Time Travel Tuesday: Toad the Wet Sprocket in Concert
I was reminded at Toad the Wet Sprocket's performance last Wednesday (opening act for Guster) of my idea for a Time Travel post on great old songs you might hear on the sound system at the grocery store, a restaurant, or the auto parts shop. The idea is, these songs, no matter how often you hear them or how mundane the environment, retain their original power to make you feel the same zing you felt when they were new.
Toad the Wet Sprocket is blessed, or cursed, depending on how you look at it, by having three songs like this in their history: "All I Want," "Walk On the Ocean" (I once heard this in a McDonalds), and "Fall Down." "Good Intentions" and "Always Wrong" might be in that category too. Glen Phillips can be forever proud of having written these beautiful, beloved songs that continue to keep a horde of fans enthralled.
The curse comes first in not having more songs of that calibre--although I think that Phillips has it in him to do it again--and second, no matter how much the band members would like to move on with their current and future projects, they are forever doomed to time-travel back to the days before their break-up to play them again.
To their credit, the band that appeared last week at Orange County Fair's Pacific Amphitheater and in the current tour is the original line-up, not some pseudo-Toad. Whatever the differences in direction they've taken since their official break-up in 1998, they can still play together for their own and their fans' benefit.
The set time-travelled all over the past 16 years of TTWS's discography, from their third album fear to Phillips' solo releases Winter Pays For Summer (2005) and last year's Mr. Lemons. As proof that Phillips still has the chops to write gorgeous and inspiring music, I highly recommend my personal favorite, "Released," from Mr. Lemons.
Glen Phillips stated that the band had not played together in public for at least a year. Unfortunately, it showed. A couple of the songs near the beginning of the show sounded "off," and Dean Dinning's attempts at humor fell flat. The Beatles cover song "Bulldog" was more of a miss than a hit--the timing was poor. The crowd of worshipers was very forgiving, however, and roared its approval for all the familiar songs. Hopefully these first-show glitches will be ironed out in future performances. Phillips' voice was in excellent form. When TTWS left the stage, cheered by a standing audience, I thought I saw a look of appreciation and wonder on Phillips' face at the depth of devotion as he turned for a last wave to the crowd.
Check their MySpace page for a slew of dates all over the U.S. from August to next January. Many of these are solo dates for Phillips, and if any were in my area, I'd be going. Also on their MySpace page you can catch up with the other band members' projects, like Todd Nichols' Lapdog.
From left to right: Todd Nichols, Randy Guss, Dean Dinning
Setlist:
1. Something's Always Wrong from Dulcinea (1994)
2. Whatever I Fear from Coil (1997)
3. Easier from Glen Phillips' solo CD Winter Pays For Summer (2005)
4. Stupid from Dulcinea (1994)
5. All I Want from Fear (1991)
6. Dam Would Break from Coil (1997)
7. Everything But You from Glen Phillips' solo CD Mr. Lemons (2006)
8. Bulldog (Beatles cover) from I Know What You Did Last Summer soundtrack
9. Good Intentions from In Light Syrup (1995)
10. Brother from In Light Syrup (1995)
11. Walk on the Ocean from Fear (1991)
12. Crazy Life from Coil (1997), featuring Todd Nichols
13. Fall Down from Dulcinea (1994)
Toad the Wet Sprocket MySpace | Glen Phillips MySpace
Toad the Wet Sprocket Website | Label: Indie
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8 comments:
They never played "Easier" at that show. I was there, and would have loved to have heard another Glen-solo number. Sadly, "Everything But You" was the only one.
I'm pretty sure they played "Easier." Do you remember Dean's remarks about Guster being a green band, and a song about a tree, and how did that make Glen feel? And Glen shrugged and said, "Arboreal?"
And then they played a song. I wrote down these lyrics in my notes: "I want to be the toy in your cereal box" and a couple of odd word: "birkenstocks," "tarmac." That's "Easier."
I would have liked to hear more of Glen's stuff too. I wish one of his solo concerts was in our area.
Thanks for checking out my post. :)
Y'all come back now.
I owned "Coil", "Dulcinea", and "fear", but I don't know where any of them are today. Strangely enough, I remember exactly where I was when I heard that TTWS broke up: in my car, on Hwy 111, between the Taco Bell and the Carl's Jr. The things that my weird brain remembers...
I have Dulcinea at my house, but not the other two. That is a strange thing to remember. :)
released in on winter pays for summer, not mr. lemons... fyi.
Thanks for this. I went to the same college as a lot of these guys, so I was fortunate to see some free Toad concerts in the early days. However, I didn't meet Glen until many years later when he came to play at a hole in the wall near my graduate school in North Carolina. We reminisced about California and his father - a physics professor :)
Anyway, these are a great bunch of guys whose music continues to hold up nicely. Thanks again for keeping them in the blogs.
I loved Glen Phillip's solo work, almost more than TTWS. Good to see these guys are still kicking.
Not having more songs of the calibre of Walk on the Ocean, Fall Down, and All I want?
Seriously....? They have much better songs than those radio popularized ones.
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