Jumping Again

Gramma always said that if you can't say something nice... so, we won't talk about the opening band. Okay, here's something: the drummer wore a tie and looked like quite a nice young man. Until.... nope, won't go there.


The Figgs took the stage at what, 11:30? Pretty late for these old working bones.

As a matter of fact, I'm hanging a bit low here this AM.

There was a pretty nice crowd, quite satisfying to see after a few Figgs giggs where Silent Mike and I were almost the only people there. A quite high percentage of ladies, in fact, along with the odd zombie and,...ummm....Kiss.

The Figgs cranked right into a quartet of new songs, all of which sounded superb. Pete D and Mike were spending more time harmonizing, rather than just trading vocals. Their voices are quite fine complements for each other, similar to Pirner and Murphy from Soul Asylum. After listening to the new CD (not available to you normals until Nov 14th) they are mostly-live takes, with the classic, basic lineup of guitar, bass, drums,... and guitar. Punky power pop with hooks that grab your belly like a meathook.

One of the hardest working bands around. They played an afternoon show at Andy's Basement, then came down to play a nearly unannounced show at Linnemann's. When they tour with Graham Parker, they typically play their own set as an opener, then come out to back up GP. After clearing away the debris of the opening band, they just started playing. No real sound check, plug in and go. It's rock and roll, not art. Even so, their sound is crisp and tight, tight as I've ever seen any band. Even when someone fouls something up, the other members just follow right along, making things right.

Mike Gent had a new guitar, a classic black Les Paul, with a funky new wah-wah pedal that he didn't overuse. In contrast, Pete Donnelley plays the most worn Fender bass in the world. There is essentially no paint left on the back, and a fair amount of wear on the front.

No setlist; like the Femmes, I think they just work from a loose arrangement and play what they feel like as they go. Looking at the recent shows on setlist.com, you can see that other than the new cuts they want to emphasize, they play very nearly random samples of their catalogue, going all the way back to Banda Macho.


At no particular loss for their own material (20 years, 12 albums and 121 songs to their credit, not counting their cassette and single releases) They also threw in a couple of covers; a fiery version of Hang Fire with energy that the Stones only dimly remember, and Love Goes To A Building On Fire that emphasized the early punk roots of Talking Heads. The notable thing about these was that appreciative as the crowd was, the most active response was for the Figgs original stuff, not the covers.

The band has found a way to share the work in the last couple of years. For Hey Mr. Moonman, they sat on the edge of the stage and the drummer took a break, with just gentle guitar strumming and allowing the crowd to take the vocals. They did this a few times; the crowd was perfectly willing to sing every single line. At least I was.

They did any number of encores, even switching instruments around just to add a bit of goof. We were fortunate to have a good number of encores; they only did one in Chicago the night before.

As always, just an excellent show. Do The Bounce; Jumping Again, indeed. I told the band members it had been too long, and it certainly was. A Figgs Fixx is indicated every 10 to 14 months. Too much fun for Zorg.

And some excellent news mined from the Figgs web site: at a 2005 show with Graham Parker in Chicago, the set was recorded and will be released by Bloodshot as 103 degrees in June. One of my favorite bands; my favorite label. All good.