This show was probably the best Frank Black show I have ever seen.
Frank and the Catholics played their usual instruments, plus steel guitars and a keyboard. They played 7 pixies songs gauge away, holiday song, nimrod's son, manta ray, where is my mind, etc.), some rock classics (dirty old town by the pogues and 6_66), and a ton of Frank Black solo stuff...offf every album! The Catholics took the stage in the hot and sweaty Little Brothers at 11:10pm and didn't finish until 1:45am!! simply amazing...and all for $13. Frank is becoming a rock legend. He is a legend, a legend that continues to rule the live stage.
TAC

chris,
i read about it on frank's official site yesterday. i tell you it really makes me feel ill. the show i saw him at (nyc, 4/10/01) was probably the last show they did with that equipment. yeah, i was really bummed, and i dedicated all of last friday to listening to 'dog in the sand' as a tribute to the poor gear. it will never be the same. as a guitar player, i feel that the bond would be broken and it would be impossible to forget that some bastard had his greedy paws around the neck of my baby.

It was just one of those nights. In a good way, I mean. Better yet, make that in a great way. It was a Tuesday night, but you wouldn't know it from the line of die-hards that stretched around the block. Not even a long wait (they didn't open the doors until 8:00 pm!!!) could phase these folks. We were here for some great music. To get straight to the point: Frank and The Catholics kicked ass with one of the most dynamically perfect performances I've ever seen. It's funny, but I had such a great time getting lost in all of it that I can't remember the order. Honestly, I can't even remember what they opened with! The intro was great. There was this old country tune
on, sung by a lass with a sweet voice. First one then the next and the next until Frank. They all started playing along to this tune. It was a cool idea to open up like that. They ended up playing a few covers, all of which Frank credited, but like I said the details are a little sketchy.
So as far as the line-up, it was Rich on guitar, keyboards, and pedal steel!, Scott on drums, Dave on a vintage Fender Precision bass, Dave on electric, acoustic and pedal steel, and of course Frank. Frank was sporting the same Godin electric/acoustic that he had when I saw him downtown acoustic 2 months ago, and a sweet natural finish Fender Telecaster through a Vox head and speaker cab. The guitarists both used
Gibson SGs. Rich had a great 61' with one P-90 pick-up and a Bigsby tail-piece, in cherry color. Dave rocked a newer model, black with two humbuckers and a Guild acoustic. The drums looked to be DW, although it
was hard to tell, a nice sunburst finish.

On to the music... Highlights include: 'The Noose in Gonna Break', 'Sir Rock-A-Bye', 'Headache', allot of tunes from the new album, which if you don't won it, get it, it's probably the tightest, loosest, precise solo album since
'Frank Black'. 'Everytime I Go Around Here' was really nice. Didn't get any 'Men In Black', 'Creature Crawling', or anything off of 'The Cult of Ray' now that I think of it. 'Oddballs' was a surprise and they did it good. 'Los Angeles' was spectacular. Featuring Rich, wielding a drum stick to beat out the chords, it was by far the hardest rocking
tune of the night. As for Pixies tunes, they did 'Gouge Away' which incited a few near the front to try to start a pit. Most of us were content to groove away the night, not trying to expend any unnecessary energy as it was a standing room only show and after about 3 hours of standing in that heat one feels like one might just drop if provoked. 'Nimrod's Son' was the first, getting a huge, " you're the son of a mother-f____r" from the PACKED crowd. I don't know how many were there, 800, maybe 1000, but it was standing room only everywhere. 'Mr.Grieves' is always a crowd pleaser and as soon as you hear, "hope everything is alright", the audience went nuts. He closed the show with 'Where is My Mind?' I love this tune. At the beginning, he just strummed the opening chords and everybody sang the high backing vocal. Good way to end the show.
I just remembered some of Frank's humor: When he introduced Dave (guitar), he goes, " and uh, that's not Joey Santiago on guitar. That's not Eric Drew Feldman. That's not Dave from San Francisco, it's Dave from LA. There two different Daves." Later on after 'Gouge Away', he says "wait a minute, maybe you are Joey Santiago. Did you dye your hair blonde?" Towards the end he made a reference to the fact that their van broke down. "it's pretty packed, I think we can cover it". He is very funny and relaxed up there, a real pro.
My last point is that I paid $18.50 for this ticket. Two days ago I bought (2) Black Crowes/Oasis tickets for $104.00 I'm a fanatic, so money and music to me don't mix. I'd happily spend anything to see a
show I want to see, and don't take this the wrong way, but for $20 bucks this was the best show I've ever seen. I encourage Catholics fans to keep spreading the good word. Last night was proof that Frank Black is
a very important figure in music and one that will remain prolific for years to come.

For those of you who already read the review of the concert in Munich, Backstage, you will already know what happened at the beginning of the our trip:
I went from Germany to France (3 hour drive) with the same dude I saw the Munich gig with.
He again forgot our tickets and since this time he was driving, he came late, we had no petrol.
I thought 'Cool, same circumstances like last time and then the show was brilliant'trying to see things positively.
So we left Germany at 4.30 pm and arrived in Straßburg already at 7.30 . We had planned some time to be searched at the border because it was exactly the time where Europe's borders had been controlled strictly for this animal disease virus spreading in Europe. We thought we would be desinfected with a spray they used for the shoes and the car wheels. Anyway, nothing like that happened and even the description of the way to the laiterie that I got from the Internet was perfectly right - so 2 hours early and it rained. We picniced in the car, listened to some At the Drive-In (needless to mention my friend forgot the Frank Black MiniDiscs) and went in as persons no.5 and 6.
Some local band opened for the Catholics and I missed them totally due to some funny and stoned Frenchmen who heard us speaking German and wanted to talk to us.
I was curious to find out about different crowd reactions in France. I thought that at the beginning it was quite the same like in Germany but towards the end, when the Pixies tunes were played, one could clearly hear that the Pixies were the most successfull here in France. I think this is strange since the French are much less into Rock Music than Germans or English folks. They prefer Reggae in the south and in the north and Paris area dance and club music is very big. But those are only my impressions, anyway, the crowd reaction in France was all in all better than in Germany, I have to admit.
The concert itself, again, great, long, about 30 songs, brilliantly played, good atmosphere. It was worth the trip. My personal highlight was definetly the moment one very drunk Frenchman suddenly entered the stage, stood next to Frank, put his hand on his shoulder (all during a song) and attempted to jump into the audience to do some crowd surfing. Frank just smiled (being very perplex) and put his hand on the Frenchman's shoulder until he finally jumped and fell very badly due to lacking coordination - after he stood erect, the security came and showed him the way to the door I believe...

Short chronology of the events:

6.30 pm: I leavet the house to fetch two friends to go to the Frank Black concert tonight
6.40 pm: We notice that my friend forgot the tix at home
6.50 pm: Back at his house
6.52 pm: Left for the Autobahn to Munich
6.55 pm: Same friend realizes he forgot his keys
7.00 pm: Numerous curses later back at his house
7.30 pm: We are finally on the Autobahn, equipped with 3 tix and a MiniDisc player and drinks, as well as a map of Munich
8.00 pm: Low battery - no more music in the car
9.00 pm: The Autobahn sign tells us we are close to Munich
9.30 pm: We found the Backstage without further trouble

Outside: a lot of people queuing for tickets. We pass by them, waving with our pre-ordered tickets and are being let inside by the security.
Inside: packed, Paul James Berry is entereing the stage. The crowd reaction is reserved, Paul's set finished after 25 minutes.
I keep being astonished by the packed location. Two years ago, in a slightly bigger location, Frank performed in front of a half empty room. This time I can see a lot of over-25-Pixies T-Shirt wearing people. We seem to be the youngest with our 21 years of age. The press reaction to Dog in the sound was, let's say, reserved. Some mag's claimed Frank was doing music for early retired people, some gave him credits for his earlier works or said something like 'At the least the man still can sing'. And then this, approximately 1000 people, a very cool location. While I regard the tour shirts, some weird music starts playing very loudly. The lights focus on the stage, the crowd starts whistling, cheering, shouting 'Frank,Frank'. The Catholics enter the stage, Frank waves and smiles - wow, good mood today, huh?
After the weird song has finished, the set has it's first highlight with 'Gouge Away', a fact very appreciated by the audience. I don't have to repeat what followed, all the other reviews said that. The setlist was similar to other concerts, it was tremendously good, Frank was even joking around with some first-row girl (oho..). The Catholics played for 95 minutes, left the stage to come back for an 20 minute encore. My ears hurt afterwards due to some enthusiastic fellows who whistled the hell out of their lungs (you know, the 2 fingers in the mouth type of whistling).

00.30 am: I meet Dave Phillips on the toilet and Dave Mc Caffrey at the T-Shirt booth.
00.40 am: The rest of the audience that has remained is being thrown out by the security.

While I try to rip of one of the tour posters next to the tour bus( I ruined 5 of them before I could get one that was not harmed because of the enormous amount of glue those stupid poster attachers used...) the entire band comes with all their roadies and they start loading the bus. Frank seems to be annoyed by something, rejects autograph wishes untill after the bus was loaded. I stand there with my camera in the hand but don't dare to ask...damned, I should have had taken a picture with him and me.

01.05 am: We leave the parking lot
2.30 am: back at home in my bed
6.00 am: rrrring - alarm clock, time to work....

Frank Black And The Catholics L'entre-Pot Grenoble march 19 2001

hi Christopher, finally I managed to go to the show! That's the incredible story (sorry for my bad english). Me , my girl and 3 friends left from Turin to Grenoble monday moring at 9AM and we arrived in Grenoble at 2pm after a long journey and several breaks. We've got NO tickets. we arrived at the Entrepot: very small place, I think for 200 persons. And it was sold out! no way to get tickets... So we decided to stay there waiting for someone.
After 10 minutes all The Catholics arrived. They started playing with a dog so we decided to try... I said " Hi, we are from Turin, Italy. We are here for you but we have no tickets... how can we get them?" "How many'" "5" "Huummh, we see". After a while Frank descended from bus we took a picture (I'll send you) and we repeat the story. "Italians? But here it's France" "I know but you don't play in Italy since 1991!" (I saw Pixies in Turin in 91). "I know and I don't know why...". At this point Then Frank went in. After a while the bass player (I don't remember his namme, he's been sooo sweeet!) come to us with a paper and he wrote our names on it and he said "Ok, you're on Frank's guest list!" we can't believe it... "For free?" "Yes, you are guests"... Thank you! Thank you! thank you! so, we were in a greaty mood and we went look for an hotel. After a few beers we went to the show and they REALLY let us in. After a support band Frank got in the stage. He stopped three times because the people was moving in a dangerous way. He played for more than 2 hours. I don't remember the entire setlist, but he played 6 songs from Pixies era (Gouge away, where is my mind?, mr. Grieves, Monkey..., nimrod's son and THE HOLYDAY SONG, my favourite and not so usually played in this tour). and then stupid me, calistan, Los Angeles, llano del Rio, bullet, dog in the sand, dancing the manta ray, you're such a wire, 666, all my ghosts, I love your brain, dog gone, superabound, skeleton man, hermaphroditos, everytime I go round and many others I don't remember now. No songs From The cult of Ray.
A Great show. If someone has tapes of it, e mail me please (two guy filmed the entire show).
Bye, Stefano

Page with review and pics sent by Luis :
Frank Black Live in Lisbon

Frank Black And The Catholics + Raphaël + K-Nada Coopérative de mai 12 mars 2001

Quelle ne fut pas ma surprise de découvrir la Coopérative de mai dans une configuration réduite pour accueillir l’immense Frank Black ! Avec ses qualités vocales et de songwriting, cet homme devrait avoir vendu les albums par millions et remplir des salles comme Bercy ! Le problème, c’est qu’il n’est pas très photogénique : un certain embonpoint et une calvitie l’empêchent de faire des pubs pour Calvin Klein en t-shirt moulant ! En plus, il n’a pas un comportement de rock star : il ne se tape pas des top-models, il ne consomme pas des kilos de cocaïne, il n’insulte pas les autres musiciens ! Un effort, s’il te plaît Frank ! Ce qui l’intéresse, c’est la musique et la bonne bouffe. Il est d’ailleurs l’inoubliable auteur de cette phrase que j’aurai aimé prononcer : « Les trois choses auxquelles je pense le matin au réveil ? En premier : que vais-je manger au petit déjeuner ? En deuxième : que vais-je ingurgiter à midi ? Et en troisième : heu, cékoidon qu’on mange ce soir ? » J’aimerai ressembler musicalement à mon idole (je m’entraîne !) mais malheureusement si je continue à faire six repas par jour, et à perdre mes cheveux, c’est plutôt physiquement que je vais lui ressembler : gras du bide et casquette en peau de fesse ! Devant 852 personnes à peu près, le concert démarre avec K-Nada, un groupe de la région plutôt sympa. Ouvrir pour Frank Black leur convient bien : c’est un power trio assez…puissant ! Ils ont de bons morceaux : ça fonctionne bien auprès du public. « C’est bien branlé » comme dirait Pierre, la rock star de Dallet. Ils ont même droit à un rappel ! Puis arrive Raphaël, un jeune inconnu qui arrive avec un album sur une major, un clip, et une force de vente derrière lui. La maison de disque l’a signé parce qu’il manquait quelqu’un dans la catégorie « jeune chanteur rebelle (?) à belle gueule à la Damien Saez ». Je ne vais pas l’accabler, ce n’est pas de sa faute ! Ce qu’il fait est assez moyen : la musique et la façon de chanter sont très fortement influencées par Brian Molko de Placebo, pas très original ! Le plat de résistance arrive enfin vers 22 heures 20. Ladies and gentlemen, Frank Black And The Catholics are on stage ! AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH ! ! ! ! ! ! J’attendais ça depuis le mardi 31 janvier 1995, c’est à dire le jour de son concert à la maison du peuple de Clermont-Ferrand. C’est long, six ans sans voir Frank Black ! Les gens qui étaient venus pour entendre disserter Frank Black ont dû être déçus : il ne parle pas du tout, il enchaîne tous les titres sans temps mort. Et alors quoi ? Il vaut mieux ne rien dire que de sortir des banalités affligeantes, non ? Les personnes qui étaient venues pour voir Frank Black danser ont dû être déçues aussi : il reste bien calé derrière son pied de micro avec sa Fender Telecaster en main et il ne bouge pas d’un poil ! Et alors ? C’est pas les ballets du Bolchoï que je sache ! Il commence avec un titre de « Teenager of the year » : « Fiddle riddle » dans une version très différente de l’album, le reggae est devenu rock ! D’entrée, c’est le bonheur ! Puis, il enchaîne avec « Mr Grieves » des Pixies. Il jouera cinq autres morceaux de son ancien groupe, tous interprétés magistralement et acclamés par le public : « Monkey gone to heaven », « Dancing the Manta Ray », « Nimrod’s son », « Gouge away », « Where is my mind ? » (HOOO HOOO ! ! !). Et Kim Deal à la basse ? Et David Lovering à la batterie ? Et Joey Santiago à la guitare ? Et la reformation des Pixies, et blah, blah, blah (comme dirait James Osterberg), nous sommes en 2001 et Frank Black se débrouille très bien tout seul ! Nous avons aussi eu droit à une reprise de Larry Norman « Six-sixty-six ». Sur le premier album des Catholics, elle est assez éprouvante, c’est de la country de supermarché. Pardonne-moi Charles ! Mais là, c’est une version très lente et longue avec de grosses guitares. Rien de moins qu’une invitation au satanisme proférée par un Frank Black hurlant : « His intention was : six sixty six ». Larry Norman ne doit pas reconnaître sa chanson ! Il interprète aussi 11 des 12 titres de son dernier album « Dog in the sand » : il a raison, ce disque est excellent ! Les musiciens sont tous très bons : Scott Boutier cogne les fûts de sa batterie comme une enclume, David Mc Gaffrey se démène à la basse, Dave Philips nous gratifie de parties de pedal steel bien envoyées, Rich Gilbert alterne les soli de guitare stratosphériques (réhabilitons le solo de guitare !) et les parties de clavier enchanteresses. La classe ! Et Charles Thompson est tout simplement grand ! A mon avis, c’est le meilleur chanteur de rock en activité (avec Iggy Pop) : il est capable de hurler, de chanter dans les aigus et dans les graves et surtout sa voix tient pendant les deux heures dix du concert (même si il grimace pour pousser ses cordes vocales au maximum) ! Le public en a eu pour son argent ! Frank Black a l’air plutôt content de jouer et il est souriant : pas besoin de discours ! Un super concert ! C’est dommage qu’il n’ait pas joué « Czar » et « Changing of the guards », la reprise de Dylan. Mais il ne peut pas jouer trois heures, et comme il a fait « Los Angeles »… I met a man, he was a good man, sailing and shoring, dancing the beta can-can ! Je vais être obligé d’aller voir son concert à Grenoble lundi 19 mars 2001 : je ne pourrai pas encore attendre six ans ! J’ai trouvé le public assez mou, ça ne bougeait pas trop ! Honteux ! Quant à moi, j’étais tellement en forme (pour une fois !) qu’une jeune inconnue m’a signalé que je dansais comme Sid Vicious des Sex Pistols : une très bonne soirée décidément ! Je veux être Frank Black quand je serai grand ! I wanna be your dog in the sand of Los Angeles ! Pierre Andrieu

I got off work at 5:00pm on the dot, I usually work late, but that day is wasn't a possiblity, the gig I'd been waiting to see for years, had finally arrived, or at least it was about to begin in three hours.
Frank Black and the Catholics were playing in Dublin, Vicar street to be precise, and I had my goddamned ticket. I was there. Also, I had a broken ankle, all in a cast (still do), and although I knew the gig would be a mind-blower, I also knew I'd have to somehow negotiate the waves of human bodies and the crowd surfers in the mosh pit, not a smart thing to do, but then, I've never been one to pay attention to common sense.
Sitting in the bar with my friend I began thinking of a conversation I had with him a couple of days before, we were talking about the chances of actually meeting Frank, what'd it be like and what have you. I'd entertained the idea, but then decided that I wasn't going to risk it, what's the point, I thought, never meet your heroes and all that... But for some reason I found myself leaving my chair, putting my beer down, and hobbling to the bar to locate the manager in an attempt to arrange an ad hoc meeting with the man. I encountered some Spanish bufoon (Dublin bars are choc-a-bloc with foreign workers), so after some broken English on his part, y un poco Espanol on mine, I found out I needed to talk to a guy called Dean, I think. I couldn't find him, so I looked for anybody who looked like a bouncer. I found a big guy in a bomber jacket, "that'll do" I thought, and asked him about meeting Frank Black. "Here's your chance he said," "What do you mean?" I couldn't see him, what was he talking about? He pointed out a dooryway, and there was a group of about 12 guys clutching paper in a moving circle, still couldn't make out Frank, but I finally did when he got closer to the door. I admit, I was stunned. I didn't know what to say. "Uh, Frank?" Shit, I don't even have a pen... Frank walked past and into the venue and I tried to hobble after him but was stopped by the same guy that pointed out the hub-bub to me. "Can't let you in there." I was deeply disturbed with this and pleaded with him to let me pass, eventually he did, but Frank was heading to the dressing room. I got the bouncer to call him, and he walked over toward us. I could feel my heart racing, adrenalin flowing. I'd met stars, much bigger than Frank, I met Lennox Lewis, talked with him for about 20 minutes, Bono, Michael Stipe, tonnes more, but this was the one I wanted to meet, and it was about to happen. "What's up?" He spoke in our direction, I was again, stunned into stupidity. The bouncer explained that I wanted to meet him and he was very agreeable with it. Now, this is the stage at which the one question that you want to ask should come out, the one intangible about that somebody that you can't quite put your finger on and want the answer to, it's right there,but the question didn't come, instead I told him I was a huge fan (d'uh) and shook his hand (which was cool, actually) and asked him to sign my cast. He agreed and actually flipped a chair over for me to stretch my leg on, and scraped his signature in with a pen the bouncer gave him. I was very impressed by this, as it took him quite some time, he didnn't seem bothered by the effort. We talked for a minute or so, he signed a card of mine for me and after shaking hands one last time he was off. It was worth being in a cast for six weeks, every single minute. There was a time, about a year ago, in a seaside resort, if you will, called Bray were I was with a group of friends, and due to copious amounts of alcohol, some fine Jamacian Herbs, and a few other bits and pieces my face went bright red, and a manic grin became glued to my face from ear to ear. After meeting Frank, my friend told me my face looked extremely similar to what is was on that day. The show is a bit of a haze, alcohol, the excitement of meeting Frank Black and having my glasses kicked off my head by a surfer all contributed to not remembering as much as I'd like to. However, what I do remember is that Frank Black and the Catholics kicked ass on stage, the place was jumping from start to finish. There were a few pixies numbers thrown in for the die-hards, which the crowd was mostly made up of. Even without the way in which those tracks enthused the crowd, it was an excellent show, the vibes in the place were good, the rapport between the band and the crowd was spot on and the music was heaven. All of us, as monkies, for a while, were there.
I saw a competition there on a web-site earlier today to win a signed Frank Black poster and couldn't help but let out a little grin...

Venue: The Leadmill, Sheffield, England
Date: Saturday 17th February, 2001

After being stood-up at the last minute, I had to make the 100 mile journey from Liverpool to Sheffield on my own, having missed the Liverpool show two nights earlier.

Anyway, it was worth it for two hours of going mental which left me dehydrated, bruised and suffering severe tinitus (ringing ears). Anyway, more about the show! The support was quite good and in keeping
with the more country sound of some of 'Dog in the Sand', though not so good that I remembered their name... Doh!

Frank and the Catholics (four of them plus Frank) ambled on stage at about 9pm. There were probably 20 guitars on the stage and two steel slide guitars. They only used about 3 of them so I guess the rest were for
decoration.

They kicked the show off with a song I didn't know (obscurity, cover or new song?) and the crowd gently nodded their heads along to the music.

However, 2nd or 3rd song in they did a Pixies song 'Gouge Away' I think and everyone went mad. I was about third person back so I could still jump around without falling over the stage (stage was about two foot high
without barriers, security or monitors). Frank was stood right in front of me and wearing regular dark jeans and long-sleaved shirt - looking like a big screaming Buddha. When he rolled his sleaves up he had a great big
yellow band aid on his forearm - It was huge so maybe a dog bit him or he burned it on a hot pie... who can say?

The tracks they played were about 5 Pixies (Gouge Away, Monkey Gone To Heaven, Nimrod's Son, Mr Grieves and Where is My Mind?), and the rest of the two hours was from all FB solo and FB&theC's albums. I didn't feel
like there was enough Pistolero stuff - that's currently my favourite album. Also no 'Hang onto Your Ego' - the song that first got me into Frank's solo stuff.

They played perhaps half of the new album and the crowd appreciated all of it, but perhaps predicatbly they cheered louder for older stuff they knew better.

The defining moment for me was when they finished the main part of the set with Where is My Mind?, which the crowd did all the ooooh oooohs and Frank stopped singing and let the crowd take over for a while. The chearing
after that one lasted at least two minutes while the whole band stood across the front of the stage just smiling.The encore was about four songs which ended with a Brian Ferry tune I'd heard before but not by Frank.
The current band line-up seem really cool, even next to Frank, especially the bassist who looks like he can't believe his luck at playing with an ex-Pixie.

An amazing night all in all, worth the entrance fee, the journey and the
physical punishment I endured. 9 out of 10.

Love
Neil