Teenage Fanclub, the Fillmore, February 25, 2019: Thanks to whatever is happening in the music industry these days, I bought my ticket to this show probably five or six months in advance of the performance. I felt pretty silly about it at the time, knowing full well that my beloved Teenage Fanclub would not sell out the Fillmore. Heck, the last time they came to town, they had to move the gig to the Great American Music Hall, likely due to sales. But as a bona fide early freak, I figure it didn't hurt to vote with my consumer dollars, early and often.
The crowd actually filled out respectably -- not bad for a drizzly Monday night. I suspect the Noise Pop tie-in and promotion helped, but it was still nice to see so many lovely faces (including some younger ones) at the show.
The bigger source of trepidation came after buying my ticket: The band's announcement that Gerry Love would no longer tour with them. I adore Teenage Fanclub as a group, but if you forced me to pick whose tunes I love the most, I would make a long speech about the whole outweighing the sum of its parts ... then eventually choose Gerry as the driving force behind my favorite tunes. It's not an easy call, but I know that more than a few times, I'd hear a Teenage Fanclub song, reflect on its brilliance, and realize that Gerry wrote it. Here's an experiment: Listen to Grand Prix and try to imagine it without Gerry's contributions. Not a fun thought, is it?
But now having seen the retooled band, I have to admit that there may be a bright side to the new configuration. Teenage Fanclub has released so many albums, and the fans have so many favorite deep cuts, that inevitably, we can always name a song or two that we wish they had played but couldn't accommodate at the show. But now, Norman and Raymond have much more opportunity to dig into their catalog. For example, I can't remember when I last heard "Catholic Education" or "The Cabbage." And though it'd be irresponsible to guess at whether or not they missed Gerry's presence, both Norman and Raymond appeared to be in fine spirits all evening.
But never fear, they hit us with many of their classics, including the perennial opener "About You" (speaking of Grand Prix), "The Concept," and many more. I was particularly pleased to hear "Your Love Is the Place Where I Came From." Paul recently reminded me that Nick Hornby championed the tune in Songbook, but I swear that I loved it regardless. It really is a perfect encapsulation of Raymond's hangdog appeal wrapped up in a subtle, earnest number.
In addition, they played at least one new track from their recent recording session, again minus Gerry. To my surprise, it was fairly rocking -- maybe influenced by the recording environment in Hamburg, Germany. Who am I kidding? If they come back to the United States to tour that record, of course I'll grab a ticket.
One more recollection from the evening: As "Everything Flow" began and we old fogies jumped around a ton, I had a flashback to Teenage Fanclub shows of yore (at Slim's, I believe), when the song was pretty much a green light for the ex-pats in the audience to start moshing and shoving everyone around. I'm happy to report that they did not appear to be among us that night, and I for one don't miss them, but I kind of wonder where they might be now.
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» ain't that enough
