The Vaselines @ First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia PA, 10/3/10

This is probably all rehash, but The Vaselines were a band from Scotland who released two EPs and one proper album before dissolving sometime before 1990. Conceivably, obscurity would have followed but Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee had the distinction of being Kurt Cobain's "most favorite songwriters in the whole world". Vaselines tracks, "Molly's Lips" and "Son Of A Gun", were covered on Nirvana's Incesticide, and on the much heralded Unplugged record "Jesus Don't Want Me for a Sunbeam" became a part of everyone's memory. A couple weeks back, the Vaselines dropped their second album twenty two years after the debut joint.

Jeffrey Lewis and his band were the openers, and it was totally delightful and warmly bizarre. There were songs about the fall of the Soviet Union and the French Revolution. Both tracks had accompanying films animated by Lewis himself. He had comic books for sale at the merch table, which is by far the raddest thing ever to grace a merch table.

Predictably, the Vaselines were awesome. They raged whole-heartedly through a set that was equal parts old cuts as well as material off of Sex With an X. Throw in some top shelf stage banter, and the fact that this was the most perfect sounding fuzzed out garage pop ever and honestly that was the show. It's hard to describe the crowd these days, as they all look new to this writer these days, which is unfortunate since they're not new it's just the landscape is different. Anyway, the heads there seemed to be into it as there was head-nodding and bobbing going on. Spirits were high, and there was no booze served on the premises.