Setlist from last night (7/8 July)

Last night's program included plenty of birthday tributes, a song-retains-the-name block, and observances of the first-ever airplay of Elvis (1954), the debut publication of The Wall Street Journal (1889), and the first-ever sale of sliced bread (1928). All that, and bookending National Anthems!

"The Star Spangled Banner" - Boston
"Attitude" - The Kinks (for bassist Jim Rodford's birthday)
"The Drowners" - Suede
"The Nights of Wine and Roses" - Japandroids

"I'm Here I'm Gone" - The Pandoras
"Ghost on the Beach" - Insiders
"Rimbaud Eyes" - Dum Dum Girls
"Split Myself in Two" - Meat Puppets

"Walk Away" - Boss Martians
"Sociopath" - Prima Donna
"Thrill Yr Idols" - The Shivas
"Lou Weed" - The Dandy Warhols

"The Bakery" - Arctic Monkeys
"Don't Slander Me" - Roky Erickson (by request)
"It Don't Come Easy" - The Smithereens (for Ringo's birthday)
"Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)" (live) - Joe Jackson

"That's All Right, Mama" - Elvis Presley
"That's What Counts" - We Are Scientists
"That's Something I Do" - The Apples in Stereo
"That's the Way It's Got to Be" - The Poets
"That's Just the Way It Is Now" - Rancid

"Big Shot" - The Pack A.D.
"Big Shot" (live) - The English Beat
"Big Shot" - The Bonzo Dog Band
"Big Shot" - Big Drill Car

"Nobody Asked Me (If I Was Okay)" - Sky Ferreira (for Sky's birthday)
"Joining the Dots" - Arctic Monkeys (for guitarist Jamie Cook's birthday)
"Gamma Ray" - Beck (for Beck's birthday)
"Walking in My Shoes" - Depeche Mode (for Andrew Fletcher's birthday)

"The Wall Street Shuffle" - 10cc
"The Family" - The Members
"The 19th Most Powerful Woman in Rock" - Supersuckers
"The Star Spangled Banner" (live) - Kiss

Wow, I completely missed the Joe Jackson album where he did "Scary Monsters" - I need to pay closer attention to live albums, I guess. I just checked it out, and am surprised that it works much better than it has any right to.

And Jackson also covers Ian Dury's "Inbetweenies" on that album. That one makes a bit more sense and Jackson does a great job. It looks like Jackson may be the only person to have ever covered that song, or at least it's the only other version besides Dury's that turns up on Spotify. Nothing else comes up on a quick web search.

If that's true, it's just criminal. Dury's catalog is another one that I'd direct any idiot considering covering "Hallelujah" for the 60,000th to check out instead. While there are definitely a lot of Ian Dury songs which wouldn't work if they were delivered by anyone besides Dury himself, there are a lot of gems just begging to be brought to a new audience.

I'll take that as a recommendation for future shows, Reno. Thanks.