[Dusty]

The 2001/2 poll seems to have stalled out so moving on to a year with a little more color: we’ve got the end of the 1st half of the PW tour, Tangerine Reefs debut, the Painters tour, and the legendary OG Sung Tongs show. My moneys on Sung tongs but I’ll vote for something else to try to start evening the playing field.

[walkedlikeadog2]

My vote has to be for the Sung Tongs show. The production quality of the audio and video is top notch, and the energy of that show is absolutely insane. The way everyone was singing along, the newness of Avey and Panda revisiting these songs in this way 13 years after the record has been released. I feel like the two of them have this wild nervous energy throughout the show, they seem really unhinged, close to spiraling out of control, and it really lends to the feel of the performance. There’s this almost hilarious moment during Covered In Frogs where you can see Avey realize that the Tom drum is too far away, and throughout the performance he keeps shooting it these quick looks as if he’s trying to figure out how to bring it closer without interrupting the energy of the song, all the whole him and Panda are somehow absolutely belting that song, giving it an energy and importance I had never heard from the 2003 boots. The energy is total naked uncertainty, I don’t think they expected the crowd to be as engaged as it was, and it totally fuels them throughout the performance, gives everything they’re doing such pathos, committing to the rawness of that set-up.

I have to admit too that I have a special place for the show in my heart as I was at it, and it was my birthday!!! At the time I was getting ready to move from Brooklyn to Asheville, and the show felt like a loving send-off, and became a major source of inspiration during my time in AVL. Also, ST is my favorite AC record, so seeing faithful adaptations of all of those songs live was just a treat I never thought I’d get to experience.

Thanks for these threads btw! Really fun learning about all of these different boots

[destiny]

Sung tongs is maybe my fav show i've been too. After so many years of ppl that kinda half knew what ac were at ac shows (deadass at my first ac show in 2012 someone yelled for them to play "i wanna win a rabbit") it was so amazing to finally be in a crowd that knew them fucking intimately, i thought i would be the only one yelping but as soon as leaf house started i was in good company. a whole venue screaming back to your your song "you dont have to go to college" that you wrote when you were stoned broke and dropped out at 24 must be one of the most vindicating things in the world. people did the clap in mouth woo'ed her, people finally heard whaddit i done for the beautifull depressing song that it is, they played fucking covered in frogs. and they were just perfect too, they sounded better than the 2003 sung tong shows, how they brought that energy still, well that is one of ac's foundational mysteries that i latch onto them for. i know that no matter how hard we can get beaten down, we can always bring the same energy, it always lives inside us

i remember looking up at straight at avey's face during the beginning of good loving outside, just held my gaze right there, as those beautiful opening lyrics "theres a place i know where we can goooooo" rang, everyone singing a long, one of my personal fav parts of the albums, i was in a different world for 3 seconds. no shame in saying it's one of my singular favorite moments... foreva

[scrambledgreggs]

voting for sung tongs show here so I won't feel bad when the rest of that tour gets obliterated by music box in 2018

it's not in the pitchfork show specifically but it was a bold choice to open with Tuvin in some of the later shows, I brought a bunch of friends who are casual AC fans and were into the poppier stuff on sung tongs and that as the opener certainly shook them up which was fun for me to watch

[opposite field]

I can 100% say that without attending the Sung Tongs show I would not be as hyped on the band as I am now. I had been pretty checked out when I was in college the few years before it but when that show got announced I wasn't going to miss it and 4 years later I'm posting here with the same enthusiasm I had when I was first getting into AC.

Gotta say I don't revisit it much but the fact that the full video exists is wonderful.

[Slippi's Applesauce]

i was just rewatching the sung tongs show last night! it's gorgeous all around. i love the excitement in the crowd, from the claps on whaddit i done to the singing along and cheering, as well as the distortion on Noah's voice. makes him sound alien and it pierces my soul.

watching it live was such a special experience too, covered in frogs+prospect hummer were insane surprises. i remember i had to be up early the next morning for work and didn't regret it one bit. of course, they outdid themselves on the 2018 tour, especially at the show i saw, but out of these boots, nothing beats the quality and special aura around the pitchfork show.

moogfest is also cool, i love the video and the interview. but it was just another pw show. this was something magical

[roopn]

echoing all that's been said about the sung tongs show, it's so great. every time I put it on the buzz in the crowd puts a grin on my face within about 20 seconds. I think you can see in the video too avey seems really surprised and buoyed by the level of hype. just really sweet

[roopn]

Slippi's Applesauce wrote:

moogfest is also cool, i love the video and the interview.

haven't seen the interview since it came out, thanks for the reminder. linking here for others to check out. sound quality is a little bit ass, kind of an awkward vibe lol

[speen]

fucking weird interview lol theyre so clearly uncomfortable

[scrambledgreggs]

I want to shout out the Madison Theater show as an honorable mention since it has such a killer setlist, it has the complete set of all of the late PW-era reworks (Water Curses, Kids on Holiday, Sweet Road, Pride & Fight, Bees) as well as The Other One cover so is very representative of what they were doing that leg of the tour. pretty good quality too!

[hunkswithguns]

I'd almost prefer to rank the individual tours (or legs if we're getting OCD about it) purely because of the stylistic whiplash the band has gone through multiple times within the same year. It's unfortunate to have to disregard a ton of excellent shows in lieu of masterful one-offs.

Plus, the songs change so much from tour leg to tour leg. For instance, it's rough having to choose between pre-release, embryonic Centipede jams, the beginning of the tour and the last run of shows, where the song selection and performances are all wildly different.

But it's all good! I'm just happy to have a sweet, creative excuse to revisit the boot library and fill in gaps.

[speen]

the 2017 painting with shows were amazing, really unhinged and colorful stuff. but yeah ranking it against the sung tongs show is a little unfair

[LeadHat]

Have to vote for the Calvin bc it was my 1st AC show and also has the infamous and ridiculous "experimental guitaaaar" section... (putting anything up against tongs 2017 is hard but! definitely a close 2nd)

[jerry wonder]

LeadHat wrote:

Have to vote for the Calvin bc it was my 1st AC show and also has the infamous and ridiculous "experimental guitaaaar" section... (putting anything up against tongs 2017 is hard but! definitely a close 2nd)

LOL I am glad you appreciated the show and this ridiculous part of it. I absolutely hated the show.

I wish I could bring you back in time to see t hem play at Hampshire College with me in 2005, now that was a show..

[rohcti]

I instinctually voted for Moogfest (I mean, the show opens with Michael Winslow doing an impression of Siri and doing a techno beat into Kinda Bonkers ffs. And I've already said enough about that Sweet Road) but would have probably voted for Sung Tongs because it's Sung Tongs and that set is impeccable

[destiny]

2006 will be a great year for this. Starlight ballroom on youtube got a crazy we tigers and good loving outside different. Would malta, an unfinished boot, win?

[speen]

Why is it that malta is incomplete? Where's the rest of it? ive been watching that video and wanting more for like 10 years

[jerry wonder]

speen wrote:

Why is it that malta is incomplete? Where's the rest of it? ive been watching that video and wanting more for like 10 years

if we can get in touch with Gaspar Noe, who filmed it, we might be able to find the complete version...

I tried to suss out how to get in touch with him some years ago without any luck, theres a whole thread about it.

I think it might be the greatest boot regardless if it i finished--the peak of their peak imo

[destiny]

Was anyone at the observatory? In santa ana? I've been scouring trying to find vids of it. It's just fucking lit. The energy is unreal. I started wtih summertime clothes and the entire crowd is fucking moving, dancing like crazy, headbanging for Pride n fight, and now im watching taste and there's a bit of a sway. Seemed like a bunch of fellas that actually loved ac whereas the usual crowd for those shows seemed too high to move. If anyone has any vids send them over.

[hunkswithguns]

FEEL ON1NE!!! wrote:

Was anyone at the observatory? In santa ana? I've been scouring trying to find vids of it. It's just fucking lit. The energy is unreal. I started wtih summertime clothes and the entire crowd is fucking moving, dancing like crazy, headbanging for Pride n fight, and now im watching taste and there's a bit of a sway. Seemed like a bunch of fellas that actually loved ac whereas the usual crowd for those shows seemed too high to move. If anyone has any vids send them over.

That sounds like my kinda show!!! I caught Major Lazer at the Observatory and it was absolutely wild. What a great fucking venue.

[destiny]

hunkswithguns wrote:

FEEL ON1NE!!! wrote:

Was anyone at the observatory? In santa ana? I've been scouring trying to find vids of it. It's just fucking lit. The energy is unreal. I started wtih summertime clothes and the entire crowd is fucking moving, dancing like crazy, headbanging for Pride n fight, and now im watching taste and there's a bit of a sway. Seemed like a bunch of fellas that actually loved ac whereas the usual crowd for those shows seemed too high to move. If anyone has any vids send them over.

That sounds like my kinda show!!! I caught Major Lazer at the Observatory and it was absolutely wild. What a great fucking venue.

It actually makes me wanna see a show there. Check 11 minutes for the absolutely unhinged bees they were playing. Crowd is fucking moving. It's actually insane that sung tongs and mothlight happened same year as pw tour. PW might lowkey one of their best live eras. Fucking insane the show they were putting on and the spin they were putting on songs. But sung tongs is top 5 shows they've ever played and some of the happiest i've ever been in my life.

That span of 2 weeks I saw Sung tongs and then i was privileged enough to see Avey solo at Elsewhere, one of the few show he didnt cornpill. I was with my friend, off the weed brownie, at the most intimate AC show i've ever been to. Geo told me he's been making a lot of his own samples, while sometimes playing a set in the background entertaining ppl w talkins and it made me feel kinda bad interuppting him, but it was vital to me since they inform so much of my creative process unconsciously and consciously. Highlife played, said Maybe i should play more instead of Dave, and if i were me then I woulda def heckled, so I'm glad i was a meek gal then.

I was sitting on the stage, directly looking up at dave as he played Derriere/KC Yours for the first time, observing that it had feels energy. The Saturdays ripped, this girl was singing when u left me so i didnt feel bad abt singing it too lol,, and he made PJ sound so gigantic. I loved that tour.