Shudder to Think (sort of), Pattern is Movement & Blame the Patient @ Bowery Ballroom in NYC - pics & setlist

September 3, 2009

Shudder to Think had many different lineups while they were active from 1986-1998. Staying consistent with that, they’ve had varying lineups during this 2007-2009 reunion period as well. Frontman Craig Wedren has also has had many different musical projects since 1998, projects that maybe better represent where he is now than the one he just got back together. One of those solo-like projects, which he has performed with at Le Poisson Rouge and Joe’s Pub in recent times, is a collaboration with the mini orchestra ACME.

With that background in mind, maybe last night’s show wasn’t actually too peculiar. First, Shudder to Think guitarist Nathan Larson wasn’t at the show. The official reason was that he was busy with his other band (and wife in) A Camp. Oddly, A Camp doesn’t/didn’t have any shows scheduled, and Nathan has been a part of the reunion since the start. Second, after a first set of Shudder to Think songs, Craig switched the format of last night’s show and actually did bring out, and perform with, ACME. Craig explained that he actually wrote the songs with Jefferson Friedman while STT was still together, so it still counted. None of this made it a bad, possibly final, show… just sayin’.

Shudder’s last drummer Kevin March was the drummer last night (as he has been for ~~the whole~~ part of the reunion), and Shudder bassist Stuart Hill was nowhere to be found (same for the whole reunion). The show opened with old songs like A Vampire’s Proposal, Lies About the Sky, and About Three Dreams and then seemed to segue into Pony Express material (still no Nathan).

But then came a surprise. Chris Matthews who was the original Shudder guitar player even before Nathan joined the band, came on stage for two songs, one being Red House, the other being Day Ditty (both songs he originally played in). The other guitarist in last night’s band is the new guy who has been there since 2007. After the ACME bit they came back to rock again…. Overall they played for around two hours. Other songs included Gang of $, Lies About the Sky, Nine Fingers, She’s A Skull, No Rm. 9 Kentucky, Love Catastrophe, X-French T-Shirt, and Hit Liquor… full setlist in the comments.

Hit Liquor is one of many songs that appears on the new Shudder To Think live album being released by Team Love soon. You can grab that track for free HERE.

Pattern is Movement and Blame the Patient opened the Bowery show. More pictures below…

Blame the Patient