Legendary New Jersey band The Feelies packed the Ottobar Saturday night, playing a mix of new, old and assorted covers for an appreciative crowd.
In October, the band devoted the entire first set of a New Jersey show to Velvet Underground covers, and while Baltimore wasn’t lucky enough to get that kind of treatment Saturday night, The Feelies still overflowed with the sound, the look and the feel of their New York neighbors.
I’d never seen The Feelies before, and my expectations were already pretty high. In terms of popularity, The Feelies don’t immediately come to mind as being particularly popular in the halls of rock music, but to me at least, they always occupied that “legendary, yet completely underrated” category. That’s not a bad place to be. Why on earth had it taken me so long to see them play? I don’t know, but the wait was definitely worth it, because Saturday’s show blew my expectations away.
Upon arriving, we had a chance meeting with what I’d describe as a Feelies superfan at the front of the stage, who had traveled from New Jersey with his girlfriend for the night just to see the band. He confessed that he gets to see the band play regularly back home in New Jersey, and because they are just that good, he had to travel the distance to see them in Baltimore one more time before we put a lid on an overwhelmingly shitty year. He spent some time tracing the roots of the band from the Velvet Underground, to the Modern Lovers, on to The Feelies, before continuing on through to their obvious influence on Jersey brethren Yo La Tengo, a route that makes total sense upon seeing them perform live.
I also heard one audience member behind me talking to a friend about driving up from Richmond, Virginia for the show. As packed as the Ottobar was, if it didn’t sell out, it had to have been pretty damn close. It was clear that a devoted following had congregated this night. I watched one guy at the merch booth spend an rather large amount of cash on merch, a testament to just how good they are. I’ll admit, the show drove me to picking up some goodies too, although, for considerably less than what that guy spent.
They opened with “In Between”, from their 6th full length (and first record in 6 years), and played a good mix of old and new, including fan favorites such as ‘Let’s Go’ off of 1986’s The Good Earth and the B-side to their 1979 debut 45, Fa Ce La. One audience member called out during one break between songs about how good the live show was, prompting bassist Brenda Sauter to jokingly ask if that meant that they weren’t all that good recorded, which elicited considerable laughs from the crowd, because, of course, it’s pretty clear that they excel in both live and recorded settings.
The show was rounded out with choice covers of The Modern Lovers, the Patti Smith Group, The Stooges, Neil Young, and of course, the Velvet Underground. The Feelies don’t appear to have any other shows on the immediate horizon, but in the meantime, you can head over to Bar-None Records to pick up their new record ‘In Between’ here. Enjoy a video of their song, Nobody Knows from the show at The Ottobar, as well as, some photos from the show! (Video and Photos copyright and courtesy of Shantel Breen.)
