Posies Vs. Sloan battle for Leah's heart in 1993

Photo of Jon and Ken Posie with Blaze DJ Teresa who interviewed them Sept 10, 2005

I can’t seem to decide which show I want to blog about first Sloan or The Posies. It was truly two very different experiences in many ways. It is very odd that they both were on DGC, both under appreciated by their label and both still going even after the record company machine could have broke their spirit. I even told the Posies it was DGC band week for me, they were asking how well Sloan does in Detroit when I said I saw them there.
I guess for my first installment, I will tie the two together in my scheme of things. I have often wondered as of late what it would have been like if I had taken to Sloan back in the day the way I did The Posies. Would I have seen Sloan 17 times like I now have seen The Posies had it been the other way around? I certainly never mean I regret my life as a Posies fan, I wouldn’t trade it, especially now that I see them again and was reminded how much they have meant to me in the past 17 years (yikes) I have seen them in many forms but it still never ceases to amaze me, those guys never have a bad show, they are so in tune with each other, so meant to play together. I didn’t doubt they would still be this way but I was utterly amazed at how in tune they are still with each other even after breakups, solo careers, REM, etc… I was actually thinking while I was watching Ken that hanging out with Michael Stipe may have enhanced his stage presence. Ken is so sedate with REM, it was funny to see him back being himself, the wild mad man on stage that he has always been. I remember the tie I saw them at Woody’s the first full band show I saw, he was so crazy he was bleeding from the strings he was breaking. I would say Jon seemed a little more reserved this time around but that didn’t stop the unbelievable guitar solo madness. I also remember vividly being at the 2nd full band show I saw at CDGBS, two industry men were standing in front of me going on about Jon being the next “Eddie Van Halen” Another guitar virtuoso is what they billed him.
I am soooo glad Dan got to see The Posies, as I said to Ken, can you imagine marrying me and having to become Posies familiar whether you like it or not. Fortunately Dan now chides me for not being as big a Posies fan as he is. I think it meant the most to me to see them together and that all the hype that I have told Dan in the past 6 years was lived up to. Dan was cute, all day Sunday he kept saying “I saw The Posies” My answer was “You can see them again, let’s drive to Tucson” but alas we both decided that they would play way too late for us to get back home and actually function at work Monday. I think as much as I wouldn’t mind seeing them again, we had more than our share on Saturday- sometimes it can be enough and for me, I needed to just let the week sink in. I am so fortunate that they also came by The Blaze as I got past my jitters of seeing them again plus the acoustic experience with The Posies is always equal in intensity. I got my wish to surprise them by being at The Blaze as they did not know I was the advisor there. Jon came walking into my office, just as he was figuring out it was me his manager had just spoke to about how KASR was one of the first stations to play “Failure” and that I had seen them quite a few times. Turns out their current manager is a Cronkite school alumni which yet more deliciously perfect irony to why they were prompted to come to The Blaze! I told Jon and Ken it was odd that I never got them to come to the station when I was an undergrad. A couple of other favorite moments included when Ken said on stage they were going to “play a few older ones that only Leah would know” That is when they launched in “Apology” (Yippee!) A local club DJ here in Phoenix Mr. Peabody was able to get on stage and play “Flavor” like he did many moons ago, anyway he grabbed me the set list which was very very kind of him. Then as we were about to leave and were saying goodbye, Jon asked Dan if he could hug me goodbye. I said “don’t worry Dan knows” as I very embarrassedly gave a hug to my old crush. Dan was good natured and laughed later about it. It was very sweet. Oh the angst I can remember there, maybe I should never unearth my old journals, I would hate to read how much anguish I experienced with each one of those Posies shows until the ’93 weenie roast when I finally got over it!
Did they do oldies, yep, but oddly none from “Success” or “Failure” They also did not do anything from the ep “cheekbones” The new songs sounded great live, I noticed I liked them more when they came up on my ipod during my Michigan trip. “Any other way” continues to be the opus live but I was stunned that they ended with “Flood of Sunshine” as “Burn and Shine” was on the set list. The set was heavy on Amazing Disgrace tracks but that was fine with Dan and I. At the acoustic set at The Blaze, they did “Lady Friend” their Byrds cover which was another in the highlights reel. I saw a few old friends at the show but there weren’t as many Tempe popsters as there should have been there. It was an exhausting show finishing with Ken stripping to his ladies panties. I knew he did so at old shows but I had yet to be at one when he did, yikes I was blushing as we were up front by this time. I like my favorite musicians but I don’t need to see them in their underoos-hahaha! Oh well, it was still fun, totally consuming concert actually.
I guess to tie this back to Sloan, I think I was meant to be a Posies fan in the 90’s, they are more in tune to my musical taste, not that Sloan is not but it’s very different, maybe because Posies-2 singers, Sloan-4 singers. I still contend that if I had seen the video for “500 Up” back in the day, I’d probably have found my way to Halifax back then. It’s like that “Sliding Door” movie, had I been at CMJ when Sloan was there would it have been the same affect on me that seeing The Posies at CMJ was? I am guessing it would but Sloan has served a totally different purpose in my life 14 years later, to inspire a story about everything I did experience with said Posies and those Blossoms. I can’t help but be utterly amazed at how these things are unfolding in front of me so widely. I welcome these signs; I just hope to interpret them correctly!