Sloan

Sloan - Slim's in San Francisco
June 25, 2002

Question: What does a girl do after (unfortunately) having to watch her favourite band open up for Sum 41 in a crowd of 16,000 screaming, moshing 16 year olds kids?

Answer: She takes a 14 hour road trip from Vancouver to San Francisco to see her favourite band play in front of 300 totally civilized and pleasant people.

Yes, for those that care, I took a trip down to the lovely city of California to watch Sloan play at Slim's on Tuesday. It was a GREAT night; I met some very awesome people from this mailing list, and also saw a fantastic show. The band sounded really good from where I was standing (in the second row), but the vocals were a little low in the mix. Apparently Jay was having a bit of an off night, and at one point his mike just stopped working, so they skipped one of his songs and came back to it later.

I have to comment on the set list, because it really surprised me. I heard songs that I had not heard them play in ages. It goes as follows, forgive me if I missed any (and this is in NO order except as I was pulling them off the cd's):

Underwhelmed (encore)
Penpals
I hate my Generation
People of the Sky
Coax Me
I can feel it
The Good in Everyone
Everything you've done wrong
The lines you amend (encore)
Keep on Thinkin'
Money City Maniacs
The NS
So Beyond Me
Don't you Believe a Word
If it feels good do it
In the Movies
The Other Man
It's in your eyes
Great Wall
Life of a Working Girl (encore)
I love a long goodbye
Your Dreams have come true

I was really surprised to hear "I hate my Generation" as I have actually never seen it performed live. Also hearing "The NS" and "Don't you believe a word" were really surprising as well, as they were kind of dumped from the set lists shortly after the release of Between the Bridges.

"I love a long goodbye" was one of my favourites of the night, and it was nice to see Jay playing acoustic guitar. Pat also played acoustic on "Your dreams have come true". "Life of a working girl" was the first song of the encore and consisted of Chris singing, and Andrew playing keyboards. Chris was good enough to pose for some cheesy type pictures while draped over
Andrew and the keyboard?..but that's to be expected.

But enough of the music content, let's get into the appearance of the band, because I know that is what you are all wanting to hear about :)

Patrick is currently doing some funky "I-am-too-lazy-to-cut-my-hair-or-use-styling-products" hairdo right now, which I am not too fond of. He was dressed all in black (no surprise
there), and was pretty non-interactive with the audience.

Andrew has cut his hair, and is still sporting the grey look, but it looks good. My 2 friends that I brought with me from Vancouver spent the night enjoying the HOT dude that was playing drums.

Jay was wearing his Penn state tshirt, and was looking a little bit shaggy with the hair himself (but not at all like Patrick). Jay did not appear to be too happy during the show, but commented later to me that the sound was not good for him.

Chris was sporting his classic mullet (what else would he do with his hair), ripped up jeans, and tshirt. He was very energetic (again, what else is new) and a total camera hog?..but I didn't mind!

As for the crowd in San Fran - it was awesome. There was no pushing or shoving, just lots of people bopping around to the music, and having a good time. God, I can't think of too much more to add, except that it was a great experience, and I am so happy that I decided to make the effort to go.

Of course we were getting the reputation as the "crazy Canadian girls" all night,?but I don't mind that much either :)

Cheers,
nikki