September 18 2008: Built to Spill, the Meat Puppets - Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton MA

Me and Jared Jost went to see Built to Spill in an upstairs space billing itself as a ballroom! Just like old times! We didn't drive to the show in a big-ass van with a tape deck, but things change. Instead he drove in from Boston after work and met me at Sierra and we drank great beer and ate great food before the show. Give me food and beer over a van any day.

The Meat Puppets opened. They were mostly awful. And the only songs they played that anyone in the audience seemed to know were "Plateau," somewhere in the middle, and "Lake of Fire," which they closed with. Frankly, Nirvana did them better. They also did that Jimmy Driftwood tune "Tennessee Stud."

But Built to Spill! Martsch, Nelson, Netson, Roth, Plouf, plus some dude on cello! And they played straight through "Perfect From Now On." Which was great on one hand, cause that's a pretty good bunch of songs. But I didn't really enjoy knowing exactly what was coming next. However, I'd never seen them play "Kicked it in the Sun" before, and hadn't seen songs like "Untrustable" or "Out of Site" in quite a while. And to hear them with the cellist was lots of fun.

After they finished those eight "Perfect From Now On" tunes they went right into "Goin' Against Your Mind," which I really like but always wish they'd play like they played it in 2006 before they recorded it. That opening guitar line that they do these days just plaes in comparison to what it used to be. And for the encore it was "Big Dipper" followed by "Car." Fun to hear those tunes again too.

And fun to hear Built to Spill songs with Jared and then retire to my porch after the show and watch the cars drive by and drink cheap beer and finish off Jared's pack of Parliments. Just like we used to do.