Superchunk’s guitarist-vocalist Mac McCaughan and bassist Laura Ballance, own Merge Records, so when the whiny and distinctive Paul Westerbergish Mac says he feels like something bigger then the band alone standing on the stage at Radio City Music Hall, I might be forgiven for feeling a little sceptical.
So I feel a little sceptical.
Superchunk, who have been recorded since 1991, are a very good punk rock group who have been doing it so long they veer into power pop and classic rock with ease. On stage at Radio City, they have the songs and they have the ability, but the set also pinpoints their limitations.
Nobody who heard last years Majesty Shredding, featuring, two smart smart songs, “Learn to Surf” and the purely majestic “Digging For Something”, didn’t love it.
But on stage they are oddly disappointing.
Opening with “My Back Feels Weird”, they look like middle aged new wave punks and play like a tight buncha pros, American punk having a crises. The rhythm guy looks like Lurtch from the Addams Family , everybody else looks their age except when Mac gets overwhelemed by the merest most brilliant energizer bunnified jumping bean and dances across the stage. Then he looks timeless.
This is all to the good. So what’s’ the problem.
1. Replacements meets Buzzcocks melodies won’t help you when you’re trying to reach the third balcony.
2. Mac is the Snoop Dogg of power-punk, his voice makes the songs sound too samey.
3. They have forward momentum but they seem to miss out on propulsion.
4. The audience were a little not into it. Curse of opening bands everywhere.
5. They played their best stuff near the top of the set.
But all that notwithstanding, I really think the Hall fucked them up. I can imagine em killing it good in a club, even a Roseland. But on Wednesday, they didn’t pick up the head of steam they needed, that punk needs, to add to the add to the add till the set leaves their hands and reaches the audiences.
A good set, but I would like to see them somewhere else.
And I hereby forgive em for owning Merge records.