Joe’s Pub - New York, NY - February 20, 2007
Pete Townshend: Acid Queen, The Real Me, Drowned, Won't Get Fooled Again, See Me Feel Me/Listening To You (w/ J. Mascis)
Rachel Fuller: I Can Fly, Cigarettes and Housework, It's a Motherfucker, Sunrise (w/ Pete)
Lou Reed: Waiting For the Man, White Light, Pale Blue Eyes (all with Pete)
Jimmy Fallon: Car Wash For Peace
Amos Lee
Rachel Yamagata
J. Mascis
Videos
White Light White Heat
Waiting for the Man
Pale Blue Eyes
Review by Jon Rosenbaum
Things were off to a good start when the temperature increased nicely. This made for a more tolerable queue when waiting outside the venue to be let in. This time around, Joe's Pub had a much better system for letting people in. In fact, it was quite similar to airline boarding with everyone being admitted in manageable groups. Once in, we made our way to the mid-section of the bar. This vantage point was just fine since we were between the two large poles that could've made for really lame obstruction.
Rachel came onto the stage a little after 9:30 (9:41 by a certain somebody's notes) and started things off with her set. "I Can Fly" was a new addition to her setlist, and it sounded quite nice. Jimmy Fallon, returning as Attic co-host, played a couple of numbers. He even treated us to another Car Wash For Peace. In between acts, Jimmy and Rachel did something of an impromptu skit that involved piano sales. Note to Rachel: You did some great stuff during this segment; please consider composing some instrumentals that would show off your mad piano skillz. Amos Lee was next on the roster. I wasn't familiar with his material at all, so it was nice to hear some brand new music, from my perspective. His songs had a nice mellow feel to them. Pete and Rachel accompanied him for one or two songs as well. After Amos came Rachael Yamagata. She really proved to be quite a character, with the right vibe for the evening. A guitarist and drummer (hi-hat and snare) backed her up on a couple of songs, after which Rachel and Pete came out to add their support to her sound. I would definitely recommend checking out some of her material.
I was curious to see how J. Mascis would do. While I knew of his band, Dinosaur Jr., I only knew of one of their songs, Feel The Pain (which I really like). J played a couple of nice tunes, and then invited Pete to join him. Little did we know that J wanted to perform See Me, Feel Me / Listening to You. Everyone went apeshit when that got underway. I was especially psyched when Pete shouted "More! More!" in response to J's soloing. Truly, a great moment.
Next up, Mr. Townshend. His inspired set was on fire from the moment he started. Acid Queen, The Real Me, Drowned, Won't Get Fooled Again. I'll just leave it at that, because any attempt at putting Pete's set to words would be foolish. The icing on the cake came when Lou Reed joined Pete at the end of the show to play some Velvet Underground material. Both Pete and Lou were really into the moment, and it was clear that by the end they were both quite moved by the unique experience.
I do hope that Rachel and Pete consider continuing the live Attic shows, as they're such a unique and wonderful experience.
Review by Mark Fintz
"Nobody puts baby in a corner"..(Dirty Dancing)...Well that kinda rings true about the Joe's gig. They sold us standing room at the bar and VIP's were in the front. The standing room area was overcrowded and hot. I saw George L make his move and I followed, we both ended up in the front. I had an excellent seat. I grabbed a seat behind the front row tables and the nice VIPs slid over to allow my ass to squeeze in. The dude sitting in the table in front of me was busy texting all night. Kinda sucks to see all these folks in the prime seats who probably were there for the up and coming acts. In fact the texting dude left before Pete's set. WTF?
So Jimmy Fallon comes on with Rachel to open the show and he asks the crowd if we needed anything. So I said, "Jimmy I could use a couple of beers". He said "two beers coming up, billed to this table in the front". Rachel came on did Cigs and housework, Its a mutherfucker and Sunrise with Pete, maybe one other. Brain way too hazy. I thought Rachel was fabulous tonite.
They bring Jimmy Fallon out to do a couple of tunes and he brings me two Heinekens! That was freaking the coolest. Loved his two songs, parodies, Carwash For Peace and something about Presidents Day.
During Rachel Yamagata set, I went backstage and chatted with Jimmy, thanked him for the beers and offered to return the favor after the show. Talked to Rachel and got a quick meet with his Peteness. Pete wasnt wearing black which he seems to sport a lot these days. Jimmy tells me Lou Reed is a definite and he's doing some Velvet Underground tunes.
That dude from Dinosaur Jr was great. Pete and him played See Me Feel Me with the Dinosaur Jr. guy recreating the woodstock lead on acoustic guitar complete with fuzztone.....Pete kept telling him more and he indulged us with more soloing.
Couple of the other acts were cool too. I like acoustic stuff, so it's easy for me to get into these acts.
Pete's set was awesome, I yelled for quick one, I really wanted him to do that so us Shouters could do the "cello, cello" part. But the 4 he banged out for us were awesome, wasnt expecting The Real Me,that was cool. Pete gave us Acid Queen, The Real Me, Drowned and WGFA solo. Then Lou Reed came out with Pete and did his three songs.
I really liked the way they set this show up. They saved Pete for the end with Lou Reed which brought the show to a climax! And Pete played with everyone and had much more stage time than the previous Joe's shows. Lou was great! He did "Waiting for the man", "White light" and "Pale Blue Eyes"
Went backstage after the show and ignored the requests to leave. "I saw Matt Dillon in black and white...." He was there chatting with Pete and some of the other performers. Pete disappeared, the crowd thinned out, he emerged. Got a picture with Jimmy, with Rachel and Alan Rogan. Alan had some hotties with him, wasnt sure if they were his daughters or not.
This was a blast tonite, for those of you seeing ITA in the other cities, I hope it's equally as great for you.