At the end of 1993, Blur undertook a short promotional tour of the USA to promote the recently released (in America) Modern Life is Rubbish. This was a very short tour consisting of the following dates:November 1993:
26th - Bimbo's 365, San Francisco, California, USA
28th - Whiskey A Go-Go, Los Angeles, California, USA
30th - Cabaret Metro, Chicago, Illinois, USA
December 1993:
2nd - Opera House, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
3rd - Irving Plaza, New York, City, New York, USA
4th - Theatre of Living Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
7th - Paradise, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
The sole recording available from this tour is the Philadelphia show (kindly sent to me by the taper...many thanks!).
The set list was the same as on the preceding UK and European tours of October/November:
Intermission
Popscene
Colin Zeal
Sunday Sunday
Pressure On Julian
She's So High
There's No Other Way
Oily Water
Coping
Bank Holiday
Girls & Boys
Chemical World
Commercial Break
Daisy Bell
For Tomorrow
Advert
No surprises in the set, but judging from the Philly tape, the crowds weren't as into this new British direction (at least at first) as other countries were...Damon has to yell at them to show some enthusiasm about halfway through the show! And they are utterly baffled by Daisy Bell (unsurprising...I don't imagine too many Americans are into English Music Hall!)
Still, it's an interesting little tour and I'd love to hear some other recordings from it...if anyone out there has some, contact me privately.
The opening band for some, if not all, of these dates was Drop Nineteens - perhaps a former member might have recordings of these dates.
ReplyDeleteI saw this tour's Chicago show - the Metro is smaller than The Vic (where the '92 show was) and so the sound was much better. I distinctly remember Damon 'invoking a whirling dervish' (his words) during 'Commercial Break' and the crowd thoroughly enjoying 'Chemical World' which wasn't getting too much play on local radio.
I saw Blur during this short tour at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, CA. in Nov 1993. Drop Nineteens opened. I loved Drop Nineteens and the recent Blur album MLIR (which they were touring in support of). Both bands sounded great in the small club. I recall Damon making fun of the crowd for the recent Thanksgiving holiday - hoping that everyone got nice and fat on turkey and stuffing, or some such nonsense. He was sort of a dick, but that is a surly Englishman in California for ya. I really dug Oily Water with its extended middle part where the guitars and drums are droning and swirling for several minutes. Damon was twirling around in a sort of trance and I thought his mic cord was gonna wrap him up and take him down. First time I heard Girls and Boys and I was like, "what is this UK disco shit?" But I still liked it. Seemed like a few months later, after this show, Parklife was released and it was huge! Had said disco song on it, of course. I really liked Modern Life... I think it is the best Blur album. Everyone forgot about it after Parklife and then Oasis came around and it was all fucking ridiculous. I got more into MBV, Ride, Slowdive, Telescopes, and Swervedriver. Didn't really give two shits about the emerging, competitive Britpop scene -- whadda bunch of wankers.
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