Frank went on stage around 11:00 to a full house, the band dressed in black, and kicked into Black Rider. The crowd was pretty rowdy, and when they moved into Gouge away, beer was flying, and it seemed to displease Frank. He addressed the crowd twice the entire night, once to make a cryptic comment on the lamented absence of Rich Gilbert and the other to introduce the boys in the band. They played a great show, of course, but Frank¹s displeasure was palpable. But he is also the consummate professional, and the music rocked the appreciative crowd. There were no surprises in the line up, but he played three new tunes, bittersweet melancholy ballads. As usual, the songs came one after another, no pauses for applause or equipment fiddling, just song pounding after song. Reflecting Frank¹s commitment to the evening, Six sixty-six lacked its usual apocalyptic drama. Also played were Robert Onion, All my ghosts, Los Angeles, Hermaphroditos, Dirty old town, Calistano, Llano del rio, Skeleton man, John the revelator, Mr. Grieves, Headache, and Monkey gone to heaven. The set ended with a robust rendition of the anthemic If it takes all night, and then he left the stage, without pausing to acknowledge the cheering. And that was it. The crowd roared and cheered and Frank never came out for an encore, a shocking flouting of etiquette, but allowable if you are the great Frank Black who has yet again delivered on an evening of incomparable rock and roll.
Alice

I was at the Vancouver show on the 21st, and I recorded the setlist... excellent show... great energy, great sound, great crowd:

GOUGE AWAY
SKELETON MAN
DOG GONE
I'VE SEEN YOUR PICTURE
SIX SIXTY SIX
MONKEY GONE TO HEAVEN
?UNKNOWN SONG?
LOS ANGELES (partial... quit due to moshing)
EVERY TIME I GO AROUND HERE
BULLET
WHERE IS MY MIND
JANE THE QUEEN OF LOVE
BARTHOLOMEW
BLACK LETTER DAYS
MR GRIEVES
HERMAPHRODITOS
HOW YOU WENT SO FAR
ALL MY GHOSTS
HEADACHE
WHISKEY IN MY SHOES
?UNKNOWN SONG?
IF IT TAKES ALL NIGHT
BLACK RIDER

-encore-
COLD HEART OF STONE
ROBERT ONION
FIELDS OF MARIGOLD
Matthew

Solid as they can possibly get. A bit drunk from celebrating Cinco de Mayo. Your average set list, with the 'same old' new tunes and covers.

1. Gouge Away
2. Hermaphroditos Is My Name
3. Six Sixty-Six (loud version)
4. Monkey Gone To Heaven
5. I Don't Know How You Went So Far (? new song)
6. I've Seen Your Picture
7. Skeleton Man
8. Mr. Grieves
9. If It Takes All Night
10. Dog Gone
11. Los Angeles
12. Headache
13. Robert Onion
14. Nimrod's Son
15. Everytime I Go Around Here
16. Cold Heart Of Stone (new song)
17. The Swimmer
18. South Bound Bevy (new song)
19. Jane the Queen of Love (new song)
20. Whiskey (? new song or cover)
with Lyle Workman:
21. Calistan
22. Bullet
23. All My Ghosts
24. John the Revelator
encore, with Joey Santiago, cut short when moshers hit
Frank in the mouth with the mic/mic stand:
25. Dirty Old Town
26. Where Is My Mind?
27. Jumping Beans
Matt O.

When Frank Black climbed onto the stage shortly after 9:30 pm he seemed a bit thinner and quite relaxed. He wore black pants and a black western style shirt with fancy red piping across his shoulders and shirt collar. Scott Boutier, David McAffery, Eric Drew Feldman and Dave Phillips joined him. David's hair was dark again, and he seemed to have picked up the pounds Frank had shed. Dave was working double duty on lead and slide guitar, though Frank pitched in more than usual. Rich Gilbert was sadly nowhere to be found. The first five songs were Where is My Mind, Nimrod's Son, Holiday Song, Mr. Grieves and Gouge Away. The crowd was ignited, and the Catholics rode the momentum through much of Dog in the Sand: I've seen Your Picture, Hermaphroditis, If it Takes all Night, Robert Onion, Bullet and Llano Del Rio. At one point Frank motioned to the band with a crawling motion, and I was pretty sure The Swimmer was coming up. Sure enough, Eric began the song with those first few Roxy sounding organ notes, and Frank began "In the wake of the latitudes..." Problem was Frank sang one more line and then stopped. He announced, "I was looking at one particularly attentive patron mouthing the words, and realized I didn't know them myself. We'll try it again tomorrow." Other songs included Skeleton Man, Los Angeles, Abstract Plain, Jane - Queen of Love, Headache and a beautiful Every Time I Go Around Here. When Frank introduced the band he acknowledged that "one Catholic is missing tonight," which I hope means Rich Gilbert will be back. There were a good number of songs I hadn't heard before but they all sounded great. When it was over after 90 minutes Frank stood at the edge of the stage nodding and smiling politely. Wiping his face with black towel he seemed quite satisfied with himself, and I know those of us in the audience more than returned the feeling.
reddgates

Frank Black and the Catholics played at Phoenix Hill Tavern in Louisville Kentucky tonight, and even though I'm under 21 and I couldn't get in, I showed up at the venue anyway to see if I could meet Frank. My two friends and I parked in the lot behind Phoenix Hill at 6:15 and went up to some guy playing his acoustic guitar in a van. Apparently he was in the opening band and he told us Frank would show up at 7 in a big white van. We went across the street to a food mart to get food, and when we returned, the white van had already gotten there early, and nobody was outside. For a moment I thought I'd missed my opportunity to meet the band when out came Frank and Eric Drew Feldman and Dave. I asked Feldman about a new album and he said they might release TWO NEW ALBUMS at the same time, which is great. I also got autographs and exchanged a few words with Frank himself (who jokingly said that the band doesn't approve of fake IDs when I said we were too young to get in). I left for a while but returned at 10:00 to stand outside and listen to some songs. When we arrived, the band was playing a song I didn't know, either from CULT OF RAY (which I just bought tonight so I dont know the songs) or a cover. The songs they played next were "The Holiday Song," "Nimrod's Son" (when Frank said "You are the son of a mother fucker!" the audience went crazy), "Headache," and "I Want to Live On a Abstarct Plain." Unfortunately it started to rain like crazy right around the time "I Want to Live..." started, so we had to get out of there. But the band sounded great playing the few songs we heard, and I seriously hope they're around in a few years so I can actually see them play live...
PTKO

I got to see Frank play at Juanita's Cantina Ballroom in Little Rock two weeks ago and it was sublime. In true workmanlike fashion, the Catholics hit the stage at precisely 11:30 p.m. (as advertised) in adorable matching maroon Dickies' work ensembles. It was a tight 25-song set with zero stage patter. There was this psycho in a FB t-shirt who stood directly in front of the great man's microphone stand and was extremely disruptive; he kept sticking his hands in Frank's face and smoking all over him and trying to grab the mike. Thus Frank only faced the crowd when singing and kept his back turned at all other times. I can't understand why someone would show their admiration for an artist by heckling him all through his set--what an asshole! A great show notwithstanding. I'd say it was about 20% Pixies tunes, 20% covers, 20% new stuff, and 40% catalog material. Nothing off of Cult of Ray or Pistolero, but still very satisfying! Covers included the Pogues' "Dirty Old Town", "John the Revelator", Tom Wait's "Black Rider", and "666." I thought the noise version of "666" was seriously going to stop my heart or kick me into a seizure. . .paralyzed by sound. I did not get to meet Frank after the show--I was too tired from having such a rocking good time and had to get on home to my 3-year old. I brought him some homemade chocolate chip cookies and left them with Dave Philips. Hope Frank got them. (Hope Dave didn't smoke them!)
Sarah Engeler-Young

I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Black at the Engine Room in Houston 4/22/02. He looked and sounded great and the band was ultra-tight. Chain-smoking Dave Philips is the touring guitarist now. Dave McCaffery on bass and Eric Drew Feldman on the Korg. Lots of "Catholics" material played, plus Los Angeles, Headache, and Abstract Plain from the "Frank Black" albums. Played about five or six Pixies songs...they sounded better than ever... Nimrod's Son, Holiday Song, a soulful Gouge Away, Monkey Gone to Heaven. Best performance I've seen from Frank Black in years. He looks like he's in good shape and good spirits. As an encore, they performed "21 Reasons" and along jam of "Where is My Mind?".... Awesome show.
Stephan Childs, Houston, Texas

"Frank Black Acoustic, opening: Morris Tepper"
2 shows: 7:30pm and 9:30pm.

Review of 7:30pm show:
Morris played a rocking solo set - he has a long career and several records from which he displayed tunes on par with Dylan or Waits. He showed off some antique instruments and was a real treat.
Frank came out to an anxious crowd. He was in good spirits (I had assumed he took this gig to pay for some holiday travel, but instead he seemed to be testing out new material and warming up his band again for their next move) and several times alluded to a studio he and his band had built and have been recording in. "The Treehouse Studio" he called it (likely it's in his attic, or in a rented loft), and repeatedly mentioned how much they'd been recording there. It's likely the Catholics have several new records in the can - one of which must be a covers l.p. After the first few songs, Dave came out and played the steel pedal, after which came Eric on bass, Morris eventually on lead and a new guy "Gersch" on drums (he said afterwards he was just a session player, and was 'learning the material on stage' that night). The audience was quite grateful, very enthused and sang along with the Pixies songs. It was an intimate and full house, a tight and well-chosen set, and a real treat to hear new stuff with the promise of much, much more new stuff! (Since they now have a studio, the cost of renting one is negated - they have the ability to churn out records monthly ere they desired, if they could find a distributor). One of the highlights of the evening was when Frank told us the meaning of "Bullet": When his father passed away, his brother Errol called him and said that they had to go through their dad's things, decide what to do with them. As they rummaged through them, they found a collection of guns - about 40-50 of them! Neither of them had any idea that they had existed, or knew why. The stranger thing was that each gun had a single bullet loaded inside. One bullet in every gun! Very odd... anyhow, thus was born "Bullet".

Here is the setlist, with my guess as to the new songs titles with an *:

1. I Gotta Move
2. * Jane, the Queen of Love
3. Jumping Beans
4. * Pity Me
5. * Southbound Bevy
6. * Cold Heart of Stone
7. Nimrod's Son
8. Holiday Song
9. Where Is My Mind ?
10. Monkey Gone To Heaven
11. Mr. Grieves
12. Gouge Away
13. Calistan
14. Bullet
15. Robert Onion
16. John the Revelator
17. Six Sixty-Six
18. The Black Rider
19. The Shrimp Song
Matt Orefice

Frank played a VERY unexpected show that was billed as "Frank Black Acoustic with special guest Morris Tepper" at the Mint on Pico Blvd in Los Angeles. Turned out it was 21 and over, unless you got dinner reservations. We went to the early show at 7:30, Morris came on promptly at 7:30 and played a short and enjoyable set of some of his solo stuff. During his set Frank Black could be seen peering through the curtain, very cool moment.

Frank came on stage as Morris was exiting, with his acoustic/electric red guitar. He had some funny conversations with Morris about his wormhole abilities and than played about 4 new songs being called "The Treehouse Recordings" due to the fact that the band has been building a treehouse recording studio.

After only 4 new songs, Frank unexpectedly brought the Catholics up from the audience, and went on to rock for about an hour and 15 minutes. FRANK BLACK IS INCREDIBLE, you cant say much more than that. Catholics are great as well. Frank is god.

Setlist: ( in "somewhat" correct order)
New Song 1, New Song 2, New Song 3, Cold Heart of Stone (new song 4),Mr.Grieves, Nimrod's Son, Gouge Away, Monkey Gone to Heavan, 666, Tom Waits Cover, The Shrimp Song, Bullet, Calistan

We must all support this genius and/or alien !
Andy

Frank Black played Reading festival on Saturday in a mid afternoon slot on the main stage. Personally I feel he would've been better playing later and longer on one of the smaller tents, but oh well. He went on after the excellent ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, who finished their set by throwing their guitars around, pulling their amps down on top of themselves and so-on, and he still managed to top them. It was incredibly hot, really sunny and sweltering, and while the Catholics set up their gear as usual, there were swarms of Reading roadies running around not looking very efficient. Frank got a cheer as people saw him walking around in the background. Having got to his last London gig late, and missed Crackity Jones, I was praying he would play it at reading. No such luck, but he still dealt out a great set. There was a really good crowd there to see him, lots of people just for the pixies songs, but some people who knew his solo stuff too. Frank didn't say a word to the audience other than the occasional thank you, and started off the set by flinging a clipboard accross the stage that someone had left lying around, scattering paper everywhere. The set was really heavy, most notably because Frank didn't have an accoustic guitar at all. At most of the dates I've seen him on this year, he's switched to accoustic for big chunks of the set as he now has Dave Phillips and Rich Gilbert to play electric, but at Reading things like Mr Grieves and Robert Onion were played full throttle on the old distorted telecaster. The pixies songs went down really well, as did the dog in the sand songs, but he played nothing off Frank Black, Teenager of the year, Cult of Ray OR Pistolero. Rich Gilbert was incredible, doing high kicks and really going for it in the solos. A couple of the songs, Robert Onion and Hermaphroditos now have extended jam things on the end, and Holiday Song had an extra bit in the middle for a Dave Phillips pedal steel solo. They all wore dark glasses, understandably as they had to play looking into the sun, but Dave Phillips' legs akimbo rock pose looked really cool when he was wearing shades. Overall another great set from Frank, but not really a lot of variety, which is always going to be the way with festival sets, and he kind of crammed the regular pixies numbers into the set at the expense of his solo stuff. Most of the crowd probably lapped this up, and good for them, but i can't help wanting some of the odder solo stuff. Then again Holiday Song was so good... Oh and John the Revelator is such a damn good cover, that I insist everyone sees Frank Black if possible to watch how a master treats the old Son House blues number. Frank came on early, and I was hoping he'd play for longer because of this, but sadly he only played 45 minutes. Later in the day Gaz Coombes of Supergrass thanked Frank for an inspirational set! Damn right! Heres looking forward to the day when Frank Black and the Catholics can headline at Reading.

Setlist!
Gouge Away
If it Takes All Night
Hermaphroditos
Six Sixty Six (Noise Version)
All My Ghosts
Monkey Gone To Heaven
I've Seen Your Picture
Robert Onion
John the Revelator
Mr Grieves
Holiday Song
Bullet
Mark Shark

The band played during one hour and a half ( pretty long for a festival) on the first evening of the festival after a hot hot day. I think that most of the people came to see Black Francis and not Frank Black and the Catholics. It seems to me that Frank and his boys were enjoying the atmosphere of the place : before the show, Frank came to check the mic and, as the crowd started to cheer him up, he began to do some funny noises as answers to each scream from the crowd. I must say that I had never seen such a smiling Frank Black : during a few songs he kept laughing with Rich and the Daves, telling each craps to each other.

Concerning the songs they played : Monkey’s gone to heaven was sung in a different way during the chorus. All my ghosts was done with a funny intro from Frank, with a spoken verse and without singing the title of the song in the chorus. Surprising me at the highest level, they played a cover version of the Schrimp Song that was written by Roy Bennett and Sid Tepper for Elvis Presley (according to the playlists I have seen until now, they had never played it before).

Complete playlist in the right order :

Gouge away
Crackity Jones
666
Monkey’s gone to heaven
All my ghosts
I switch you
Calistan
Skeleton man
I gotta move
Stupid me
I’ve seen your picture*
Mr Grieves
Hermaphroditos
Blast off
Llano del Rio
Nimrod’s son
The schrimp song
Bullet
Holiday’s song
John the Revelator
Robert Onion
Dirty old town
Etienne Lepeule

Paradiso is a legend : many rock superstars want to play there even if they are used to play sold-out in big arenas. The concert room itself is a former chapel with several stained glass windows and a huge balcony. Very impressing ! How ironic for the Catholics to play in a former church !!
Now about the show itself : GREAT !!. It seemed to me that everybody in the band was glad to play and felt very comfortable. They were rocking so much ! Maybe Dave Philips was a bit less comfortable than the others from time to time : from the talk I had with him afterwards, I know that the play list is often decided on stage, song after song, and this can sometimes be a bit distabilizing…
Gouge away was played loud. Headache started with a punchy drums intro from Scott and he did a lot of drums roll during the song. The version of Bullet they played was great : it was a bit spacious and they played a long long long instrumental part in the middle of the song : Rich was hyperactive on his guitar. He also played a mad transition between Mr Grieves and I switch you which impressed me a lot. I switch you was played on a loud rock version with freaky solos from Rich. They also restarted that song as a kind of outro for the song itself !! 666 was sung very slowly with a lot of force while the instruments were only playing to punctuate Frank’s words.
At last, the songs of the encore were perfectly chosen to end up everything. It seemed to me that Dave Philips had problems with his pedal steel during Hermaphroditos because he started with it and then played his guitar on his laps using it as a pedal steel.

The play list is complete and with the correct order :
I’ve seen your picture
Crackity Jones
Brackish boy
Gouge away
Skeleton man
I gotta move
Llano del Rio
I’ll be blue
John the Revelator
Robert Onion
Abstract Plain
Headache
Holiday’s song
Bullet
Dog in the sand
Mr Grieves
I switch you
666
All my ghosts
Stupid me
Dirty old town
Black Rider
Nimrod’s son

Hermaphroditos
The swimmer
If it takes all night
Etienne Lepeule

The concert lasted 1 hr only, as it was a festival. It was once again a great moment, as I was once again on the first row, on the fence. Rich was a little upset at the beginning of the show, as he apparently had some troubles with his guitars ...
but after a few songs everything was okay. There was certainly a problem, as they played two times I switched you, as the sound was really bad at the very beginning of the set !

Setlist:
I switched you (2 Times !)
Gouge away
If it takes all night
I've seen your pictures
Hermaphroditos
Gotta move
Monkey gone to heaven
666
riding the 7 seas (???)
mr grieves
Black Rider (Tom waits cover)
Llano del rio
Robert's onion
Headache
Bullet loaded
Where is my mind ?

All I hope now, is that FB comes back very soon...
candide

I attended my second FB show this year after having seen them in Brussels a few months ago... and all I have to say is that Frank still rocks. He played yesterday in a little town festival, in front of a beer drinker audience, but he did not care, and played very well, laughing and smiling. He was wearing a shirt with sleeves that had been cut probably by himself. Rich was wearing a glossy red suit, green shoes. he was excellent, as ever
So, here is the setlist, which was apparently decided on stage...

Gouge away
If it takes all night
hermaphroditos
Gotta move
666 (in front of a flabbergasted audience !)
all my ghosts
monkey gone to heaven
crackity Jones
Brackish boy
stupid me
blast off
llano del rio
bullet
Mr Grieves
Black Rider (Tom waits cover)
Nimrod's son
I will be blue
riding the 7 seas (???)
robert's onion
headache
calistan way
abstract plan
holiday
billy radcliffe
where is my mind

1h30 was the length of the concert.
No need to say that I will go and see him again next week in Leuven !!!
candide

Awesome...they were on form from the beginning of this show as they were half way throught the last time I saw them in February. The show started off with Crackity Jones, Brackish Boy, Hermaphroditus, I gotta Move, and a couple of others and they never stopped once! Hammered them straight out. Like the London show they were really, really tight together. Except 'Stupid Me', which they had to stop because the band thought Frank was going to do another verse and not the chorus or something like that....so anyway Frank stops it and says 'I guess this song is too sweet and too twee that I should play one section and you guys another section..', he made fun of it and told everyone what a professional DM was, but things seemed a little tense. Anyway, they got on with something else, what escapes me !
Rich Gilbert was a man transformed from the last time I saw him. Like the son of David Bowie in a red suit, red hair, black shirt, and Lime shoes. He went absolutely mental on the guitar at every given opportunity, writhing like the power had to get by him on its way to his amp and yet expressionless the whole time. David Mc. was as ever, and Dave P. looked even more in shock than ever. He always looks like he's not entirely sure if what he's doing is what he should be doing ?
Scott was as solid as drummers come, totally cool with whatever Frank throws at him, the real groove controller.
And Frank...., Frank seemed in a really good mood, grinning at the audience between screaming like the Pixies never happened !
Six sixty six was a highlight, 'wall of sound' is the only way to describe it, they were actually really loud all night, but that was real ear bleedin' stuff.
Like the London reviewer said, their didn't seem to be a set list as such, Frank would just tell everyone as they went, which I think added to Dave P's unsettled expression !
Pixies stuff went down really well, we were treated to Gauge Away (which always makes me feel sorry for Kim Deal. Who wouldn't want to be singing the Sha-la-la's of that song for a livin'?), Holiday Song, Nimrods Son, Monkey Gone to Heaven, Crackity Jones, and finally, the last song as you always hope it will be, Where is my mind? and I must say that the Edinburgh chorus must have impressed because we had a couple of bars of just Frank on his acoustic as we all 'Oooo-oooed'.
Every song without exception was unmissable, even when he did 'Speedy Marie' during the encore, I was kind of 'Why?', but then you forget what an excellent ending that song has, it really takes off. Blast Off was cool, Dirty old Town, Tom Wait's 'Gay Old Time', John The Reverlator, Bullet, Calistan, Everytime I go Around Here, I See Your Face, If it takes all night, Black Rider, some others I didn't know and probably a few I forgot !
An amazing evening which I can't seem to do justace to in words. It far surpassed the February Gig in Dundee, and that is no mean feat. Just hope he comes around again soon.
J. Gill

frank black played to a packed out 'more' tent at Witnness this weekend. franks cult status was constantly referred to during the day, not only by local papers, but also those good folks from Feeder who referred to him as a 'fucking legend.' wise words indeed. the performance must go down as one of the most amazing performances i have seen - to have a crowd moshing and surfing to 'dirty old town' is no mean feat, and to have a tent shouting 'you are the son of a motherfucker' at a volume that surely upset those kind folks living in the vicinity (who probably joined in..) was quite funny! Frank and the lads were in superb form, and although eric drew feldman was not present, the line up (scott, dave, rich and dave phillips) were so laid back (except for six sixty six) that they were a pleasure to watch, from the gritty opener 'gouge away' to the amazing rendition of 'if it takes all night.'. the pixies songs were cleverly sandwiched in between the more recent songs, and the reception that the band got after they finished (with where is my mind) nearly blew the roof off the stage. So good, in fact, was the 1hour gig that i nearly didnt mind getting kicked in the head 6 times by crowd surfers! it was also great to see people singing 'robert!' at the top of their voices. i think frank appreciated it too. the sooner he comes back the better - and rich - where did you buy that coat ?!! :o)

setlist
pixies songs
gouge away
monkey gone to heaven
holiday song
nimrods son
where is my mind?
dog songs
bullet
if it takes all night
robert onion
hermaphroditos
other great mentions
six sixty six (loud !)
i gotta move (excellent)
headache (:o))
abstract plane (excellent rendition)
Black Rider (Tom Waits)
Barry Byrne

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