Paul Westberg: The Craft 9.24

The Paul Westerberg -slash- The Craft show at First Avenue: Amazing. Here's everything I have on it at the moment, more to come and the video will be online soon so you can see it for yourselves! For now, a big thank you to JimP for uploading this video of "Let The Bad Times Roll" from the show:



The night was a mix of songs and interview, with a total of 10 songs played, including one new song and one unreleased Mats song. The set list:

Let the Bad Times Roll
It’s a Wonderful Lie
Everyone’s Stupid (This is the new song, written from about a friend of his son's whose parents were divorcing, written from the kid's point of view)
Lush & Green
Make the Best of Me (An unreleased Mats-era song that he noted the band rejected as "too spiritual")
What a Day (For a Night)
World Class Fad (never a favorite of mine, but this was maybe the best-performed song of the night)
Dyslexic Heart
Can’t Hardly Wait
Skyway (encore)

My favorite quote of the night was "I would sort of divide what we did between the songs that ache and the songs that rock. Sometimes they did both. But the ones that ached mattered a little more to me than say, 'One Good Dose of Thunder'". Check out more quotes from the show courtesy of Rob van Alstyne at Reveille. (Paul responding to host Warren Zanes comparing him to legendary recluse J.D. Salinger in terms of taking himself out of the spotlight post-Suicaine: "It was more 'Catcher in the Slump' than 'Catcher in the Rye'"). My favorite moment of the night? Paul, cig firmly in mouth, playing a bit of "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5.

What the reviewers had to say:

Spin - Review + great pictures, plus man/woman on the street interviews asking "Fill in the blank: Paul Westerberg makes me want to _____." The best answer is from Paul's cousin: "Paul Westerberg makes me want to call my pharmaceutical rep."
The Star-Tribune - "Westerberg 'Craft' gets at some details but quiets his music" by Chris Riemenschneider. More here in the S-T blog.
Reveille Magazine - Review + tons of pictures from Steve Cohen, who always does such an amazing job shooting PW shows.
Billboard - "Zanes had Westerberg pick four favorite songs -- the Beatles' "Hello, Goodbye," the Rolling Stones' "Tumblin' Dice," the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" and Jimmy Reed's "You Got Me Running" -- and talk about them. One of the night's highlights was when Westerberg, after saying "I wish I could play it," spontaneously played the J5 smash as an instrumental on acoustic guitar."

Most importantly, here's what the fans had to say: Check out the message boards for show reviews (the good, the bad and everything in between) and pictures. Thanks to everyone who posted about the show, if you went to the show and want to add your thoughts, please do!