Lou Reed Tribute Night 2024: Setlist Leak! Spoiler alert!

Above we see a Lou Reed Japanese gig poster from October 2000: I was there only for the first night, at the Akasaka Blitz, the setlist for which is here. Lou did what then was mostly new material, both off the album represented in the art here -- the stellar, Hal-Willner-produced Ecstasy -- and his equally underrated Set the Twilight Reeling, leaning into guitariffic jams with Mike Rathke, the two men clearly having a lot of fun just interacting with each other without any interest in recapturing past glories or duplicating solos note-for-note; it was fresh and exciting and felt like a real privilege, like Lou wasn't catering to us so much as letting us in on what HE was into at the time. 10/13 songs in the main set are from those two albums. The other three ("Turn to Me," my favourite song off New Sensations; "Romeo Had Juliette," off New York; and "Smalltown," off Songs for Drella) were all welcome but certainly not hits. About my only disappointment, in terms of older-songs-not-played, was that he omitted one of my favourite-ever Lou songs, "The Blue Mask," which he did on some other dates on this tour, including the Vancouver leg, which is a bit more fullsome and has more Velvets stuff to boot. In any event, I enjoyed watching Mike and Lou jam so much during that main set that I probably would name the show as one of my top ten concert experiences ever... 

By contrast, the encore, which did acknowledge some fan favourites, seemed bored and rushed and obligatory, and I would have much rather had fifteen more minutes of him jamming out on recent tunes with Rathke than doing "let's-get-this-over-with," forced-march versions of songs that seemed to be kind of dead to him. I can name five songs at the drop of a hat off the two main albums they drew from ("Possum Day," "Sex With Your Parents," "Hookywooky," "Big Sky" and "Hang On To Your Emotions") that I would have preferred to the versions of "Sweet Jane," "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" and "Perfect Day" that we heard; they're not songs I care much about, of Lou's, but I care even less for the idea of seeing him practically rolling his eyes to have to play them yet again ("Dirty Blvd" was still pretty great, though). 

C'est la guerre.

If people are curious, there is a great live CD from the same tour, recorded in Germany -- it might be some sort of bootleg (tho' it exists in a couple different cover variants; maybe one is more legit than the others?). This one was available at some locations of Sunrise Records, last I looked (but not Metrotown; I bought that one):

But back to the main point, which is the Lou Reed tribute on Saturday at the Princeton (1901 Powell). If you plan to go, know that this is a popular event and you should arrive early to secure a table. The food at the Princeton is decent, note -- I've had the nachos and the fish and chips and recommend both (the steak was okay but it was pretty much you expect from "affordable pub steak;" I recall being more impressed with the fries). Non-drinkers can take heart that they have Philips Iota beers, which are very tasty; and there may be a meat draw, if you want to gamble for meat (we will be packing a cooler bag and ice). 

I promised a leak, though: with apologies to the event organizers, at the bottom of this page, I am sharing something maybe I shouldn't: someone posted the top-secret list of bands and songs.

I mean, you don't have to read it if you don't want to. I am posting it right at the end so you can still read this and only have a FEW songs spoiled. I don't blame you if you want lots of surprises; me, I'm real grateful to see what's happening (no, Al, no one is going to cover "Future Farmers of America," so don't get your hopes up). I have no idea if I'll make it to the end of the night -- I doubt Erika will, and she's my ride; tho' I definitely want to stay to see the Lulu's, with Eddy Dutchman, Ed Hurrell, Lisa Lloyd, and... who is the drummer this time? 

Anyone going on after them, I'm apologizing now (1am is LATE for us workin' Burnaby residents). 

Some notes follow before we get to the actual photo (which just lays it all out).  There are a lot of bands that I just don't know, some of whom have no internet presence that I can detect, like - who is Rubarb? And a lot of the songs are Velvets tunes and 70's Lou favourites that require no comment from me. I mean, delivery is everything, so even songs I've had enough of can be brought to life by the right performer doing a terrific performance. I generally don't get excited about the prospect of seeing "Femme Fatale" live, say -- surely the most-covered Velvets song ever? -- but Pill Squad (the band of event organizer Scott Beadle) could just be PERFECT for it -- Tracy has a kind of deadpan, wry delivery and no one does deadpan and wry like Nico, so...

But I will remark on a few pleasant deeper dives (mostly from earlier in Lou's career, not later, but still appreciated). 

David M. is the person that I (obviously) know best of the players, and his voice is ideally suited for "The Bed," which is a real outlier of the songs people are choosing: "bummer Lou," off Berlin, Lou's most depressing album. But it's nestled between humorous material ("The New Reindeer 2013" can be heard here. from the year of Lou's death, plus there's a song inspired by David's delightful, departed animal companion Ozzy, who once humped my leg, and a Gorgo ad -- a very silly David M/ NO FUN tradition.) So you get a bit of everything, there -- suicide and whimsy, the David M. way. 

M. is the person I know best of the people on the list, obviously. But I didn't know Cora & the Moon  were before just now, and now I want their record (cute cover, cute title... wow). "I Found a Reason" is my favourite song off Loaded, and they sound perfect for it... and it looks like Paul Rigby is in the band! Holy crap! 

DB3 is Ani Kyd Wolf's new project with Don Binns and Don Short... isn't this also her in the pic for a song by New Space Pimps, too? Is she in two bands, or...? I wonder if the DB3 will be following the Velvets' version of "Heroin" or the Rock'n Roll Animal one? I gather Ani is clean and sober, looking really fit and bright these days, so "Heroin" is a somewhat provocative choice. Incidentally, there are some appealing "reaction" videos to "Heroin" on Youtube... I liked watching this guy hear the song for the first time -- how he perks up when Lou starts the vocal, say; I was impressed that he instantly picked up Lou's Bob Dylan influence, which is not so obvious on this song (but is elsewhere on the album)...

Pill Squad is doing three songs -- one the aforesaid "Femme Fatale," but also, the prospect of Tim Chan singing "Kill Your Sons" sounds pretty cool... "Kill Your Sons" is a great, unheralded mid-period Lou song and could easily be connected to the horrible shit going on in Gaza right now (Tim may not intend the connection, here -- it's his bandmates who tend to the political, generally - but Israeli soldiers shooting into a crowd of starved Gazans getting flour is just fucking horrifying. I mean, I hated Hamas for what they did on October 7th but they have so effectively provoked Israel into atrocities that I'm now starting to wonder if there might not be a lasting peace after this current war. It seems unlikely, and there are way too many martyrs for it to seem worth the cost, at this point, but maybe when all the blood is spilled there will be some cause for hope? I was ranting here awhile back about how obscene "the War of the Flea" seems -- deliberately provoking your enemy to inflict mass casualties on your own population, then claiming it is your enemy's fault -- but I guess I'll judge the tree by its fruits, as they say. Anyhow... I digress). 

Re: Zafirios, it's really nice to see "What's Good" repped (the only song off Magic & Loss in the night, unless I missed something, and subject of a video I never saw, which I just linked; this is another essential Lou album for people who are stuck in the 1970s and has another song I'd love to see covered at a future event someday, "Warrior King"). I love the image of "bacon and ice cream" in the lyrics and in fact have a playlist on my phone called, no foolin', Bacon and Ice Cream, which starts with this song. I think I have seen Zafirios once before but not sure when... great song choice...

...and speaking of (kinda) later Lou, Circus in Flames, fronted by Doug Andrew of Shanghai Dog, is going to crack the seal on New York, which, like I say, is one of the only Lou albums to appear in that Akasaka Blitz main set, in the form of one of the songs Doug will be doing. This clip of that song (I am leaving the title out to not to spoil it for surprise-seekers) is from that Dusseldorf concert but is a fair approximation of what I saw in Japan that night. As for New York, Crushed Velvet (who?) will also be doing "Dirty Blvd" off that album, later... 

I think the Lulus are doing mostly the same set as the last year but with a different drummer, plus I am not sure if they did "Rock'n Roll." The Eds gravitate towards that mid-70s Lou thing, which I do not -- the least-played Lou Reed album in my house is probably Transformer -- but they did muscular, pumpin' versions of "Vicious," "Hangin' Round" and "I'm So Free" last year, with Tony Lee on drums. And their spelling mistakes can be fun at times: "Viscious," in the red bubble below, has prompted me to go a step further into singing, to the same tune, "Viscous," as in, "Viscous... you got me thick and sticky... you're slimy and you're slippy... oh baby you're so viscous." 

It is really unlikely I will still be there after that -- it will be around 12:30 when they finish, if things go to plan (which they don't always do). I am glad Leonard Pennifold is putting "Sunday Morning" into the mix but it will technically BE Sunday morning when he performs it and... well, we'll see.

Rocket #9, the second-to-last band on the bill, gets some credit for deep diving, but their deep dive goes pretty far back in time, to those early, primitive Primitives recordings Lou and Cale did, pre-Velvets. But I wonder how sincerely they're going to attempt to replicate the first "song" on their setlist? If they do more than a minute of it, they could clear the room... 

Which is too bad, because Gnick Gnash gets kudos for the cleverest song choices of the night, doing a suite of three songs whose titles share a common element. I like the closer, in particular - a great song to end the night on, for those who stick it out to the very end. 

More about the Lou Reed Tribute Night here. Now does Red Cat have that Cora and the Moon record...? I think I have a stamp card nearly full...