Matthew Seligman's tour diary from underwatermoonlight.com
Before the gig
We all get up late in San Francisco, partying is becoming more regular and as we are sharing a hotel with the YFF, we'd need a reason NOT to. Sorry. We don't get to do this often. And as we are starting to get used to the idea that the US leg of the tour is ending now, we're starting to linger on the moments a bit more. It has been an amazing few weeks. The leaving behind is hard. I never want to leave any of it behind. Washington, New York, Toronto, Chicago, Minneapolis, Vancouver, Seattle, SF....

Leaving the hotel this morning, Dewitt says thanks for the photos (I did a little session with him at soundcheck yesterday - this is the sexiest and we set off down the coast road to Los Angeles. Robyn and Michèle are going separately with Ryan. We chat about stuff - ex-girlfriends' editorial control over future relationships, are mp3's the "transistor radios" of the 2000's and the UK tour - Norwich, Cambridge, Bristol, Radio 2 etc. With the coast road pretty empty, seaspray and a sunny day, it's a gentle good mood we're in. Kim's still sleeping off the voice and Morris is talking about music and how Harry took UM to a sleepover at his friend's house.

Me, I'm taking pictures of the scenery which is not unlike the UK (Cornwall, etc) on the early section of the drive.

Halfway down the road we stop at a roadside cafe and catch Robyn, Ryan and Michèle having a light snack. I confront Robyn wth the fact that I haven't got enough pictures of him for the site and he agrees to do a session if I can catch him drunk, at night with his shades on. It's a deal, so we'll see ..... I get into some arty tree shots and we leave. It's 2 in the morning when we get into LA and we've got a radio session with an 8 am start.

The radio the next morning's with a college radio out in Santa Monica - KCRW - and it goes well, maybe we're a bit scruffy at that time in the morning, but the spirit's there which is all that really matters (to us). We did KoL, Perv, Mind and Destroy You first, then Robyn spoke a bit (interesting point about radio stations all turning into TV stations with webcams etc) and then we did Sudden Town, Moonlight (Robyn and I have completely abandoned notes in the middle section now), FoD and Pulse then Kim decided to walk home which is quite a long way but as Morris said, he's always been an "extreme walker". Nice version of Face too, I thought.

Day ends with discovering a great review online of us/YFF in the SF Chronicle which my pal Katherine sends me and what with "Soft Boys soar at the Fillmore" (big thankyou to Neva Chonin for that) and that glitterball, it's all a bit surreally opposite to 7 people at the Hope & Anchor in Islington, two of whom worked there. Then back to Scott's room 108 at the hotel and the YFF to carry on mourning the end of the tour. This is a pool-side room too, and Robyn says after seeing Titanic he swam a width of it (the pool, not the room) to see what Leonardo de Caprio felt like. Meanwhile, Morris has agreed to do bits of the diary tomorrow, whilst Michèle on the spot, with some help from Ryan maybe, prepares and renders her Seattle poetry diary, which is a Haiku.

This reminds me of John Cooper-Clark's haiku which is "To express yourself in seventeen sylables is very diffic-". And whilst we're spinning off the track here into things people have said, Bono's recent "Some things have to be believed to be seen" should get a mention because as well as being very good that is also sort of what has happened here with the Soft Boys.

Right, then at bedtime, I find some other astounding functions on the camera to assist in capturing the party spirit including a remarkable performance of the "how many different faces can you make in 16 seconds" test by Kurt, plus a nice blurry one of Robyn. So another good day. Gig tomorrow. G'night. Zonk.

Today (which is a new day) was me getting up, going out to Venice to see my friend Chrissie who is PR for Machine Head studios which my other friend Steve Dewey runs ...and then being molested by a dog called Willy who only stopped when I took her picture (that is LA dogs for you) ...and then finding myself accidentally recording something on a Britney Spearsless Pepsi commercial whilst waiting for the taxi although I didn't notice at the time that the writer was crossing his fingers as I left ......

Then soundchecking and working out Hots and Car She Used to Drive and some new song that Robyn is writing with a really nice guitar riff .....

I personally think LA is a more interesting place than it was in the 80's, dunno why.....everyone seems a bit more serious and less "wow", which suits them....As minutes tick away to soundcheck, I 'review' my CD pile. I don't think I have it in me to be rude about these, sorry:

The Novellas: "Marietta's Coming" (track 2) is great. The band works so much around the singer and the keyboards but they have an excellent drummer. "Laura's gone to London" which they have on free download at their site isn't one of the strongest tracks but has got great rhythm section. Brilliant keyboards by Laura at the beginning of "There goes Betty again" and that was my favourite until I heard "Caterpillar Man" which was my favourite until I heard "Self Immolation Row" but I don't know what immolation means so I can't tell if that's a good title or not. Laura is obviously a stupendous keyboardist.

Peppermint: I can't believe how good it is. What can I say? I really enjoyed it. It's all fun and games and nearly brilliant and nearly terrible on occasions. Some spirits like us, except without the heavy guitars. Track 7 is an Eno-esque instrumental that ripples with brilliance. I thought it was called "This planet will never land" but unfortunately it's not. It's called "This plane will never land" which is different. Plane, Planet, Plant. A letter can make such a lot of difference. Track 8 is a great track too. This lot are tainted with genius. But at the moment it is a "genius but ...." kind of genius. I would prefer it a bit heavier ...

Stephen Malkmus: Wow. This is good. Some great fuzz bass on the first track, could be keyboard, which might also be said of the bass on track 2. You can buy this. It is not a waste of money. Love "Phantasies". Nice production. Now its track 3 and this just keeps getting better. Sounds like he's using toy instruments now, and the playroom sound pictures remind me of the Cure. But he says "I'm not sweet at all". Track 4's slow. I don't like slow songs, so move on. Track 7 is an artist at work, like it. Track 8's slow too,but better. Like it, but don't listen to it. Same for 9. And 10. But 10's good. Very good. Still don't listen. "Jenny and the Ess-Dog" (track 11) is luscious - I like his toy-boy vocals. Last track, Deado, is totally beautiful too and marks Stephen out as a guy of pretty major talent. This is his Hunky Dory, not his Ziggy. Watch this space.

Anton Barbeau: Will listen when I've got more time, but thanks for the CD. I totally loved the last one. However, minus 10 points for giving me another CD. So Anton comes last!

Job done, although Stephen Malkmus is clearly the best I perversely declare Peppermint the winners and decide to wear their t-shirt for the gig, which breaks Boy George's rule of not wearing something with someone else's name on .....

The gig
This is Morris's tour diary. Could I just add that it was going great until just before we went on stage when Dewitt came in and said Winona Rider was in the audience and it kind of threw me cos, I dunno - well ....... anyway apparently the gig was great and I said to Robyn afterwards "Hmmmm, the worse I play the better the gig is" and he said "Yeah, me too .... it's good, let's investigate that." So we're off to jam at LARGO tonight .....

Morris has still had a hangover when he did the tour diary and these are the extracts:

So this is the end, my .... friend ... the end. Our ramshackle train comes rattling out of the tunnel into the light that seemed so far away for so long - like that scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (or was it Jabberwocky? ) where the knights advancing on the castle appear to the guards to be making no progress then all of a sudden they're right on top of them - touring always seems a bit like that. Apologies if I seem a bit incoherent - it's a combination of elation at finishing the tour on such a high, the feeling of weightlessness you get when you realise its all behind you, but perhaps most crucially that special feeling you get after at least half a dozen beers abd an unquantifiable amount of Jim Beam all nicely washed down with champagne kindly provided by the Agency with which we toasted ourselves in the dressing room last night. Uncharacteristically I was moved to utter a few words to the assembled cast, to the effect that this had been the most fun tour I'd ever been on ...... the Knitting Factory was the best gig of the whole tour - for me personally even better than my previous high, Minneapolis. The drums and the set just seemed to play themselves, Robyn's intros, if any, were short and to the point (but in a good way!), we did a great, juddering version of "I've got the Hots for you" for the first time (ever?) and basically the whiole thing rocked ...... It was nice to see some old faces after the show like Karen Glauber, Ian O'Higgins and especially Richard Bishop, the man without whom Moonlight might not have been unleashed, looking disgustingy healthy and prosperous and very happy to be there ...... all I'd like to say after all that is thanx to everybody who came to see us .... I'm off to breakfast and then shopping for the kids who are having a 3-day party at home, Sheila having gone to India on Tuesday and I won't be back till Friday. When I rang home yesterday conversation was seriously hampered by the din of 9 16-year old girls attempting to arrange mattresses on the living room floor .... what devastation awaits me! Will that do, Matthew?

After the gig
Rick Gershen's got a couple of things he wants to say (stay tuned! - ed.) And this is my P.S. I stagger out of my room this morning to find a pile of 6 different YFF CD's and a 'bye 'bye note from Scott. "We had the best time ever". Mmmmmmm .... us too, totally. See you all soon if the world is kind .....

— Matthew


I was in a nice centered spot about 10-15 feet from the stage -- the other listfolk were way over on the right in front, but I don't like standing directly in front of speakers. The people around me smelt like bologna, wheat toast and farts. Not necessarily in that order. Nauseated claustrophobia became a steady motif for me. Unfortunately, my spot also turned out to be *too* centered -- I barely saw Morris' playing at all, because frontman Robyn was blocking my view. Drat. That's life.

I approached this show with a slightly different attitude, I guess. I wasn't particularly excited about a Soft Boys Reunion Show, per se -- I was more excited about simply seeing Robyn play a lot of his great, early songs which I haven't seen performed before. Rew did add significant spark to certain songs where he and Robyn traded lead licks, but otherwise, I didn't feel like this lineup had a "unique magic" far beyond other bands I've seen behind Robyn. And Rew's contribution is sorta *necessarily* unusual, since he's the only "lead guitar"-style player Robyn has ever used. (Uhh...isn't he?)

...The big news for Fgz who saw other dates is that the band did include "I Got the Hots" as one of the encore tunes. Robyn preceded it with an apologetic introduction about not having played the song for XX years, and it being kinda rough. And it was. But by then, the three non-drumming Young Fresh Fellows were also onstage, and added plenty of juice to the performance. Ditto for "Queen of Eyes," "Give It to the Soft Boys," "You Have to Go Sideways" (well, this song only included *one* Fellow) and "The Face of Death." But, how did I get to the encore? I'm having trouble staying sequential, today.

I felt like the Soft Boys' performance was strong, but noticeably uneven. The intensity went up and down, from song to song. Some tunes had the old fire, others just didn't. "Tonight," "I Wanna Destroy You" and "Kingdom of Love" didn't, sad to say. They just weren't wound tight enough, and my mind's eye (picturing a young, intense, glowering Robyn) was instead greeted with the older, casual, lay-back-and-swivel Robyn. Didn't quite work for me. (It also didn't help that one of the Bologna & Fart People behind me was loudly singing all the "IIIIIIIIIIIIIII's" in "Destroy You," with little regard for pitch. Ouch. Two other B&Fers also hooted and aggressively flipped off Robyn, when he introduced "Destroy You" with some anti-Dubya comments. Blah.)

On the other hand, the band seemed to jump to life with the more rhythmically jagged tunes. "Leppo & the Jooves," "Old Pervert" (obviously the highlight of Rew's night), "Insanely Jealous" and "Only the Stones Remain" were all fantastic, for instance. If I'm thinking of the right song, Robyn really put his all into the latter tune, adding all sorts of illustrative (that's *illustrative*, not "quirky") hand gestures to the verses. There were also a few songs with inspired guitar duels between Robyn and Kimberley, but I can't quite name which ones they were. "Underwater Moonlight"? "Where are the Prawns"? That rare "Kennedy" song? I'm just not sure. I wasn't taking notes, on paper. Everyone who saw the previous dates knows which ones, anyway. Possibly "Astronomy Domine" -- *that* was exciting to see performed, though it could've been played better.

Eb