Superchunk has an illustrious history. Since forming in 1989, it’s basically carried the flag for the sound that was originally called “indie rock,” all while two members formed Merge, which would go on to become one of the most influential labels in music history. For all of their nearly 25 year history, Superchunk has been a band of stunning consistency. It’s released album after album of fantastic, anthemic rock. But, as frontman Mac McCaughan said on Friday night, Superchunk’s an old band. Has it lost a step?
Nope. On record, Superchunk has been on a tear. Its 2010 comeback album Majesty Shredding was one of the best creations of their career. This year’s I Hate Music is a slower and more reflective one that, not to belabor the point, shows the band’s age in a few ways. It was also great, and showed a surprising amount of growth for a band now on their tenth album. And live…well, let’s just say that Superchunk has more energy than most bands half its age.
In front of a simple backdrop consisting of just the I Hate Music artwork, the band opened the show with album highlight “Out of the Sun,” kicking into a setlist featuring a ton of material from the new record. For the most part, this paid off–the crowd appeared to know the new material. Besides, it’s hard not to get into songs as kick ass as “Me & You & Jackie Mittoo” and “FOH” anyway. For its own part, the band was completely on all night, particularly McCaughn, who was running around the stage and generally appeared to be having the time of his life. Seriously, just watch the dude.
The crowd tended to lose a little excitement when the band played some of I Hate Music‘s slower material, but that’s to be expected–on record, Superchunk is at its best when it’s upbeat and anthemic, and live that’s no different. With that in mind, the band stuck almost solely to the quick stuff when they dove outside of I Hate Music. Majesty Shredding cuts “Digging for Something,” “Crossed Wires” and “Learned to Surf” (the three best songs from that album, for what it’s worth) served to remind me why that album is one of the best of the last decade. Songs like “Skip Steps 1 & 3” and “Sick to Move” are just as brilliant as they were when they came out over 20 years ago.
The crowd really exploded when the band played “Slack Motherfucker,” which makes sense, considering that’s one of the best indie rock songs of all time. They closed with a four song encore, which included a cover of the Jerry’s Kids hardcore classic “I Don’t Belong.” The band finished with a classic of its own “Hyper Enough,” which brought the show to an animated, fun and fitting conclusion.
At one point in the middle of “Digging for Something,” McCaughan mentioned that he didn’t want people to look at Superchunk as “historical.” He doesn’t want people to think about Superchunk and say, “Wasn’t that band great?” He believes that Superchunk is still relevant, and it’s not ready to become a piece of music history just yet. And, judging from the band’s performance on Friday, I believe him.
