I just looked in my records, and I found it the last time I seen Big Star was almost exactly 20 years ago. Here, for your bemusement:
Big Star and the Posies, Dante's December 28, 2002
I realize that I never posted a write-up of the Big Star show. This is an oversight that should be remedied immediately. First, the obvious—I saw Big Star in concert! Staggering. This is a band that broke up around the time I was born, and while only half of the members are still there (Chris Bell died, so his absence can't be criticized, only mourned), that's still remarkable. Of the bands who recorded my sadly out-of-date Desert Island Discs, I've now seen all in concert except for the Judybats, Daniel Lanois, and Dawn Upshaw. Linda Thompson and Big Star were two of the holes in the list, until 2002.
The mood at the Big Star gig can be described as ecstatic. Alex Chilton has a reputation of a reclusive and difficult performer, but he was all grins during the concert, which was also the occasion of an impromptu birthday party. The set list drew heavily from
#1 Record and
Radio City, the albums that formed the foundation of the power-pop genre, rather than the critically-idolized but infinitely more depressing
Sister Lovers. Jody Stephens, the drummer, was all rock-and-roll good looks despite spending decades off the stage. Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer of the Posies were the rhythm section, as they've been during the infrequent Big Star reunion concerts over the past couple of years, and both were in fine form.
If you wanted a succinct introduction to the power-pop genre in all its styles, you could have done far worse than attend this concert. The band started off with "In the Street," which Cheap Trick performs as the theme song to
That 70s Show, and slammed through a host of brilliantly tuneful, urgent pop songs about girls and cars and teenage anomie, performed with guile and wit despite the fact that Chilton wrote them 30 years ago (and they were nostalgic even then!). Chilton's voice wavered somewhat—he doesn't hit those tenor notes like he once did—but Ken Stringfellow is a great singer and he aided on backup vocals. Throughout the show, Jon Auer performed the Chris Bell songs ("I Am the Cosmos" and a few others), Jody Stephens sang his own songs and one-time bassist Andy Hummel's ("For You" and the crowd favorite "Way Out West"), Stringfellow took the lead on a few numbers, and Chilton handled the majority. The quality of the performance was surprisingly strong, given that Chilton said that hadn't played guitar much recently, and the songs have some very tricky guitar lines. He and Auer alternated leads ably, and Stringfellow played bass with as much grace as he sings, plays keyboard, and does about a million other things. (He wins my Sixth Man of the Year award, because I saw him three times this year in a variety of settings and always did a great job.) Stephens is a really good drummer, and I hadn't appreciated how his drumming adds so much nuance to the Chilton/Bell songs; it's one of the elements that elevates Big Star above the power-pop masses.
The overall sound of the show is Byrds, with more oomph, or Beatles without the sense of whimsy. "The Ballad of El Goodo" is one of the great unheard power ballads of the rock era, "Daisy Glaze" and "When My Baby's Beside Me" mix straightforward rock urgency with a melodically sophisticated pop touch. "Feel," "You Can't Have Me," and "Don't Lie to Me" are angry and bitter, but still insanely catchy. From
Sister Lovers Chilton pulled the most crowd-pleasing numbers and ignored audience requests for major bummer anthems like "Night Time" and "Holocaust," which would have been as inappropriate as singing the latter at a bar mitzvah. Instead, he did the Kink's "Till the End of the Day," and the stupendous "Jesus Christ" (the best religious Christmas rock song of all time) and "Thank You." The band also did a rocking version of Todd Rundgren's "Slut," ("S-L-U-T, she may be a slut but she looks good to me"), which was on the 1994 concert album
Columbia. "Big Black Car" was the only downbeat number of the set, and yet Chilton was grinning while singing it.
The crowd left amazed and cheering for more, and Chilton obliged some of the requests, chatted with audience members and seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly. Astonishing.
