Built to Spill - cover songs & updated 2009 tour dates

Built to Spill @ the 2009 Siren Music Festival (more by Tim Griffin)

“Over the past 17 years of touring, Built to Spill have become as famous for their cover songs as for any of their own material, having paid homage live to acts as diverse as M.I.A., David Bowie, the Talking Heads, Neil Young, Macy Gray, Modest Mouse, Ozzy Osbourne and on and on. The band is so fond of playing other people’s songs that according frontman Doug Martsch, “when we play a cover it’s the highlight of the evening for me every single night.”

But as one would imagine for a band that has built such a reputation, BTS take the art of the cover song very seriously. “We’re like a real cover band when we do covers — we try to do it straight up for the most part,” Martsch tells Spinner. “We don’t make a joke out of it. We’re trying to convey how great that song was in the first place.”” [Spinner]

Tickets are still on sale for the four upcoming NYC Built to Spill shows. That includes the two at Webster Hall, the two at Music Hall of Williamsburg, and two-day passes for each venue. Those previously-announced October shows are part of a much larger tour. All dates, and a few videos of BTS playing covers, below…

Built to Spill cover MIA’s Paper Planes

built to spill “third uncle” brian eno cover 7/7/07

Built To Spill cover Gladiator’s “Rearrange”

Built to Spill covers Edit the Sad Parts! (Modest Mouse)

Built to Spill – 2009 Tour Dates
8/20 Troutdale, OR Edge Field (w/ The Flaming Lips)
8/22 Santa Barbara, CA Velvet Jones
8/23 Los Angeles, CA Sunset Junction
8/24 San Diego, CA The Casbah
8/25 Santa Ana, CA Galaxy Concert Theater
8/26 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up Tavern
8/28 San Francisco, CA Outside Lands Festival
8/29 Arcata, CA Humboldt State
9/18 Boise, ID Hyde Park Street Fair
9/19 Murray, UT Murray Theatre
9/20 Denver, CO Bluebird Theatre
9/21 Denver, CO Bluebird Theatre
9/23 Omaha, NE Slowdown
9/24 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
9/25 Madison, WI Barrymore Theatre
9/26 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre
9/27 Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall Ballroom
9/28 Bloomington, IN Bluebird Nightclub
9/29 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
10/01 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall
10/02 Newport, KY Southgate House
10/03 Royal Oak, MI Royal Oak Music Hall
10/04 Cleveland Heights, OH Grog Shop
10/06 Toronto, ONT Lee’s Palace
10/07 Toronto, ONT Lee’s Palace
10/08 Ithaca, NY State Theatre
10/09 Cambridge, MA Middle East
10/10 Cambridge, MA Middle East
10/11 Cambridge, MA Middle East
10/12 New York, NY Webster Hall
10/13 New York, NY Webster Hall
10/14 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/15 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/16 Philadelphia, PA The Trocadero
10/17 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
10/18 Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle
10/20 Athens, GA 40 Watt Club
10/21 Memphis, TN Minglewood Hall
10/22 Dallas, TX Granada Theater
10/23 Houston, TX Warehouse Live
10/24 Austin, TX Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
10/25 Oklahoma City, OK Diamond Ballroom
10/27 Albuquerque, NM Sunshine Theatre
10/28 Tucson, AZ Dry River
10/29 TBA
10/30 TBA
10/31 TBA
11/01 TBA
11/13 TBA
11/14 TBA
11/15 Eugene, OR WOW Hall
11/17 Bellingham, WA The Nightlight
11/18 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
11/19 Seattle, WA Showbox at the Market
11/20 Seattle, WA Showbox at the Market

The Thermals cover Big Dipper by built to spill

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