18359
Picasa 3.0

The Wedding Present celebrating & performing 'Bizarro' on tour - 2010 dates (2 NYC-area shows)

by Bill Pearis

The Wedding Present @ Bowery Ballroom in 2008 (more by Tim Griffin)
Wedding Present

BizarroThe Wedding Present will be playing their 1989 album Bizarro in full on an upcoming North American tour in celebration of the record’s 21st anniversary, including an April 10th show at Maxwell’s (tickets on sale Wednesday at noon) and an April 11 stop at Bowery Ballroom (tickets on sale Friday at noon). All dates below.

Bizarro was most Americans’ introduction to The Wedding Present’s jangle-on-speed sound, as it was their first to get released in this country, and was also their major label debut (RCA). (It’s also the first place anyone ever heard a Pavement song — their cover of “Box Elder” was a bonus track on the American CD.) While the album’s singles, “Brassneck” and “Kennedy”, have remained constants in The Wedding Present’s live cannon, this tour will surely mark the first time some of Bizarro‘s songs been played live in the States since 1990, if ever. As to why frontman (and sole remaining founding member) David Gedge chose to celebrate 21 years, not 20, is anybody’s guess but if nothing else I’m looking forward to hearing the album’s nine-minute epic “Take Me.” And we can only hope this will lead to them doing the same for their 1991 masterpiece, Seamonsters. And maybe they’ll do it on the 20th anniversary.

The Bizarro tour will also hit Japan and Europe later in the year, but most of those shows are still TBD. All announced dates, plus some videos from the time of the album, below…

The Wedding Present – “Brassneck”

The Wedding Present – “Bewitched”

1990 Wedding Present interview on Canadian TV

Wedding Present – 2010 Bizarro Tour
April 1 : San Diego CA, USA – Casbah
April 2 : Los Angeles CA, USA – Troubadour
April 5 : Austin TX, USA – Emo’s
April 7 : Atlanta GA – Earl with The Jet Age
April 9 : Washington DC, USA – Black Cat with The Jet Age
April 10 : Hoboken NJ, USA – Maxwell’s with The Jet Age
April 11 : New York City NY, USA – Bowery Ballroom
April 12 : Cambridge MA, USA – Middle East Downstairs
April 14 : Toronto ON, Canada – Horseshoe Tavern
April 15 : Pontiac MI, USA – The Pike Room at The Crofoot
April 16 : Chicago IL, USA – Double Door
April 17 : Minneapolis MN, USA – 400 Bar
April 20 : Vancouver BC, Canada – To be confirmed
April 21 : Seattle WA, USA – Crocodile
April 22 : Portland OR, USA – Doug Fir Lounge
April 24 : San Francisco CA, USA – Independent

April 30 : Zagreb, Croatia -Theatre &TD [www.sczg.hr & www.dopprodukcija.hr]
May 7 : Tokyo, Japan – O’West with Qomolangma Tomato [Tickets on sale from the venue & PIA, Lawson & eplus.jp]
July 17 : Yorkshire, UK – the “Deer Shed Festival” at Baldersley Park in Topcliffe [www.deershedfestival.com]
Aug 21 or 22 [date TBC] : Hannover, Germany – the “BootBooHook Festival” [www.bootboohook.com]
Aug 28 : Brighton, UK – David Gedge’s “At The Edge Of The Sea Mini-Festival” [Tickets on sale here]
Continental Europe : October 11th – November 13th
The United Kingdom & Ireland : November 16th – December 7th