If this is Wednesday it must be Italy...
Yes, friends, it is Wednesday, and according to my self-imposed schedule, I must post a song in video form and add some commentary, with a cutesy introductory nod the Odin / Wodnesdæg conceit. So hail Odin and here ya go:
https://youtu.be/0aSCFBjnXKM
It's the MTX of 1996 doing "Velveeta" at the Nessun Dorma club in Genoa, Italy.
You can read more about the background of this tour and shows in the "minor secrets" write-ups to the songs previously posted from this set if you like -- see playlist below. This was our return to Europe after the truncated tour with Green Day earlier that year. Whatever else went wrong in our world (and quite a lot did) Italy always came through.
This song is almost unique, I believe, in being a regular part of the live set of each and every MTX era and line-up -- the other one being "Danny Partridge." We still play it now, in fact, and people still seem to like it. I (still) like it okay, but I've always winced at the recorded version, which falls short of the song's potential in practically every way I can think of. (That's what made the decision to leave it off the Mtx forever compilation in favor of "The History of the Concept of the Soul" somewhat easier - in that sense it came in handy.) Though this performance is a bit rough, like everything else we ever did, this is more like the way it should have been done, mostly because of the drums. I guess after ten years of doing a song you figure some stuff out.
Anyway, this is what it sounded like when we pulled out a decade-old "standard" when touring Europe in the nineties, for better or worse.
As for the song itself, I wrote it up in an earlier Song for Odin write-up concerning an earlier (1988) performance and I can't think of anything to add right now so I'll quote myself:
"The song, per se, is an early attempt to take a conceit, run it in to the ground, beat it to death, burn it to a crisp, and scatter the ashes — something I was to learn to do better as time went on. But considering how aimless and all-over-the-place I was in this period (as a writer and just, you know, generally) it does stay remarkably in focus. I still like it, I don’t care what you all say."
And I'm all Odin'd out, for the moment anyhow. Keep on coping by whatever mechanisms you have at your disposal, and I shall try to do the same. Cheers. And I'll be back next week, with something new perhaps. Till then, bottoms up and here's to crime.
notes:
-- that sorta terrible horrible no good very bad studio recording: https://youtu.be/joCBq4IgbEA
-- that previous Song for Odin "Velveeta" write-up: https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/881563245464248321?referrer=frankportman
-- that playlist of other songs posted from that set: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLommF46BbnARLmlaK6-s7Sc0SS_1YI6b1
-- that Songs for Odin playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLommF46BbnATopffORs0YkspebJHka2o_#music#songs#video#punkrock#minds
