Big Star / "Shatners" (Counting Crows) / Gigolo Aunts

The Fillmore, San Francisco, June 5, 1994, 8pm

"People kept saying to me, 'What's this about a Big Star reunion?' And I was like, 'It's not a Big Star reunion.' Then this record company came along and said, 'I think we could slip some money your way for a record of this Big Star reunion,' and I said, 'Call it whatever you want! And what songs did you want me to play?'"
-- Alex Chilton, to Gina Arnold, in the San Francisco Chronicle

I'd read that quote before the show, and really, I get a major kick out of the AC I'm-a-whore ethos, and I laughed aloud at that one, but still, ya know, this was billed as *BIG STAR* which, whether he likes it or not, is gonna be the guy's flippin LEGACY. So hey, I'm naive, sentimental and a fool (parted with $17.50), but I was hoping for more than the faithful and professional run- through of Big Star standards supplied by AC and Jody Stephens and the two Posies guys, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow (subbing for the 15-years-daid Chris Bell, and the couldn't-get-the-day- off-from-his-aerospace-gig Andy Hummel).

They played mostly tunes from the first two albums (perhaps at the record company's behest), and two or three from Sister Lovers (nothing too dark, puleez, tho Big Black Car got snuck in there). The only real excitement came from trying to identify the fairly inspired covers they'd selected: T Rex's Baby Strange, a truly out-there and obscure tune from the 60s called, maybe, Patty Doll that played on the evening's recurring subtheme of child-molestation, plus the kinda-sorta-predictable Kinks' Til the End of the Day from the latest incarnation of the amazing, ever-expanding Sister Lovers, and their likewise sorta predictable selection of Todd Rundgren's S-L-U-T, pointedly dedicated by Jon Auer to some lucky gal, which appears on the Columbia, Mo. live re-union album.

But, really, this was for the most part just BigStarMania, an incredible simulation... which was fine fine fine and fun fun fun for most of the folks there, hep kidZ singin along with September Gurls and Feel. I'm not sure what I was expecting: probably exactly what I got; and not sure what I was hoping for: some sorta risk-taking or innovation or other sign of life -- only evidence of that came from the two Posies, who clearly had their hearts in it, but who wouldn't or couldn't push AC very far. I've run into this sensation before -- there was a Buzzcocks reunion a couple of years back that left most folks on hand all hopped up and giddy, but kinda depressed me cause they didn't manage to bring anything more than professional competence to material that was at that point 15 years old.

Honest and true, I don't think there's any real difference between re-unions like Big Star's or the Buzzcocks' and, say, a Band or an Eagles re-union. If ya love the Eagles, chances are you'll be thrilled to see em up there in their withery old flesh, maybe augmented or pumped up by an admiring youngster or two, runnin thru faithful reproductions of all them familiar toonz. I love Big Star, and therefore, of course, wouldn't have missed it... But still...

Two other bands shared the bill with Big Star: Gigolo Aunts and "Shatners."

Gigolo Aunts were up first, and started promptly. They were pretty groovin, actually: young, earnest, tight, and clearly totally thrilled to be up on stage at the Fillmore opening for Big Star. There's an element of Redd Kross at work there, tho maybe minus the yucks, so it didn't surprise me to see one of the McDonald brothers on the scene (or to note on their CD, which I picked up used based strictly on their performance, that they thank Redd Kross (and the Posies)).

Up next were "Shatners: Like Punk Never Happened," which is how San Francisco's Counting Crows bill themselves when the urge strikes them to assemble 13 or 14 musicians and have a few brewskis and play repeated covers of Bruce Springsteen's Sandy and Spirit in the Night from The Boss's first two albums. Or maybe that's what they do as the Crows too, I honestly don't know. They sure did suck, tho. I kept sorta hoping they'd at least break into Rosalita or Blinded by the Light, but no such luck. It took em a long, long, LONG time to call it a night, but finally Adam Duritz gave up and announced, "Sorry, I don't think I'm gonna come," and the house lights came back up.

Wilson Smith (neslon@panix.com) is alienation and dislocation incarnate.

This was written for <#1 Issue> of "Back of a Car," Judith Beeman's groovin Big Star zine. Send submissions and inquiries about orders ($3.00 or so - cheap cheap cheap) to beeman@mindlink.bc.ca.