Superchunk

support Snaredrum
author PP date 05/12/13 venue Loppen, Copenhagen, DEN

It was a dark and stormy night. It's not often you get to start with classic literary blunders in your reviews and have the phrase be so accurate as on the evening/night of Superchunk's return to Copenhagen. We're in the middle of Hurricane Bodil, which has practically shut down all of Denmark and forced authorities to advise everyone to stay inside and avoid all unnecessary travel for the time being. Not missing the chance to see Superchunk perform large sections of their new, brilliant album "I Hate Music", TL, I, and our photographer Peter Troest decide to brave the hurricane and dodge flying objects to make our way to the venue. Loppen has stood there for 40 years now, so it's probably going to withstand a few more storms, methinks. But first let's look at opening band Snaredrum.

Snaredrum

Snaredrum

It quickly becomes clear why Snaredrum have been picked to support Superchunk a few notes into their performance. Though more lo-fi and indie rock in its nature, their music also exhibits a similarly warm, melodic ring as Superchunk's, so musically they fit into the support slot nicely without being overtly similar to the headliners. But my god does their live performance feel super, super awkward. The band look totally uncomfortable to be on stage, nervous, shy, and as if they're playing their first show ever. They fuck up near the beginning and take three tries to get the song going, with complete and deafening silence surrounding the venue in the meantime. Speaking of which, that is also what takes place in between their songs. No communication to the crowd not even mentioning their name for a single time, and the one or two words they utter are so awkward I frankly felt embarrassed for the band even though I was standing in the crowd - especially during the storm jokes. Their songs sounded fair enough, but Snaredrum, really, REALLY need to improve their live performance before they will reach any higher ratings. You just can't look like you're too shy to be on stage.

5

Superchunk

Superchunk

"Thanks for braving the storm, we're Superchunk", vocalist Mac McCaughan announces to the approximately 45 people who have been either devout enough Superchunk fans or stupid enough to disregard official warnings about going outside in the hurricane. Luckily them being a band with more than two decades of live experience underneath their belt, plus a discography of frankly amazing songs, this is never an issue for the band as the people gather near the front for a closer, more intimate look than is probably usually the case. Tonight's set is mostly built out of "I Hate Music" songs plus some great selections from their back catalogue, so there's a guarantee of plenty of buzzing, melodically ringing energy, which sees McCaughan storm around with rather surprising amount of movement on stage compared to what I was expecting. He even makes his way into the small crowd with his guitar on a couple of occasions, and is in a fairly talkative mood, making jokes about "Bodin Bodin" (which is what he calls the Bodil storm by accident). "But how are we going to survive the next song is the real question, because it'll blow your faces off", he says, before unleashing more of the same, positive energy and warmth that Superchunk songs are always made of. The guys from Snaredrum join from backstage to watch the band close up front, and recognizing this, McCaughan invites them on stage for a couple of ohh-ohh-ohh sing alongs. It's all very down-to-earth, and the fact that their songs are so easy to like because of their buzzing melody coupled with McCaughan's infectiously passionate energy means we breeze through the 17 songs of their set in what feels like all too short of a set. This is how awesome music 90s style sounds; I'd say it deserves a little more attention than it saw tonight, yet I leave the venue into the crazy winds outside feeling like I just watched a solid set.

8

Setlist:

  • 1. Burn Last Sunday
  • 2. FOH
  • 3. Me & You & Jackie Mittoo
  • 4. Animated Airplanes Over Germany
  • 5. Skip Steps 1 & 3
  • 6. Staying Home
  • 7. Void
  • 8. Out of the Sun
  • 9. From The Curve
  • 10. Crossed Wires
  • 11. Low F
  • 12. Digging For Something
  • 13. Slack Motherfucker
  • 14. Trees Of Barcelona
  • --Encore:--
  • 15. Brand New Love (Sebadoh cover)
  • 16. Hyper Enough
  • 17. Precision Auto

Photos by: Peter Troest

Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.