Audio By Carbonatix
Wasn’t necessarily planning on talking about Saturday night’s private Old 97’s show at the Barley House in this space–mostly because the affair, which was held in celebration of frontman Rhett Miller‘s 40th birthday yesterday, was a private, invite-only one.
But, while searching for something unrelated, I just now stumbled across the above, decent quality (if annoying dark) performance clip of a new song called “The Dance Class,” as shot by one RhettMillerFan and posted onto YouTube. Most of the set, actually, is posted there–including a whole bunch of other new ditties from the band’s upcoming The Grand Theatre, Vol. 1 release. Also? Some “Happy Birthday” singing and shooting.
And, OK, since both Unfair Park and DC9 were among the 200 folks in attendance at this intimate affair, I guess I can pass along a few nuggets.
Most important: Yes, the new album dominated much of the band’s 90-minutes-plus of revelry, and, yes, it sounded pretty pretty good—just as we’ve been saying. But how good is it really? Well, the band’s pretty stoked. And bassist Murry Hammond was hardly offended when we insinuated that it’s our favorite 97’s disc since the ’90s. Actually, his reaction was quite the opposite: He agreed with us.
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Oh, and for those curious, the football team of fifth-grade rugrats that guitarist Ken Bethea coaches is the reason the band will wait two months after The Grand Theatre comes out on October 12 to tour behind it. And he excitedly reports that his team, which includes his son, is in fine form, sitting pretty with a 1-0 record to start the season.
