Baker's Dozen: 2000-2009 Concertgoing Edition
I know I said Baker’s Dozen was taking a week off, and that turned out to be half-true: I usually load the playlist with new-ish music from the last few years that I’ve been enjoying, but for this special edition I’m drawing from the artists featured in my recent newsletter about all the concerts I saw from 2000-2009. This will be a recurring thing too, since I only got up to around 2007 or so on this playlist. And if you miss the regular format, don’t worry: I’ll be back with thoughts on Machine Gun Kelly next week.
https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/4QQvWqzOayaf0bt66rFSGY
Dave Matthews Band, “Intro” (Live at Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, NJ, 9/11/99)
I promise not every track on this will be a live cut, but I couldn’t resist kicking off with this one. Listener Supported came out roughly a year and a half before I saw DMB live, so I’d heard this intro a lot and was psyched as all hell when they opened up the show I saw with this. Weird thing about Listener Supported—I bought it on CD and the first disc didn’t work at all, I had to return it and get a new copy. That kind of thing doesn’t happen in the age of streaming, kind of miss getting fucked up physical copies of things.
The Magnetic Fields, “When the Open Road Is Closing In”
My favorite Magnetic Fields song on my favorite Magnetic Fields album. When my sister-in-law was diagnosed with cancer, I listened to this album—and, often, this song—on repeat for weeks, along with Yo La Tengo’s I Can Feel the Heart Beating as One. Hearing Paramore’s After Laughter for the first time broke the spell.
Ozma, “Domino Effect”
Great song. Always made it two songs into this album and then kind of turned it off. Maybe I’ll make it to the end one day.
Thursday, “How Long Is the Night?”
Always thought this was the best song off Full Collapse, I listened to this one a lot in between classes freshman year of high school.
Spoon, “Jonathan Fisk”
My career-arc theory on Spoon is they make “one for us” (an undisputed indie-rock classic) and then “one for them” (a slightly experimental, more subtle record that gets tagged as underrated in the years that follow). They pretty much go back and forth like that and have since at least Kill the Moonlight, which is obviously in the “one for us” camp.
Cursive, “The Radiator Hums”
Even though I saw Cursive on The Ugly Organ tour, I always liked this Domestica song more than anything from The Ugly Organ. As one does, I basically fell off with Cursive after The Ugly Organ.
Stars, “Reunion”
The best Stars song? The best Stars song. Maybe this will get Torquil to stop bothering me on Twitter about how I gave The Five Ghosts (a bad album) a bad review. Probably not though.
The White Stripes, “Black Math”
I forgot to mention this in the newsletter but the Elephant tour concert I saw was pretty incredible, really. Jack White’s kind of gone through the rabbit hole a few times regarding how music writers talk about him now, but the talent has been and continues to be undeniable. (The last Raconteurs album was secretly one of the more solid rock records of the last few years, too.)
The Hold Steady, “Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night”
I simply cannot recall how many times I yelled “Chicago seemed tired last night!” like an obnoxious asshole between songs at Hold Steady shows. (Thanks to all the readers and friends who have made jokes about me seeing them too much in the 2000s. All the jokes were good.)
The Decemberists, “The Sporting Life”
Don’t front: the Decemberists had (and still have) some bangers. My long-standing theory about the Decemberists’ popularity in 2000s-era indie is that they gained some distant Neutral Milk Hotel comparisons circa Castaways and Cutouts and things just kind of took off from there. They would’ve been popular with different (and arguably more profitable) audiences either way, but I think that kept the Pitchfork-reader wolves at bay until they went full-blown theater-kid around the turn of the 2010s. Colin Meloy’s a great songwriter though and can still turn out a really pretty and wistful tune every now and then.
Animal Collective, “The Purple Bottle”
Always my favorite song from Feels, and it sounded great every time I saw them on this tour, too. (I forgot that I actually saw them on this tour a third time, at NYU. I forgot a bunch of shows, as many friends have reminded me over the last few days.)
Love Is All, “Busy Doing Nothing”
Perfect quarantine song, really.
The Fiery Furnaces, “A Candymaker’s Knife in My Handbag”
Throwing this one in here just to emphasize how unfortunately funny it is to buy tickets to a Rehearsing My Choir-era Fiery Furnaces show before hearing Rehearsing My Choir.