an addendum post breaking down their song selections a little more -- stay tuned for that coming soon.

You may be in good company   Looking forward to seeing this when it's done!

[bmegroove]

Dec 6, 2021 17:08:14 GMT -5 star18 said:

Massive Nights '21 | Saturday Night


Overall: My favorite THS show of my life. 

I do believe I can say the same. You summed it up perfectly, nice job!
I'm thrilled to have come out of the shows alive, and with a nice piano key necktie to boot.

All the joy.

[garym]

Dec 6, 2021 17:08:14 GMT -5 star18 said:

Massive Nights '21 | Saturday Night



"After the horns set, the band gave us a truly memorable "Stevie Nix." Here's where I confess that as much I adore this band (obviously), I do sometimes wish they would stretch out or improvise a little bit more during live performance. That's probably not conducive to their current mode of rehearsing/touring, but I enjoy it when a band gives you a version of the song that's markedly different from the album, whether in tempo, arrangement, etc.  Well, for Saturday's "Stevie," the band let Franz go off a bit more during his spotlight moment (the piano breakdown right before "she got screwed up by religion").  Franz played for maybe 3x as long as normal, working in some gorgeous bluesy notes and orchestral chords, before returning to the playbook.  It was only maybe 15 extra seconds of music, but it really made the song feel special."

Stevie Nix was much more memorable than just that. The lyrics and hand gestures changed, for a one-off special I believe.. 

[star18]

Stevie Nix was much more memorable than just that. The lyrics and hand gestures changed, for a one-off special I believe..

Can you expand on that?  I don't remember a lyrical change, but I was probably too blissed-out to notice!

[garym]

It was related to his comment at the start of the song "This is by special request..", it was referring to my daughter.
She'd been chatting with Craig while the opener was playing, and about last year she was looking forward to Massive Nights, and "to be 33 forever". Of course last year that did not happen, and now she's 34.
So he mentioned maybe she could be 34 forever. In the first verse with the line, he sang "oh to be 33 forever", in the second, he turned straight towards her, and sang "Oh to be 34 forever, oh to be 34 forever", complete with a 34 hand gesture. You can imagine how ecstatic she was.

It's things like that that make this band so special, and why 2 generations of a family have travelled from Scotland to every single night of all the Massive Nights concerts :-)

[bmegroove]

Oh wow, I definitely remember the 34 line and thinking it was new. Pretty damn cool!

[sequesteredinuk]

Cool story Garym, I did wonder at the time what 34 was all about?

Good for you guys, it'll go down in The Hold Steady folklore. 👍