Monday, December 13, 2010

Weakerthans Go "All In"!!


This is the start of "Weakerthans Week" here at Teenage Dogs, with the band performing all four albums in their entirety, in four nights, at four different venues. Back on my post from July 5th (4, 4, 4, 4), I previewed the shows and explained my logic of why you should buy tickets for the first two shows first. As it turns out, the first three shows are completely sold out (probably have been for the last month) mainly because they are the smaller venues, but also because hearing the first three albums in their entirety is a rare treat.

Last week, the Weakerthans announced they would go, "all in" and play all four albums at the final show at the Burton Cummings Theatre. The albums would be performed in reverse order beginning with Reunion Tour and ending with their first album, Fallow. When I heard this I didn't believe the news, will the band actually play all their albums in one night? If each album averages over 50 minutes, will the Weakerthans play for over 3 1/2 hours? Not even Springsteen in his prime turned this feat, or at least not often. My wife talked to John K. last week and he assured her this was true, holy shit! This will be an epic show and I quickly considered purchasing a ticket. I bought tickets to the first two shows back in July, but I wrote off the 4th because I had seen the band often recently and felt the earlier albums would more essential. As luck would have it I monitored the ticket availability on Ticketmaster for a few days as I watched the seats sell quickly making it's way to the top of the first balcony. Then on last Thursday night, a single seat became available for row 4 centre floor, strange considering an hour earlier (and after) I would have been 12th row in the balcony. Someone tell me how this can happen, though I'm not complaining, but it does sound weird. Oh well, I have my ticket in hand along with nights #1 and 2, so I'm attending 3 of 4 nights. Stay tuned to this site because if all goes well, I'll try to post recordings from 3 of the shows and hopefully someone will record night #3. (keep your fingers crossed!)
Is anyone attending ALL 4 shows??
To get you in the mood, here's a show from SXSW in Austin, Texas from 2000. I'm not sure the exact date or the venue or if this is a complete set (might be, the SXSW showcases are shorter sets), but it's an enjoyable set from the Weakerthans circa, Left and Leaving.

THE WEAKERTHANS
SXSW
Austin, Texas
2000

1. Everything Must Go
2. Diagnosis
3. Watermark
4. Left And Leaving
5. Aside
6. Letter Of Resignation
7. Pamphleteer
8. Wellington Wednesdays

WEAKERTHANS- sxsw Austin, TX. rar
at

1 comment:

  1. Mr12:10 AM

    So how was it? Man I am so jealous you got to see all those shows. When I saw they were doing all the albums in one show, I priced a ticket from Sydney but it was way too much money for this little listener. I did get to see the Weakerthans on their Australian tour earlier in the year which was a dream come true. Thanks for all your work this year which has brought me much pleasure. Have a happy holiday

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