Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (February 11, 2022) Album • Page 59

pube life

 

They’re pretty good about changing up their sets but i honestly wish they’d go even deeper. Would love to get like “Jenni” or “Obejcts” ya know? Like “Watering”. Let’s go. Have they ever played “Love in Mine”?

 

I am glad they no longer play Masterpiece every show

I cannot say the same about Shark Smile and Cattails

 

I guess it’s on me for not making any effort to follow along as they debut new songs live, but the whole unreleased songs bit is just really not my thing. 5 great records that aren’t even a decade old and still throwing in like 5-6 unreleased ones. Kinda wack. Makes cutting Blue Lightning like that sting even more

 

They’ve kind of always done this though. The 2021 set from Pitchfork had 5 songs from Dragon and that record wouldn’t come out for 5 months, and none of them had been released as singles (I don’t think).

 

Actually “Certainty” definitely had been released before the 2021 set and I’m almost positive “Change” had been days before as well. So that makes 3 totally unreleased songs in a 13 song set vs. 7 in a 16 song set (17 if you count “Blue Lightning” which I would not). 23% vs 41%

Then purely in terms of quality (and AGAIN this is not fair bc like Jim and radiodead I’m comparing ‘21 in person to ‘23 stream)—I did not hear anything that made me go “holy shit” like the P4K ‘21 versions of “Simulation Swarm” and “Dragon” did. Some good stuff, one or two great ones, but a couple genuine clunkers at first blush too.

 

But whatever, it’s one show. It just happened to be in the same park as the one 22 months prior

 

I follow the band closely so I am aware of new songs and can handle a new song or two being debuted live but I want to hear the hits and deep cuts from the albums already released. I couldn’t go to the 2021 set because of a wedding but even including that, they’ve only played four Chicago shows since the release of UFOF, one of those being a show that sold out months in advance pre-pandemic and the other being a show where Adrianne had back problems and had to be seated the entire show. Which is to say that there are plenty of people who have not gotten the full experience of a Big Thief show where the hits and album cuts are played vs a bunch of new tracks.

Also I may be in the minority but hearing Masterpiece every time is totally cool with me, I still love that song.

 

Someone (I think @radiodead) said that 2021 when Phoebe headlined it felt like Big Thief were the true headliners with how good they sounded. I felt the same way this year with Weyes Blood tbh.

 

Oh, yeah I know it’s kinda been their thing for a while. And I totally get that they lean into it because their fans seem to dig it. It’s cool for the people online enough to follow along and whatnot. Just doesn’t really appeal to me, that’s all I meant

 

Being at the seated show after the 2021 pitchfork show was such a 180. Just totally not what I was expecting.

 

Honestly agree, and seeing all the hoopla around vampire empire makes me feel like I made the right call haha

 

The new song thing (to that extent) is totally annoying. It is just a different experience than hearing the songs you've listened to a ton and know all the words too. This was the 4th time I've seen them (3 at pitchfork and the one where Adrianne sat) and I don't think I will go through much of an effort to see them next time.

 

There is a lot and by a lot I mean too much discourse surrounding that Stereogum article right now

 

Lol - what a douche.

 

It’s a dumb take to blame it on their age but the article does actually suck ass. They spend multiple paragraphs rambling on about how weird it is that Big Thief are a band and do things like take promo photos together lol. The lines about Lou Reed going “ayyyy” and Gregg Ginn going “wooo” are very cornball. And then there’s that fascism line. Fun writing is nice but if it feels like I’m reading a Livejournal post on a publication then something is wrong

 

I didn't actually read the article, but that sounds awful...lol. Guess I have to read it now.

 

if youre going to read a 25 year olds music takes in a publication,,,

 

You are definitely right though - those tweets acting like young people can’t grasp objectivity or whatever is some dork shit. Great young writers exist. And for all I know this author in particular has produced much stronger material

 

Stereogum article was fine that’s just how Julien writes lol

 

Going back to what radiodead said, I'd absolutely love to hear them play Jenni or Objects. Two of my favorites and they basically never play them (zero record of ever playing Jenni). I love following all of the new songs but would definitely like to hear more of their back catalog as well. I think they just write so much that there's constantly new material and only so many songs they can keep in rotation.

radiodead - are you going to the indy show tonight?

 

bootleg from the show before Pitchfork. only 4 new songs, for those that aren't a fan

Reddit - Dive into anything

 

Yea I’ll be there tonight. I almost went to Soul Glo last night but had to work at 6 this morning.

 

Damn man. Sorry for your loss.

on the bright side so much cool stuff coming this fall. Broken Social Scene, Weyes Blood, 1975 etc