So here I am going to my second concert in three days. This time was to see Powerman 5000 commemorate the 20th anniversary of the album Tonight The Stars Revolt! by performing it in its entirety. This is the album of theirs that caught my attention and still holds a special place in my musical heart so even though Spider was still the only original member left from that period playing with four randoms I did not care. On top of that I had not seen them in over five years.
After drinking a six pack of my favorite Fat Tire and eating one of Ingrid’s gummies I was off to Brick by Brick to meet up with my coworker Wayne who decided to go at the last minute. Wayne showed up less than five minutes after I did and found me at the bar trying to order a beer right as the opening band was bidding the crowd farewell. We had just enough time to get a tallboy PBR, make our way to the bathroom and secure a spot at the back edge of the soon-to-be mosh pit before Powerman came on. I don’t actually like PBR, I just think it’s funny to drink a tallboy PBR.
Long story short the band did not play the album as expected/advertised but instead played a lot of other stuff that was not on Tonight The Stars Revolt! The fuckers tricked me. They made me think that they would be playing all if not most of the Tonight the Stars Revolt! album but instead for all intents and purposes played three songs from the album. Fuckers. To make matters even more confusing they decided to play covers of “Relax” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, “Space Oddity” by David Bowie and “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes instead of “Good Times Roll,” which is the only cover song on the album they were supposed to play. You’re doing shows to commemorate an album but then spend less than 25% of the show actually playing songs from the album?
Overall it was still a pretty awesome show. This was the kind of performance that translated to a small club but probably would not have fared well with the stadium crowd. Brick by Brick is the perfect sized gritty rock joint with leaking roof and all that captures the energy in such a way to make you feel as though there are far more people in attendance. I enjoyed “Bombshell” and “Supernova Goes Pop” the most but am still really bummed they did not play “Operate Annihilate.” At the end of the day I just think they missed a huge opportunity to reintroduce this badass album to people.
SETLIST: Nobody’s Real, Invade, Destroy, Repeat, Hey, That’s Right!, Super Villain, Footsteps and Voices, Relax, How to Be a Human, Horror Show, Bombshell, An Eye Is Upon You, Supernova Goes Pop, Sid Vicious in a Dress, When Worlds Collide
