I saw The Magnetic Fields last night at the Somerville Theater. I enjoyed the show a lot. The set mostly didn’t include the material I prefer, but the band is always so goofy and fun that it makes up for any shortcoming in the song selections…
Even if I had wanted to influence the song selections, we were informed early on by Stephin, “Bands who take requests suck…that’s why they have to take requests.”
A review will eventually appear on Three Imaginary Girls (once I write it).
Setlist (album; when the artist is not The Magnetic Fields, artist is listed first):
1. California Girls (Distortion)
2. I Don’t Believe You (I Don’t Believe You 7″, i)
3. All My Little Words (69 Love Songs Vol. 1)
4. Come Back From San Francisco (69 Love Songs Vol. 1)
5. Old Fools (Distortion)
6. Xavier Says (Distortion)
7. Walking My Gargoyle (The Gothic Archies – The Tragic Treasury: Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events)
8. Too Drunk to Dream (Distortion)
9. Till the Bitter End (Distortion)
10. Night You Can’t Remember (69 Love Songs Vol. 3)
11. I Thought You Were My Boyfriend (i)
12. Water Torture (Stephin Merritt – Eban & Charley Soundtrack)
(Intermission)
13. Lovers From the Moon (The Wayward Bus)
14. I Wish I Had an Evil Twin (i)
15. Give Me Back My Dreams (The 6ths – Hyacinths and Thistles)
16. Grand Canyon (69 Love Songs Vol. 2)
17. Papa Was a Rodeo (69 Love Songs Vol. 2)
18. Drive On, Driver (Distortion)
19. The Nun’s Litany (Distortion)
20. The Tiny Goat (The Gothic Archies – The New Despair)
21. Smoke and Mirrors (Get Lost)
22. Zombie Boy (Distortion)
(Encore)
23. Three-Way (Distortion)
24. Take Ecstasy With Me (Holiday, Original Susan Anway vocal recording released on Oh, Merge: A Merge Records 10 Year Anniversary Compilation)
25. Book of Love (69 Love Songs Vol. 1)