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All of these reunion tours are fuckin' LAME!

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Honestly! It's starting to remind me of the local amphitheater where bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and .38 Special come to relive their "glory years". It was pretty cool when the Pixies did it because it was new and surprising then, and same for Dinosaur Jr. But now it seems like there isn't a single late 70s or 80s popular indie band that HASN'T reunited, save for maybe Husker Du.

I want to start a list of these types of bands who have already have had a reunion or are planning a reunion since...2004, because I know I'm forgetting some. Just add to my list with whatever I'm leaving out:

Pixies
Dinosaur Jr.
The Jam
Jesus and Mary Chain
Sebadoh
Slint
New York Dolls
Smashing Pumpkins
Pogues

And to a lesser extent:

Scratch Acid
Os Mutantes

― Ted Kennedy (50 Bourbon St), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 18:53 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm all for these bands getting as much money as they can frankly.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 18:57 (seventeen years ago) link

That said I have about zero interest in seeing any of these groups live.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 18:57 (seventeen years ago) link

2 new Replacements songs in 2006, but no tour.

New York Dolls record is incredible, though. So that's a welcome comeback. As most of these are.

― kornrulez6969 (kornrulez6969), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 18:57 (seventeen years ago) link

yep. financially it makes perfect sense and hey, most of these folks never made a ton of cash, and what are they gonna live off in their dotage...?

otoh, aesthetically reunions never produce anything worthwhile (altho I admit I did enjoy myself at the one reunion show I've attended, CVB)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 18:58 (seventeen years ago) link

(iow Alex otm)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 18:58 (seventeen years ago) link

I like the new Dinosaur Jr. shit..

― wesley useche (wesleyuseche), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:00 (seventeen years ago) link

To my mind it kinda confirms my argument I've been making for a few years, that there's enough of an infrastructure in place, combined with an increasing population, that allows for at least some bands to either survive or, in this case, come back with better relative security than would have been the case in the past. (The population argument sounds flippant but I think has a relevance -- the potential listening pool, however defined or whatever it is, is now broader than ever before not merely because of multiple outlets for hearing something but because, well, frankly, there's more folks around than there were beforehand.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Slint was excellent (granted I was never way into Slint and didn't have high expectations). Gang of Four was also great live.

And Colin Blunstone of the Zombies sounds like he did 40 years ago, which makes the Blunstone/Argent shows worth seeing (even if they play Argent songs).

― Kate Silver (barkleyforthree), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:05 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't know if that's true. Haven't reunion tours been going on for like as early as 80s (at least)?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:06 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.sexpistols.org/zboard/data/interview/1061444019/interview_reunion.jpg

― Tim Ellison is number one proponent of Beatle!!!Mania!!! on nu-ILX (tim ellison), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Reunion tours always kinda happen to my mind. But a lot of these groups were at most sporadically famous at the time (I'm not counting the Pumpkins or the 'Jam' among them, I should say) -- the nostalgia pull would have been less immediately obvious than for (to go back to the original post) Skynyrd or whatever.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:10 (seventeen years ago) link

I mean what has obviously changed is the composition of the tours themselves (i.e. less Quiet Riot reunions and more Slint or whatever) but I wouldn't be shocked if the actual number hasn't changed at all.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:10 (seventeen years ago) link

yep - its just a different generation/demographic cycling through. Given enough time Smashing Pumpkins will be playing Konocti Harbor resort shows for vacationing retirees

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Billy might finally learn something about humility then.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:15 (seventeen years ago) link

I think the only difference is the size of the venues on these tours. The Who/Skynyrd/etc sell out stadiums whereas Scratch Acid and Slint will be playing smaller venues. The interesting thing is that some (not all) of these acts probably generate much greater interest now than they did at the time they were originally recording, but even that is not an entirely new phenemonon (VU or Love similarly.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I was thinking about the VU reunion. But that played stadiums I thought? Or at least big outdoor festivals.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Well, they opened for U2 for at least part of it.

― Tim Ellison is number one proponent of Beatle!!!Mania!!! on nu-ILX (tim ellison), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:18 (seventeen years ago) link

i enjoyed the mission of burma show i saw here. couldn't hold a candle to the awesome little feat show here a year later though.

― scott seward (121212), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah it was definitely stadiums for the most part.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:19 (seventeen years ago) link

mission of burma has made a fantastic comeback.

i just listened to a couple new dino jr. trax on myspace...oddly, they are kinda awesome! they sound exactly like a record they wouldn've made right after living all over me, almost as if no time had elapsed at all...very strange...

― just m@tt he1g3s0n (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:23 (seventeen years ago) link

The problem I see right now with bands is they do reunion tours and that fine but they overflood the markets. There are probably 12 venues and areas everyone plays at, emo's in austin, the first unitarian in pittsburgh, etc.

I think these bands should be reaching out to smaller areas and less popular destination points. I live in northwest arkansas and theres tulsa to the west and springfield missouri up north and while both have decent populations you rarely see any good bands playing there. I have to go to memphis or missouri to see a band and thats incovenient it really is a damn shame. Bands need to get out more. play more small towns .

― wesley useche (wesleyuseche), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:32 (seventeen years ago) link

If there was money to be made in those small towns I'm sure they would head there.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Not interesting to me personally but hey, people have fun and the band makes money, so why not. I really like the idea of things being finite, that they have their time and place and once they're gone, that's it. I like the idea of change, & to me it makes things special when they actually end. Hell, that's one of the things that makes LIFE special. Maybe these reunion tours happen b/c we're afraid of death!

― Mark (Mark R), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Theres money to be made in Tulsa yet no one goes there...

― wesley useche (wesleyuseche), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:41 (seventeen years ago) link

"Maybe these reunion tours happen b/c we're afraid of death!"

They happen because people love what's familiar (altho yeah that love is probably borne out of the irrational hope that there are things that don't change)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Good lord, Shakey Mo.

― Tim Ellison is number one proponent of Beatle!!!Mania!!! on nu-ILX (tim ellison), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:46 (seventeen years ago) link

i just listened to a couple new dino jr. trax on myspace...oddly, they are kinda awesome! they sound exactly like a record they wouldn've made right after living all over me, almost as if no time had elapsed at all...very strange...

-- just m@tt he1g3s0n

After hearing the whole thing a friend said they should have called it Bugger. It really does sound like the missing piece - the bridge between the Lou years and Green Mind.

― Erik (EZSnappin), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:46 (seventeen years ago) link

what's the problem? I'm not excluding myself from that, I like what's familiar too.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:47 (seventeen years ago) link

(x-post)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Alright, I just thought maybe you were feeling compelled (and maybe kind of straining) to put a negative sociological spin on it

― Tim Ellison is number one proponent of Beatle!!!Mania!!! on nu-ILX (tim ellison), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 19:54 (seventeen years ago) link

the impulse to go see 38 special IS the same as wanting to go see Slint. people want to relive their glory days of sitting alone in their room listening to slint. while crying. just like the 38 special fan wants to relive the night they knocked over 20 mailboxes while listening to 38 special with their buddies. see, same thing.

― scott seward (121212), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 20:14 (seventeen years ago) link

To satisfy my 14-year-old mentality, I would see The Police.

Gang Of Four was boring. Pixies were outstanding. Dino Jr was good.

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 20:17 (seventeen years ago) link

i like good times and good tunes. i went to the pixies, it was a blast, i got pretty smashed and listened to some old songs i like.

― just m@tt he1g3s0n (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 20:21 (seventeen years ago) link

so skot's right basically.

― just m@tt he1g3s0n (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 20:24 (seventeen years ago) link

If there was money to be made in those small towns I'm sure they would head there.

definitely. the point of most of these indie band reunion tours is not only to cash in on a new fanbase but to collect from their old fanbase: the once penniless high school and college kids who are now making small bank as young urban professionals.

if they were to go back to touring small towns and untested markets then they'd be returning to the very thing that didn't earn them any money the firt time around.

― QuantumNoise (QuantumNoise), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 20:26 (seventeen years ago) link

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