For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: Blur Pays Homage to Dallas at Trees on a Cold Night in '96

For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: Blur Pays Homage to Dallas at Trees on a Cold Night in '96

By Robert Wilonsky Fri., Apr. 8 2011 at 6:45 PM

The best part of posting secret audio from concerts you've attended is using them as an excuse to ring up others who were also there and reminisce about that, like, amazing night, remember? Like, say, Jeff Liles, who recalls Blur's February 3, 1996, show at Trees (scroll down) as "a mob scene" and "loud as fuck." (Jeff, incidentally, had stopped booking Trees a year earlier, after he signed to Virgin and moved to L.A., but he was back and forth so much I always forgot he'd moved.) Or, Peter Schmidt, who recalls, among other things, how brutally cold it was that winter's night -- upper teens, with a coating of snow on the ground. (Good memory.) And: "That was a great show."

So it was ... and can be again. What I recall, off the top of my hand, about that set list: the surprisingly thorough cover of the Dallas theme song, in between "Mr. Robinson's Quango" and "Globe Alone," two of the many Great Escape cuts played during that tour in support of the band's fourth record. Also: Graham Coxon's very rare performance of "End of a Century" B-side "Red Necks," sung in that hilarious 'Merkin accent. Also: that "Parklife" singalong (and jumpalong) during the second encore, back when encores meant something. Says here many of the shows on that tour were out-of-sorts, with Damon Albarn occasionally getting "very lazy with his vocals, changing lyrics, forgetting them." Not on that night. Not then, not now.

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blureu

Too bad Blur cancelled their Dallas show 2 years prior. It was on the Parklife tour with Pulp as opener. Anyone remember that? Oasis cancelled their Dallas show too. Due to the infamous Liam and Noel falling out on their first North American tour. Noel ran off to Vegas or something for a couple of days. It was a rough month for a "Britpop" fan in Dallas that month.

Motley

This gig was the last live music memory I have of Dallas. Blur was so appreciative to have such a great audience, and on such a crappy weather night, that they really gave it their all. Not only was it the best of the 4 Blur shows I've seen, but it's also easily in the top 10 shows I've ever seen. Thanks, Wilonsky, for those links... I'm gonna be fanboy-ing out all day now.

Baggins

That may have been the nite we brought in their PA...If I remember correctly..the stacks were taller than the crows nest at stage left....what a pain in the ass that was!

little ole me

fair enough. i was there, it was freezing, and the rentals opened. funnily enough, once the booze kicked in and blur showed up, it was quite warm enough, as i recall. i distinctly remember coxon looking VERY sort of glazed eyes. of course, that was 96 and he was then the sort of player who could go on autopilot, no problem whatsoever. despite what anyone thinks about the "reunion," it must be very satisfying for him and damon artistically, whether working together or not.