Thursday, June 21, 2018

The Posies- First Live Performance




Yet another sign I am getting old way too fast is that The Posies are in the middle of  a 30th anniversary world (North America/Europe) tour. I still remember buying their debut album, Failure through mail order from Seattle's indie label, Popllama Records in the late 80's. I have the pleasure of seeing the Posies live on two occasions, 1995 in Winnipeg and 2005 in Minneapolis. The 1995 show was when they were at their height of "commercial" success after Frosting, just before the release of Amazing Disgrace. For the 2005 show, we specifically drove up to the Twin Cities to see The Posies at the 400 Bar which was a great intimate venue. I always prefer the smaller venues as you get a more up close and personal experience and even had a chance to chat with Jon after the concert. As luck would have it, I will once again make a trip to the Twin Cities next week, this time St. Paul, to see The Posies at the Turf Club, another smallish size club with good sound and decent sight lines. For a preview of the St. Paul show, here's a very interesting article/interview with Ken Stringfellow that is terrific on so many levels. I've been to the Turf Club previously once to see the Baseball Project (w/Scott McC, Buck, Wynn and Pitmon). Should be great, really looking forward to it and they are one of my wife's favourite bands, so what's not to love?


I had a few other early Posies show to choose from to post, but I thought in tribute to their 30th anniversary, why not start at the very beginning. This is the first live public performance by Ken and Jon, before they formed the band, playing some cool covers and an original on duo acoustic guitars. I acquired this recording along with other early shows in a trade many many years ago. They're sound kind of rough and definitely not too polished yet, but the spirit and energy is there. So, what's not to love?
Enjoy!

Please do NOT sell!!
Do NOT trade this in lossy format. 
Convert to lossy for personal use only.

THE POSIES
FOE Hall
Bellingham, WA
August 26th, 1987

01. Mrs. Robinson
02. I'm Looking Through You (Beatles cover)
03. Don't Look Away (?)
04. Promise (Violent Femmes cover)
05. Swinging Party (Replacements cover)
06. I've Just Seen A Face (Beatles cover)
07. Standing Still (R.E.M. cover)
08. That's Entertainment (The Jam cover)
09. The Killing Moon (Echo & The Bummymen cover)
10. I Can't Reach You (The Who cover)
11. English Rose (The Jam cover)
12. Stretch Out And Wait (The Smiths cover)
13. Separate Beds (Squeeze cover)
14. Greeting To The New Brunette (Billy Bragg cover)
15. Surely You Jest (?)
16. Superman (Troggs cover)
17. I May Hate You Sometimes
18. So Sad About Us (The Who cover)

THE POSIES- 1987-08-26 FOE Hall, Bellingham, WA FLAC. rar
Please let me know if the link doesn't work. Still trying to tweak the downloads. - Thanks!

2 comments:

robgronotte said...

Interesting show, just a few corrections to the setlist.

Not sure what happened with track 14 - it's just the second part of the same song played on track 15. Didn't listen closely enough to hear if it's exactly the same thing or if they possibly played it twice, though that seems unlikely. Added or corrected song attributions to tracks 1, 3, and 16 as well.

01. Mrs. Robinson (Simon & Garfunkel)
02. I'm Looking Through You (Beatles cover)
03. Don't Look Away (The Who)
04. Promise (Violent Femmes cover)
05. Swinging Party (Replacements cover)
06. I've Just Seen A Face (Beatles cover)
07. Standing Still (R.E.M. cover)
08. That's Entertainment (The Jam cover)
09. The Killing Moon (Echo & The Bummymen cover)
10. I Can't Reach You (The Who cover)
11. English Rose (The Jam cover)
12. Stretch Out And Wait (The Smiths cover)
13. Separate Beds (Squeeze cover)
14. Greetings To The New Brunette - second half only
15. Greetings To The New Brunette (Billy Bragg cover)
16. Superman (The Clique cover)
17. I May Hate You Sometimes
18. So Sad About Us (The Who cover)

binky said...

Nice catch! Just checked my source disc and #14 is the same (half) track as 15. So, if burning to disc and for continuity sake, omit track 14. I took the setlist from the original poster/taper. Thanks Rob, I clearly wasn't paying attention!

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