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.

Dear Blog O' Mine.

Dear Blog O' Mine,

Hi. Been a while. Sorry I've been neglecting you. I've just been really, really busy. And really, really tired. What? Yeah, I know, I know. I said I'm sorry. I guess that last blog post has always been hanging over my head - we'll get to it sometime, I'm sure. Let's just forget about it for now, and move on to some other things...
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For those of you who were wondering, the March/April/May madness would have played out like so:
Play in:
Blakelock over Thayer

Round of 64:
Leonardo over Blakelock
Steen over Munch
Hokusai over Botticelli
Velázquez over Chardin
Goya over Caillebotte
Whistler over de Hooch
Géricault over Ingres
Vermeer over Fuseli

van Gogh over Wyeth
Holbein over Brueghel
Delacroix over van Ruysdael
Rossetti over Dalí
Redon over Monet
Bosch over Ensor
Courbet over Gainsborough
Caravaggio over Geertgen

Rembrandt over Dewing
Toulouse-Lautrec over van der Weyden (just barely)
Moreau over Turner
Rubens over Inness
Dürer over Alma-Tadema
Grünewald over Gaugin
G. David over El Greco
Cézanne over van der Goes

Raphael over Ryder
Sargent over Constable
Bronzino over J.L. David
Titian over Cranach
van Eyck over Burne-Jones
Degas over Parmigianino
Eakins over Fra Angelico
Manet over Millais

Round of 32:
Leonardo over Steen
Velázquez over Hokusai
Whistler over Goya
Vermeer over Géricault

van Gogh over Holbein
Rossetti over Delacroix
Bosch over Redon (just barely)
Caravaggio over Courbet

Rembrandt over Toulouse-Lautrec
Moreau over Rubens
Dürer over Grünewald
Cézanne over G. David

Sargent over Raphael
Bronzino over Titian
van Eyck over Degas
Manet over Eakins

Sweet 16:
Velázquez over Leonardo
Vermeer over Whistler

van Gogh over Rossetti
Bosch over Caravaggio

Rembrandt over Moreau
Dürer over Cézanne

Sargent over Bronzino
van Eyck over Manet

Elite 8:
Vermeer over Velázquez

Bosch over van Gogh

Rembrandt over Dürer

van Eyck over Sargent

Final Four:
Bosch over Vermeer
Rembrandt over van Eyck

Championship:
Bosch over Rembrandt