Concert Review: Sebadoh, May 27, Lee’s Palace

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There’s been a trend over the last few years of newer indie bands bringing back the classic sounds of the 1990s and it’s trend I heartily support. However, it’s also nice to see a few of the originators still at it and still going strong. Sebadoh is one of those bands still at it. Their latest full length (and first this Century), 2013’s Defend Yourself, is a strong album that easily fits in with much of their earlier work with newer tracks like “I Will” standing out as some of the highlights of the live show alongside classics like “Beauty Of The Ride” and “Prince-S”

A few things were made clear at Wednesday night’s show at Lee’s Palace – the fact that Lou Barlow and Jason Loewenstein have written a lot of great songs, the fact that Bob D’Amico is a powerhouse drummer (he needed a cinder block to keep his bass drum in place), but one thing that definitely came across clearly was this: the guys in Sebadoh sure do have a fondness for Canada. This was evident from before they played a note as Loewenstein took to the stage and casually shouted, “How’s it going?” to the audience before flipping his bass over to reveal a Canadian flag sticker on the back. He was also wearing a t-shirt with “Canada” written on it in big block letters and even took the time to point to his bottle of 50 so as to make sure we noticed that, yes, he was indeed celebrating all things Canadian. He further expressed his appreciation at the end of the night when an audience member shouted out during the encore that they should play whatever they want. “Thank you, that’s very nice of you. I love it here.”

Though they mocked the concept of the encore with Barlow stating, “This is our last song … well, theoretically,” and Loewenstein adding that we’d probably still be able to see them standing by the side of the stage, they did an encore anyways and finished things off with a performance of “On Fire,” thus ending the night on a perfect note.

Posted on by Paul in Concerts