Although darlings of the music press, starting the gig with three songs from 'Sumday' - perceived by many critics as their weakest album - could be seen as a statement of intent: What do critics know eh? El Camino's In The West, Now It's On, and "Yeah" Is What We Had are up there with anything else in the Grandaddy Catalogue. Following these up with a b-side (Fare Thee Not Well Mutineer) showed this was going to be a masterclass in reforming for the right reasons.
Playing to a sell out crowd at the Ritz, what we got was something akin to a fan's dream set - album tracks, b-sides and a cover version (their blistering cover of Pavement's "Here", which originally appeared on the AM180 7" single). Naturally, they play a fair chunk of 'The Sophtware Slump' - an album that quite possibly outdoes OK Computer with it's vision of machines living in a decaying future, but this is almost equalled by the number of 'Sumday' tracks. Of course, there's always going to be something else that they could/should have played, and an alternative setlist could be made by focussing on 'Under The Western Freeway' (2 songs played tonight) and their overlooked swansong 'Just Like the Fambly Cat' (clearly overlooked by the band too, as they didn't play any songs from this).
Although originally lumped in as being another Americana band, there's still something wonderfully unique about the Grandaddy sound - analogue keyboards sit (un)comfortably alongside the guitars, crunching chords are left floating mid air, motorik riffs underpin melodies to die for. Or, to reference one of their album sleeves, "sad strings, chunk chunk guitar, quiet vocal, end ahhhs, piano"; they do uplifting melancholy so much better than most bands. And AM180 still has the most ridiculous hook in any song ever.
Ending the main set with where it all started for me, with the wonderful Laughing Stock (I can't remember what Piccadilly Records said about this single at the time, but it was enough for me to take a punt and buy it without hearing it), they return for two encores - The aforementioned Here and, finally, the nine-minute song that needs no chorus, He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot.
Here's the setlist (should you need it)
Although originally lumped in as being another Americana band, there's still something wonderfully unique about the Grandaddy sound - analogue keyboards sit (un)comfortably alongside the guitars, crunching chords are left floating mid air, motorik riffs underpin melodies to die for. Or, to reference one of their album sleeves, "sad strings, chunk chunk guitar, quiet vocal, end ahhhs, piano"; they do uplifting melancholy so much better than most bands. And AM180 still has the most ridiculous hook in any song ever.
Ending the main set with where it all started for me, with the wonderful Laughing Stock (I can't remember what Piccadilly Records said about this single at the time, but it was enough for me to take a punt and buy it without hearing it), they return for two encores - The aforementioned Here and, finally, the nine-minute song that needs no chorus, He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot.
Here's the setlist (should you need it)
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