Stereolab: Classic or Dud

think this'll be my fourth time seeing them. not sure. I saw them at least twice.

Leee -- have you tried again? It took me a couple of minutes but then presale worked. (See folks there on Oct. 19)

Huh, that was annoying! Presale worked just now, I'm also doing 10-19, this'll be the first concert I've gone to in almost 2 years!

DO IT AKM.

This will be my second ever Groop show, caught them on the Chemical Chords tour.

yeah I'm going on the 19th also.

The only time I've seen them was in Detroit in 2000, opening for Sonic Youth. Really wanted to see them in '97 with Mouse on Mars, but I was in a college play that night.

With no Chicago date announced, I have to assume they're playing Pitchfork, but I'm kind of tempted to drive up to Milwaukee.

Was hearing Riot Fest might be the alternate Chicago option.

Really wanted to see them in '97 with Mouse on Mars, but I was in a college play that night.

The LA date for that tour was a hell of a thing -- at the El Rey, packed out crowd, one of the biggest venues they ever played as a headliner that I saw, at least. Thanks to chance, Mouse on Mars *and* the High Llamas opened (they had played a really great set themselves the previous night). And at one point in line I turned around and John C. Reilly was right behind me! (Which, since we'd all just seen Boogie Nights on its theatrical run, was a bit disorienting. It was even more disorienting years later when I saw a multistory banner for Walk Hard near Amoeba in LA.)

'97 tour was the only time i've seen them. alas, for me, as i was less into dots & loops than previous records. good show tho

i hope they play Peng! start to finish and nothing else

seconded

Add first Switched On to Peng! and I would be perfectly happy.

i've never seen them and had basically assumed i'd never get to in my life, so i'm STOKED! Snagged tickets for the first SF date. :)

I only saw them in Central Park. With John Cale.

No true. I saw them in a church in Oberlin.

Quit braggin, dan! ;)

Saw them play in '93 with Unrest : )

did you buy the tour single?

Did I! Mountain is probably my favorite Stereolab song ever.

Saw them play in '93 with Unrest : )

Same here! The show was on YouTube for a while. Idaho also opened for them both -- a very 1993 SoCal show.

I never saw them, despite being a fan since '98. I'm hoping given Laetitia's unhappiness with the latter days of the band that they manage to enjoy themselves. Disappointed at the word that they're not planning new material.

Any advice for someone's first time at the show? Many thanks from an unexperienced high schooler who's been knocking myself out to Lab songs for the past three years or so and has pledged my allegiance to the band forever.

Wow what a great bill xp

Bring earplugs (but that holds for any gig).

Was hearing Riot Fest might be the alternate Chicago option.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, February 21, 2019 1:23 PM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That would make more sense with the tour schedule, given that Riot Fest is the weekend before the tour begins. But I'd still be surprised -- they don't seem like a natural fit for the Riot Fest aesthetic.

They often played gigs that were stacked with phenomenal bands. A few I saw over the years:

Lab/Drive Like Jehu/Prolapse/Flying Saucer Attack - Electric Ballroom
Sebadoh/Lab/Yo La Tengo/Quickspace - Shepherds Bush Empire
Lab/Tortoise/Broadcast - Forum
Sonic Youth/Lab/Unwound - Berlin, Washing Machine/ETK Era

Etc. Sonic Boom played with them at some.of these. I think the deal with Sonic was he would show up at random gigs and set up at the side of the stage. He'd then improvise over the top with various electronics, theremin, etc. I don't think they ever knew whether or not he'd show up. Also, kudos to their soundman Simon, who would filter the whole band through a Moog at one point in the show. Those improvised moments really made it for me. They did lose a lot of that towards the end. The sense of adventure seemed to dissipate somewhere along the way.

I saw them in New Orleans in 96 but I can’t remember who opened. Thought it was Spring Heel Jack but I see DJ Spooky and UI opened in Houston just before the New Orleans show. If so, I remember none of their sets. Anyway, I made a Spotify playlist for the set list that night. https://open.spotify.com/user/brotherlovesdub/playlist/4VU1U7RhlLxqTJp8TvwfEa?si=ldVvGXmKRKyK4iDNXXXOLA

Was about to order tix for the Brussels date too, but I've a family weekend :-/

Saw them twice, once in 1997 (sheesh, 22 years ago..) and in 2004, both in Amsterdam. Unfortunately I can't even remember the opening acts, Lab were great on both accounts (though very different).

LBI, the nature of Stereolab fandom means that I can tell you that the second show you saw featured to Rococo Rot: http://koly.com/stereolab/tour.php?year=2004

Ha, thank you! :)

Got a ticket for the Dublin show!

v tempted by the glasgow show

I’ll be there but don’t let that put you off. Just don’t stand behind me

brb gonna buy a ticket and will stand in front of stet all night

I only saw them once, in 1996, and that was at a festival. Dunno why really. They did play in Reading a couple of times when I lived there but I didn't go for some reason. Oh I know why, because I didn't know anyone who would want to go with me and back then I hadn't yet realised it was possible for me to just go to gigs on my own.

Only saw 'em when they were touring Fab Four Suture, a collection of songs I don't particularly like, and I thought they were fantastic.

I didn't know anyone who would want to go with me and back then I hadn't yet realised it was possible for me to just go to gigs on my own.

missed so many good gigs in the 90's/00's because of this kind of thinking

I think it took until I was about 27 for me to stop worrying that people would think I was weird and had no friends. I mean I'm sure they do think that, but at least I get to see bands I like

Seen them many times, every tour since MAQ. ETK tour was easily the best, with Sound-Dust and Dots & Loops fairly memorable as well.

I missed one cleveland show because I had too much college work to do but my friends went and they got me the Speedy Car split with Tortoise, so whatever tour that was for. I remember thinking wow, Stereolab doing Soft Machine!

Saw them in 1994 (MAQ) with Trumans Water(!!!) and then in 1996 (ETK) with Prolapse & Sonic Boom/EAR. Good times.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, February 28, 2018 1:03 PM (eleven months ago)

Forgot I also saw them in 2002 at ATP with.....

.....Aphex Twin, Asheton, Mascis and Watt, Bardo Pond, Big Star, Black Dice, Boredoms, Bride of No No, Califone, Cannibal Ox, Cat Power, Cecil Taylor, Krasp, Christina Rosenvinge, The Dead C, Deerhoof, Destroy All Monsters, DJ Olive, Eddie Vedder, Erase Errata, Fred Anderson Trio, Fursaxa, Gerard Malanga, Ikue Mori, Ira Cohen, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, Leah Singer, Lydia Lunch, Madlib, Mats Gustafsson, Merzbow, Mike Watt and the Secondmen, Nathaniel Mackey, Neil Michael Hagerty, Nels Cline, Papa M, Peaches, Pita, Quix*o*tic, Renee Gladman, Saccharine Trust, Satans Tornade, Sleater-Kinney, Smog, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Stereolab, Television, Tony Conrad, Unwound, U.S. Maple, White Out, Wilco, William Winant

you saw Stereolab with Stereolab!

Caught them in a tiny tent at Coachella in 2003, which had q similarly sick lineup including The Cure, Radiohead, Belle & Sebastian, Pixies, Air, Flaming Lips, Beck, Muse, !!!, The Rapture, etc.

Are tickets really $134 or did I click on some dumb site? Was looking into NY show.

I love Stereolab but only the front-end of their discography and will be passing on these shows as I have no real love for anything after Ketchup

brooklyn tix were like $40 + fees

yeah kind of hoping that the reissues of transient and mars audiac will lead to more of that stuff being played

I bet these shows will be packed with early groop material. Tim won't want to do "just the hits" but … it'll be mostly the hits.

It seemed like they warmed up to playing stuff from TRNBWA more in their later tours. Outside of "Crest", I don't think I ever heard them play anything from it in the 90s.

Wish I still had my shirt from the Too Pure showcase thing at Happy Jax with PJ Harvey and Th' Faith Healers. The venue otherwise mainly familiar at that time to my demographic as the site of regular Weatherall-facilitated debauchery. I'd seen 'em quite a few times before that though.

I love Stereolab but only the front-end of their discography and will be passing on these shows as I have no real love for anything after Ketchup

― flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, February 22, 2019 12:36 PM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Feel the same way but I never got to see them so was interested... per mookieproof post I suppose I did click on a "dumb site" after all.

It seemed like they warmed up to playing stuff from TRNBWA more in their later tours. Outside of "Crest", I don't think I ever heard them play anything from it in the 90s.

At that time they seemed pretty heavily invested in a churn of showcasing new material as much as possible, which given their pretty insane work/release rate was justifiable enough. Combine that with the fact that Transient, which I admittedly do love, was almost overdetermined as a starting point thanks to it being the first proper US major label release (as opposed to the slightly delayed American Recordings-via-Too Pure licensings), and I don't blame them for going "Uh...we're over here now?" I'd argue it was probably after Cobra Plays they started to lean into that era of their back catalog some more, a little distance never hurts -- and after Mary's death, it almost became part homage.