luna
friday, february 11, 2005 • neumo's, seattle wa • review by janice • pics by mike


review: So, once upon a time, I really liked Luna. But then I heard some really nasty rumours about their lead singer/songwriter Dean Wareham, and in my defense, the source seemed reliable, but anyway, after that, I couldn't listen to their songs the same way again, and I stopped paying attention to the band, even when JEM!---I mean, Britta Phillips---joined the band.

And it's not like I was missing anything. Luna songs had gotten pretty dull and repetitive (Dean: "Gee, I wonder how many choruses of "Baa Ba Ba Ba" I can get away with...") or immature ("Fuzzy Wuzzy"? For crying out loud...).

Until their latest CD, Rendezvous, which came out last year. It was so good, it didn't even sound like them! We'd hear something from it on KEXP and be like, "Hm, who was that?" and then be floored when the DJ would ID it as Luna! And then, we heard they were breaking up, and Dean's hilarious top ten list of reasons why the band is breakin up made him seem like a pretty okay guy. So, off we went to Neumo's!...

So, I hadn't seen Luna live since 1994, whoa, over ten years. And when Dean walked out, I immediately thought, "Whoa. When did he turn into Paul Westerberg?!" [Note to self: must update Celebs Who Look Like... soon]. But Mike says Dean has always looked craggly like that.

They opened with "California (All The Way)", yay, and then played some newer material (I'm still not 100% savvy on the new song titles). Between songs, people were cheering like crazy, shouting nice things like "We'll miss you!" (to which Dean replied "Ditto") and stupid things like "Luna is stellar!" (which no one acknowledged).

The funniest thing was when Dean and fellow guitarist Sean Eden were recounting a story about how they were driving out here, and while crossing a bridge in Vancouver, they had to pull over 'cause a tire was coming off of their trailer. "It was scary," Sean mock-whimpered. "That's no reason to break up!" someone shouted from the audience. Dean and Sean completley cracked up.

Dean made the huge mistake of dragging out his 1995 cover of Serge Gainesbourg's "Bonnie And Clyde" with JEM!---I mean, Britta---attempting her best French accent to take on Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier's part of the duet. (Ew, maybe it's a good thing you're breaking up so that atrocity can end...)

And then one quick lil' encore, and bam, that was it! :( Needless to say, it was rather anti-climatic! What about "Anesthesia"? Or "Slash Your Tires"? Or even "Indian Summer", seeing as how we're a mere hour away from Olympia? Oh well...I mean, that's it! I'll never have a chance to see them play those songs now. (Until the reunion tour, of course...)

The other upside of this show: Mike and I actually felt like the younger ones in the audience for the first time in a long time! (janice 02.05)

related links


• more of mike's pics
• I mean, come on! Fuzzy wuzzy? Are you kidding?!