Video of show available on VimeoReview by Steve McGowan from Zub RecordsAfter a week off, I was really missing Robyn and Emma. I did get the 1 of 50 Blonde On The Tracks cassettes this week (already got my orange vinyl LP) so that was super cool. Nashville had a bad storm and the power was out for a bit, delaying the show for one hour.
Reg appeared wearing “a surviving shirt” from the 90’s (black with white polka dots, natch), and started with a Grant Lee Buffalo tune, ‘Fuzzy’ where he got to sing the chorus very high. Emma then appeared and announced they would do a Tanya Donnelly song (a Belly song) ‘Feed The Tree.’ Em sang backup and it was lovely. Emma spoke about her Lee purple corduroy flares and silver Doc Martens she wore nonstop in the 90’s. Em introduced the next tune as “grim” while Reg said it was one of his favorites. Emma sang Radiohead’s ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ solo and wonderfully, an amazing song that’s not easy to sing. Em said that The Bends was still her favorite Radiohead LP.
Em went out of shot and Reg played a fairly straightforward version of ‘Man In The Moon’ from R.E.M. Emma sang off camera in the choruses. Very well done, Robyn seemed really into these covers tonight. Emma returned and they discussed other R.E.M. covers and the first polka dot shirt Reg saw, worn by Ringo! (Starr, not their cat). Reg called Em “the Bob Dylan of wives.” Next up was Mazzy Star’s ‘Fade Into You,’ Emma singing solo in her lower register. It’s a very pretty but very repetitive song.
Reg held up a picture of Stonehenge, actually a coaster. They discussed doing a “dismal Neil” tune, and played ‘Unknown Legend’ from Neil Young’s 1992 LP Harvest Moon. Their voices worked really well together on this one. After, they discuss doing ‘Candy’ by Iggy and Kate Pierson. They then did a knockout version of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares To U,’ Emma just killing it on the vocal.
Perry the stuffed lobster appeared, and they discussed Sinead O’Connor, and they said they were going to Manchester. Em said she was Noel and Reg Liam. They did a great, playful version of ‘Look Back In Anger’ which was also quite touching. They ended up with a few verses of a mostly a cappella version of ‘If You Want To Be My Lover’ (actually called 'Wannabe') by the Spice Girls This was hilarious and fun, and a great way to end the show. Good to have them back!