NXNE Review: Pere Ubu, June 16, Lee’s Palace

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As Pere Ubu started their set at Lee’s Palace on Thursday night, frontman David Thomas told the crowd that the band was pretty amped up since this was the first date on their current tour. He went on to explain the difference between “normal person amped up” and Pere Ubu’s version of amped up: “It’s unsustainable – we’re old men. That’s why I’m sitting down. My body may be broken, baby, but my mind is as dangerous as ever!”

Thomas, delightfully weird and cranky curmudgeon that he is, led his bandmates through a set of classics from 1975 to 1982. “Don’t play the loud part!” he shouted at them during one tune, forcing the band to quickly switch things up and play the song a bit differently. He mentioned afterwards that bassist Michele Temple was probably disappointed that she didn’t get the one chance during their show to use her pedal on the aforementioned loud part. “If your bass player ever says they want to buy a pedal, fire them,” he joked.

Of course it’s sometimes hard to tell whether Thomas is always joking or not. On this occasion, he seemed to take some pleasure in berating his bandmates, especially the guitarist, for not playing things quite the way he wanted them. I’m not sure how much of it was serious and how much was an act, but it certainly made for a livelier performance. That’s David Thomas for you – his mind is as dangerous as ever.

Posted on by Paul in North By Northeast