Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs In Concert

Had a delightful time last night at the Bowery Ballroom. Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles were promoting their super-fun duets album "Under The Covers," which has them performing classic and obscure Sixties pop songs. A decent crowd but not too full, a relaxed show (Hoffs apologized for forgetting the lyrics to one song, saying they'd only had one day to rehearse this first show) and a GREAT lead guitarist. High point: in the sweltering heat, I turned to my friend and said, "I wish they'd play some songs with water in them" and the band immediately launched into the Beatles' "Rain." Low Point: when two guys in the audience were wondering who that song was by, someone told them the Beatles. But was it written by George Harrison? "Yes!" I said definitively and with great assurance. They just KNEW I was right. I was wrong. Despite its Middle eastern drone sound, it's credited to Lennon/McCartney and I assume is mostly Lennon given its structure. One schmuck in the audience kept shouting out "BBC!" "BBC!" I had no idea why. (It's certainly not a song on the album.) Then out of nowhere Mike Myers of SNL comes on stage, drink in hand and duets with them on some obscure pop-punk nugget with a chorus that goes "BBC 1! BBC 2! BBC 3! BBC 4! BBC 5! BBC 6! BBC 7! BBC Heaven!" Who knew?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The BBC song is from the Austin Powers movies. Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs were in the backing band for Mike Myers. The group was collectively called Ming Tea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_Tea
http://www.seds.org/~michaelk/Ming.html

Michael in New York said...

Thanks! I saw the movie and have the soundtrack but completely forgot about that. At least now the appearance of Mike Myers makes sense.

Michael in New York said...

By the way, great name.

NYCD Online said...

Any treats from the upcoming "Under The Covers Part 2: The 70's?" How about some stuff not on volume one? I had tix and decided to deal with the heat by staying home in a nice cool apartment. Unfortunately, I have had no power for the last 48 hours.

Michael in New York said...

Nothing was intro'd as being from Vol. 2 and I didn't spot any ringers. They did do covers of their greatest hit -- in Sweet's case Girlfriend; in Hoff's case Manic Monday with a nice rhythmic undertow. And that segued into something else and darn if I can remember what. Plus the BBC song and the Beatles Rain probably covers the waterfront as far as stuff not from the album.