Today in the Elliott Smith Gigography: Melkweg, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 05/30/1998.

Today's entry into a new feature for this here blog is a jump back 9 years and to a city that I adore.

The Melkweg show was part of a short 5 show mini-tour of Europe (Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm, London, and Dublin) leading up to Elliott's first DreamWorks release, XO. Waltz #2, Independence Day, and Oh Well, Okay appear from that record. It's a pretty standard solo acoustic set for the time - a few then-new(ish) songs, a good chunk from Either/Or, and some tunes from the self-titled album.

Like the majority of Elliott's foreign shows, there's little to no banter between tracks (not that there was tons in most shows in the U.S.), beyond "Wanna here a loud song or a quiet song?" - buying time to figure out exactly what to play. Sound quality of the minidisc recording is pretty good, not great. The performance itself is on par with others around the same time - Elliott's on top of his game here. Very few mistakes (a minor lyrical flub in Coming Up Roses, for example).


Setlist:
Angeles
Division Day
Clementine
Alameda
Waltz #2 (XO) mp3
Between the Bars
Pictures of Me mp3
Rose Parade
Coming Up Roses
Say Yes
Needle in the Hay
Thirteen (Big Star Cover)
The Biggest Lie
-encore:
Oh Well, Okay
Ballad of Big Nothing
Independence Day mp3
Speed Trials


and the whole show can be downloaded here at elliottsmithbootlegs.net.
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In time, I'm hoping that in doing this I can take some time to enjoy individual shows that I've accumulated (and that are forcing me toward purchasing an external hard drive) and that we can all get a sense of the highs and lows of Elliott's all too short but Brobdingnagianly important career.

For the "Enough With The Elliott Already"ers:
I'm trying to branch out musically right now. Trying to listen to new things. But most of the time I'm left thinking "This is OK. It's just not as good as new Elliott would be." And I'm feeling the same way with the music that I was excited about 4 years ago. So please pardon me while I deal with that.
(Although I am very excited about new records from Buddy and Meiko.)


Don't go too far, stay who you are.
xomatt.