Issac Brock and crew sauntered out to fervent fans in Oakland Wednesday night. The 25th-anniversary tour for The Lonesome Crowded West has twenty-one scheduled tour dates full of 90s gems that soundtracked college dorms through the early 2000s. This one was sold out, with fans of all ages and all eras of the band attending. Beanie-topped tidy grunge folks in the teeming audience at the Fox howled when the first licks of “Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine” began. The setlist continued down a nostalgic path stirring ephemeral eddies of light-push-moshing. “Doin’ The Cockroach” is their disco grind dance number. The crowd obliged.
Humanity runs durably inside these songs; a reminder to self that we are all indeed dicks as people, reflecting each other. We create and learn and do the acting life requires in whatever moments we find ourselves in. Spewing actions beside reactions. “Lounge, (Closing Time)” scribes this musically as it shuffles and slides around, testing the ears and evoking experiences in the listener —jangle, shuffle, skiffle, and then drooooone: “on the road to God don’t know, my brain’s the burger, and my heart”s the charcoal.” Epic tales like “Cowboy Dan” are a war cry/death march sound. A distant and sprawling tambourine echoes the force-faded legacy of native peoples. Cities wiping out stories, paving over mouths.
]here was a hootenanny sing-along to “Styrofoam” practically acapella with a tiny acoustic strumming along. Issac slinging sing-song lyrics “He moves just like Crisco disco, breath a hundred percent Listerine,” and muttering “God takes care of himself” over and over. Fans struggled to keep up with the wordsmith”s ratchet poetry and sweet lisping rattle. Heavy jazz drums broke it up, and the audience started the shuffle-moshing again.
One of the final highlights for me was the four-song encore that featured “A Life Of Arctic Sounds” from Building Something Out Of Nothing, “Edit The Sad Parts” from the Interstate 8 EP, “Too Many Fiestas For Rueben” the story of a small town urban legend, and a Flaming Lips cover: “5 Stop Mother Superior Rain”.
It was a perfect evening of live Bay Area music. Hoping deeply for a trip down The Moon and Antarctica in the near future.
Setlist
- Teeth Like God”s Shoeshine
- Heart Cooks Brain
- Convenient Parking
- Lounge (Closing Time)
- Jesus Christ Was an Only Child
- Doin” the Cockroach
- Cowboy Dan
- Trailer Trash
- Out of Gas
- Long Distance Drunk
- Shit Luck
- Trucker’s Atlas
- Polar Opposites
- Bankrupt on Selling
- Styrofoam Boots/It’s All Nice on Ice, Alright
Encore:
- A Life of Arctic Sounds
- Too Many Fiestas for Rueben
- Edit the Sad Parts
- Five Stop Mother Superior Rain (The Flaming Lips cover)
