Silver Jews @ The 40 Watt, Mar. 10, 2006

As I've mentioned here a few times lately, last night I attended the first official show of the Silver Jews' inaugural tour (there was a surprise rehearsal gig in Nashville last week as well). It was a sold-out appearance at the 40 Watt in Athens. Rarely have I attended a show in which the crowd was so filled with anticipation and electricity. Everyone in line outside was excited by the significance of the evening, and many indicated that they had traveled long distances (from California and Virginia, not Atlanta) to be there.

The band took the stage at midnight and played a 15-song set about 68 minutes in duration. The entire evening had the feel of attending a revival. A selection of tracks from throughout their history was played, as was a cover of TG Sheppard's "I Loved Them Every One." It was obvious that the band was still feeling its way through some of the songs, and Berman did flub some lyrics. Berman had a music stand with lyric sheets on stage to help him through the set, and indicated that he has long had trouble remembering the lyrics to even his own tunes. Despite the fact they weren't polished, it was a hell of a treat getting to see the band play live after all this time. Bob (Nastanovich, ex-Pavement) sat in on a few songs, and is serving as the band's road manager for the tour. I really enjoyed the show, and it'll be interesting to see how the band improves over time as they tour and get accustomed to playing live. The setlist was as follows:

Silver Jews
March 10, 2006
40 Watt Club, Athens, GA

Random Rules
Smith and Jones Forever
I'm Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You
Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed
Trains Across the Sea
New Orleans
How Can I Love You (If You Won't Lie Down)
Inside the Golden Days of Missing You
Dallas
Horseleg Swastikas
Sleeping is the Only Love
Slow Education
Punks in the Beerlight
I Loved Them Every One* [downloadable mp3]
- encore -
Buckingham Rabbit

* TG Sheppard cover

This was the first show of Silver Jews' first tour.
Spiritual Family Reunion opened the show.

As it'll be new to just about everyone, you can download the TG Sheppard cover above. I have also made mp3's of the full show available for download via Rapidshare. It's packaged in two .zip files available here:

Part 1 (61mb, via Rapidshare)
Part 2 (69mb, via Rapidshare)

For those who prefer lossless audio, you can download the show in .flac format via dimeadozen.org here. I'll try to leave my torrent software open for a while as additional seeders and leechers jump on.

You can read more about the tour in an interview with David Berman here.

Silver Jews at The EARL tonight. I can't wait.