Friday, February 1, 2008

The Rugburns Belly Up, Solana Beach - 1/13/96

From The Pit...

Well kiddies, if you didn’t catch The Rugburns at the Belly Up recently, you may be out of luck. They are playing a couple more shows in the area and then going on tour for a loooong time, from what I hear.

If you did catch the show, you’ll know that it was one of the best shows these boys have done in a while. They went on late, and the crowd was a bit restless after having to wait until 11:30 or so. It was worth the wait though. The ‘Burns played lots of stuff new and old, including stuff they hadn’t played at their last couple of Belly Up shows.

It was obvious to my friends and I that we were at a ‘Burns show early on. We showed up WAY TOO EARLY. The place was filled with senior citizens and swing music was blaring over the house speakers. It must have been the senior swing off or something. So we went to shoot some pool and meant a girl we thought was a guy but was really a girl. We called her ‘Pat’. Well, Pat had to be escorted out later in the night after she beat the crap out of some guy. I wouldn’t have messed with her, let me tell you.

The ‘Burns played some interesting covers including ‘Take The Skinheads Bowling’, a Camper Van Beethoven song, and ‘Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls’, that smash hit form TLC. The ‘Burns do a much better take on it though. They also played a Gregory Page song, ‘Thought You Were Brilliant’, from their bass player’s solo album.

Most of the set came from the new album ‘Taking the World by Donkey’, which was not a surprise. ‘War’, and ‘The Ballad of Tommy and Marla’ seemed to have more energy that night than usual. I wasn’t even drunk either! There was just some great energy in the Belly Up that night.

Also from the new album came ‘Mama’, ‘Till The Next Day Comes’, ‘ Now’s Not the Right Time for Love’, ‘Better Be Careful’, ‘Girl With the Wondering Eye’ and ‘Suburbia’. ‘Suburbia’ is also featured on the sountrack to the new film Bio-Dome, which MGM was there to promote. It looks as if the soundtrack is much better than the film!

It was very cool to hear a great deal of the best stuff from the first album, ‘Morning Wood’. These choice cuts included ‘Single Life’, ‘Football Tonight’, and ‘Kilkenny Man’. They also played ‘Hitchhiker Joe’, which sounded great despite the fact that I thought I was sick of hearing it!

‘Me and Eddie Veddder’, also from the first album was one of the better moments. ‘Sesame Street’ drove the denizens of the pit wild, as did ‘The Fairies Came’. The funnest moment of the show was getting to hear ‘Dick’s Automotive’ again. It had been a while since I had heard ‘Dick’s...’ live and it made me happy as a little boy.

Overall, the ‘Burns put on a great show. It seemed they had a lot more of the old energy that night than they have had in recent San Diego performances. All those days on the road singing and drinking must make you tired. You couldn’t tell this time though. This was one of the best ‘Burns shows I’ve seen and I’ve seen ‘em a lot in a lot of places.

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