The Slip: Live At The Bowery Ballroom (2009-06-26)

The Slip are making up for lost time. Two years off the road as The Slip has done the boys well. As hard as it is for fans to have a band take time off, it keeps the artists sane and it keeps the material fresh. While The Slip were still drawing pretty heavily from 2006s "Eisenhower", they also managed to mix in enough old gems, as well as new tunes to keep the setlist interesting and subsequently, the audience engaged. Opening the show with a spacey jam that teased a bit of the old, Cumulus and The Landing, it segued into a new tune which featured bassist Marc Freidman on an old hollow-body electric guitar. The tune (tentatively titled D'Gary) is a dark rocker with a nice finger-picked lead by Brad Barr. Next up came a new-school favourite, "Even Rats" which was pretty standard aside from Brad teasing "Sorry" in the solo section. The raging funk of "Get Me With Fuji" displayed The Slip's jammy side and got the crowd dancing. Like always, it was a showcase for the breakbeat drumming of Andrew Barr who was simply putting on a clinic all night. Another new tune came next, the bluesy-rocker called "Motherwolf". Brad was reaching for the grizzly falsetto and surprisingly enough, reached it most of the time.
This is a tune that is sure to sound great on record and occasionally live. A reworked version of "Dear Melina" came next and this time we had Freidman playing the lead lines on electric guitar with some nice slide work throughout the song. The boys saluted Michael Jackson during the ending of "Paper Birds" with some nice "Man in the Mirror" teases that had the crowd singing aloud. A big surprise came when long-time collaborator Marco Benevento showed up during the solo section of "If One Of Us Should Fall" to add some pretty, get this, accordion work to the ballad. The Slip left the stage briefly, but the crowd was cheering way to loud for the show to be over. They came back out and hit us with the re-worked version of "The Weight of Solomon" with Brad belting the lyrics out, knowing it was a sing-a-long favourite. "Children of December" came next, with Brad singing it in the high register, rather than the monotone manner that was showcased in 2006 and 2007. Proving he was a rockstar, Brad signalled for a crowd surf and the fans happily obliged. The final tune of the night was a new one people are calling "England". It features a nice acoustic loop and some singing from Andrew as well as Brad. It's a pretty song and one that is sure to sound good in the studio. At one point during the show, Brad alluded to the fact that this is not a comeback tour. The Slip never broke up. After last night's show I truthfully believe him. The Bowery was packed and the crowd was loving it. The Slip will continue to rage on in the future, but we may just have to accept them in small, powerful doses.

Setlist:
Intro (with Cumulus and/or The Landing teases) >
D'Gary
Even Rats (with Sorry teases)
Get Me With Fuji
Motherwolf
Dear Melina
Airplane/Primitive
Paper Birds (with Man In The Mirror teases)
Suffocation Keep
That Love Ain't Enough
Wolof
The Soft Machine
If One Of Us Should Fall (with Marco Benevento on acordian)
Encore:
Weight Of Solomon
Children Of December
England


Here's a video of The Slip playing "Dear Melina"

The Slip - Dear Melina (Live At The Bowery Ballroom Friday June 26, 2009) from lucas samuels on Vimeo.