We Were Promised Jetpacks' Michael Palmer Remembers the Cover Songs at His First Show

By Eric Grubbs Tue., Nov. 1 2011 at 9:27 AM

Categories: My First Show

We Were Promised Jetpacks

Scotland's We Were Promised Jetpacks triumphantly return to the DFW area this week, headlining at Trees on Saturday. As evidenced by their newly-released record, In the Pit of the Stomach, the four-piece has a snarling post-punk sound -- and it's not the kind you dance to.

We caught up with guitarist Michael Palmer and asked about his first show experiences. Not only did the band play a certain big radio hit from the last decade at their first show, they were not ashamed to do it.

Read more after the jump.

What was the first show you remember seeing? Were you with your parents?
I was. I took my mum to see a band called Mull Historical Society for her birthday.

What was the first show you remember paying money for?
Same as above!

What was the worst show you've seen?
Woof, that's one to ponder. Me and Adam [Thompson, vocals/guitar], along with a couple of friends went to see a particular band that I don't want to name. I don't want to name them because I do still like them quite a bit. Anyway, we still lived in Edinburgh and got the bus through to Glasgow. We got threatened by a group of youths for refusing to buy them drink, then the band was shite and we left well before the end. I remember this one particularly, as I remember that conversation where we were like, "This is pish" "Aye it is, isn't it?" "OK, what do we do?" "I don't know, do we just leave" "OK, fuck it, let's just leave." Then we walked half an hour to the bus stop and went home.

What can you remember about the first time We Were Promised Jetpacks played live?
We played loads of covers. I think we did ten songs, five of them covers. We were talking about it the other day - I really can't remember what five songs we did. I know we did "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand, even though we had no idea how to play it properly. And we did a Stereophonics song. I can't remember what the song's called. I was never a huge Stereophonics fan, but the rest of them where! I wish I could remember the other ones.

What can you remember about the last time you played in the Dallas/Fort Worth area? You guys played Denton at Hailey's Club on Sunday night.
If I'm not wrong (I probably am -- I'm awful at this stuff) that was the last night Bad Veins were on the tour with us. We had a pretty good send-off for them and it was a lot of fun. I remember they played a bunch of John Williams' music when we were about to go on, it was great! We should do that more...