Luna @ the Fillmore, San Francisco, 2003
Luna is one of my all-time favorite bands, and the band I've seen perform live more times than any other band (10 shows during their existence). They had booked 2 nights at the legendary Fillmore during one of those rare heat-waves in San Francisco. Shortly into their set, all power went out inside the venue-- a PG&E blackout in the area due to a surge in electricity use caused by the heat. Emergency lights in the venue went on, but it was still pretty dark -- and of course without power, there was no music, just the crowd discussing what is going on, how long we might have to wait, etc. The Fillmore staff scrambled to light candles and pass around to the audience as we all waited for the electricity to come back on. After 15 minutes, the Fillmore staff started offering free tap beer to the audience to quell their restlessness. It was getting pretty warm in the venue as no fans were running. After about 30 minutes, the electricity came back on, and the band resumed where they had left off. Seeing the band perform at an instore the next day at Amoeba, the band's lead singer/guitarist mentioned the incident that occurred last night as a first-time experience for the band.
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Greg, sounds like Concert 3 was definitely memorable. I wonder if the band learned that maybe they should have some backup acoustic instruments to make the most of a power outage in the future. Do you think that might have worked?
ReplyDeleteAfter I read your post I immediately went to itunes to hear a little snipit of Luna. I like their sound, especially the slower ballads, but also the faster paced ones.
ReplyDeleteLuna has a new fan now. Thank you.
I might even download a few songs. Thanks for the introduction.
Wow!! I’m from Asia; actually I haven’t any idea about the band. Like Jennifer I’ve to listen how cool of them. Thank you!! You can visit my blog, I’d present different style of Asian songs.
ReplyDeleteLuna was formed by Dean Wareham, a Harvard educated guitarist, after disbanding his former band, Galaxie 500, which was an college indie favorite in the late 80s. The band broke up in Feb 2005. Their music is categorized as indie-pop, dream-pop but to me it is just great guitar rock music.
ReplyDeleteMany US fans consider "Bewitched" the band's classic album, yet their following release, "Penthouse" is pure musical genius and what I consider the band at its musical height.
The band's breakup and last tour was documented by indie filmakers and called "Tell Me Do You Miss Me", available on DVD. Dean Wareham and his wife, Britta Phillips, who joined Luna as bassist for the last several albums now record and tour as "Dean & Britta". I highly recommend their first album together "L'Avventura" -- check it out! Dean also has written an excellent book, Black Postcards - which is a must for anyone into indie pop music.
I think that the band could have performed acoustically when the lights went out, but they would need to bring acoustic guitars on tour.
ReplyDeleteIf you take a look at the Galaxie 500 2-DVD set it has all of their videos plus live material and some "bootleg" video submitted by various fans. The concert in Atlanta at the The Point is a poor quality video, but the audio is decent. I was sitting on the floor of the venue because they were so mellow. I got to meet Dean and Damon and Naomi later; they signed the few LP's I brought with me. I also remember Dean was wearing a Spacemen 3 shirt on stage, another psychedelic band from late 80s-90s that I adore.
ReplyDeleteSome friends in NYC who are in the bands Cordero and Pistolera are friends with and probably have played gigs with Dean and Britta.
Trivia: Britta was the singing voice of Jem the cartoon character in the 80s, and she currently voices characters on Morel Orel on Adult Swim!