On the second swing of touring for last year's Mirror Traffic, Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks ventured further afoot, landing in Santa Barbara for a return visit to the intimate Soho. He was in rare form, loose and playful, perhaps given the presence of his sister at the show, whom he nearly outed both her address and phone. He also made time to parry the obligatory 'Pavement' shout out by launching into a monologue about doing Whippets w/said person's mother. Vintage Malkmus.
The setlist, pictured after video, was adhered to in spirit, rather than by the letter, and a high point was a rousing segue from the new album's "Asking Price" into "Stick Figures In Love" without missing a beat. Not new anymore drummer Jake Morris seems much more in place with the
band, seamlessly locking in with long standing bassist Joanna Bolme.
The encore was the Malkmus tradition of a jangled mix of covers, and this was no exception. Starting out with Boston's "Peace Of Mind", it gave way to the Velvet Underground's "When She Comes", before straying through Joy Division, and finishing fittingly with The Doors' "The End". I will update video of that in the future, for those interested morbidly or otherwise. It was the perfect capper to the evening.
Portland trio Nurses filled the opening bill, winning the restless audience over. Their tunes were ghostly psychadelic tinged animals that ran loose in a live setting. Lead guitarist Aaron Chapman was sporting a beautiful 1964 national Barracuda. Their last two LP's: Apple's Acre, from a few years back, and last year's Dracula, are both out on Dead Oceans.
Editor's Note: Previous blog post was a resurrected unpublished draft of a Malkmus/Jicks show from last fall, which, for consistency's sake, seemed to work best here...
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