San Francisco – Ty Segall returned to his hometown last week to play a couple of shows at some of the City by the Bay’s most revered venues. His show at the well-known Great American Music Hall was one for the history books, as he played an energetic, illustrious set that matched his very persona: loud and fuzzy.
Having just recently released a live LP (recorded in San Francisco) and a wonderful solo studio album last year, he treated an enthusiastic audience to a career-spanning set, featuring tracks from last year’s Manipulator, some classics, and a handful of songs credited to the Ty Segall Band, the grander, full-figured version of his solo work.
Segall is allowed the somewhat unusual luxury of playing a large amount of songs in a rather short period of time (the whole set barely lasted 80 minutes), because most of his songs clock in at less than three minutes. While he took some more time with 2014’s Manipulator, the songs he played from his most recent album were accelerated, either in an effort to allow for more music, or simply just to match the raucous pace of his older material. This was especially evident in tracks like “Manipulator” and “Tall Man, Skinny Lady,” both of which linger closer to the kind of tempos more suited for more modern, portrait-like indie rock songs. Yet in Segall’s live presentation of both of these songs, the percussion jumps up a few notches, driving the songs forward in a sort of blissful mania.
From Manipulator, Segall treated us to “Green Belly” and “Don’t You Want to Know? (Sue)”, but most of the show focused on his material with the Ty Segall Band, namely from their 2012 album Slaughterhouse. The energy on Slaughterhouse was most comparable to the energy of the show, so it made sense for Ty and his band to play most of this album. Most notable tracks included set opener “Wave Goodbye,” “The Tongue,” ‘Tell Me What’s Inside Your Heart,” and “I Bought My Eyes.” Some Ty Segall (solo) classics included tracks from Lemons and Melted, including “Standing at the Station,” “Fingers,” “Girlfriend” and “Cents.”
While the band offered no articulated encore, they played several versions of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and even a few bars of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.
It’s always great to see a burgeoning band or artist on their home turf, and Mr. Segall did not disappoint. Great American Music Hall was the perfect venue to see him and his compatriots, and the overall atmosphere in the venue was electric with Segall’s moody, amplified psyche. Over the next few years let’s hope that Segall and his band can conjure the same progressive, magnetic presence as they did that night.
Ty Segall’s excellent 2014 album Manipulator is now available via Drag City, and he just released the “first playable pair of 3D glasses,” the Mr. Face EP via Famous Class. He’s also released Ty Segall: Live in San Francisco recently via Castle Face. Currently his only listed tour dates are at this year’s Burgerama in Los Angeles, during the last weekend of March.
More information on Ty Segall is available on his website.
Photo Of Ty Segall by Dene Petracek
Corey Bell
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