More Chuck Prophet

[Brian]

I can never get enough of "You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)," the closing song of every set I've seen by Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express.  Here is a broadcast quality clip from a performance in Germany in 2012 before an enthusiastic audience, which I just discovered on You Tube tonight.

[Jeanne]

That put some Bomb Shooby Dooby Bomp into my Monday morning. Thanks, Brian.

[anni]

Brian and our cat Bernard collaborated over the past three years to condense all of the Chuck Prophet posts on the Montrose Peace Vigil message board down to 11 posts on one page on another ProBoards forum, Next Exit:

nextexit.proboards.com/thread/4545/chuck-prophet

And we're celebrating New Year's Eve early (Dec. 28th) with
Chuck Profit and the Mission Express
at the Bootleg Theater-Bar Stage
2220 Beverly Blvd. L.A. CA.
Thursday, Dec. 28th, 2017
8:30pm.

[Brian]

After touring the rest of the U.S. and most of Europe incessantly, Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express returned to Los Angeles on December 28 after 20 long months, appearing both tighter and looser simultaneously, relaxed yet fired up to have fun.  Hopefully, the reaction from the Bootleg Theater crowd on a Thursday night will inspire them to play here more often.  Their 16 song, one hour and 45 minute set concentrated on Chuck's last three brilliant albums, with a few familiar hits earlier this century and one affectionate cover:

• Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins (2017)
• Open Up Your Heart (2017)
• Rider or the Train (2017)
• Bad Year for Rock and Roll (2017)
• Temple Beautiful (2012)
• You and Me Baby (Holding On) (2009)
• Ford Econoline (2014)
• Jesus Was a Social Drinker (2017)
• You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp) (2004)
• In the Mausoleum (for Alan Vega) (2017)
• I Felt Like Jesus (2012)
• Summertime Thing (2002)
• Countrified Inner-City Technological Man (2014)
• Wish Me Luck (2014)
• Willie Mays Is Up at Bat (2012)

• Shake Some Action (Flamin' Groovies cover)

Anni and I were first to line up, so we exchanged a few words with Chuck when he and Stephanie were leaving for dinner and again inside when they came back. So I should not have been surprised when Chuck addressed me in the audience for his traditional introduction of "You Did" as the "old timer" who needed to consider leaving the club if I had a heart condition, because the song could be dangerous to my health.  If I had died after his guitar solo, it would have been O.K.

[Brian]

Thanks to Bill for breaking the news: Chuck Prophet will perform at McCabe's in Santa Monica on Friday, November 15, at 8 p.m. Tickets are already on sale...

www.store.mccabes.com/cart.php?target=product&product_id=2372

...although Chuck has not announced it yet. The tour page on his website currently reads, "No tour dates to announce at the moment."

Is this going to be a solo Chuck show?  Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express?  Or Chuck and his wife Stephanie Finch, who played McCabe's as a duo almost exactly three years earlier, in November 2016?  I'll let you know.

Edited to add: Chuck recently announced the Friday McCabe date on his website as a solo show. And he's booked to open for Dave Alvin on Saturday at the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts in Whittier.

[Sharon W]

You guys enjoy! We'll commit to being at the Peace corner all 90 minutes to represent!

[Brian]

Aug 7, 2019 23:00:13 GMT -8 Brian said:

Chuck Prophet will perform at McCabe's in Santa Monica on Friday, November 15, at 8 p.m. Tickets are already on sale...

www.store.mccabes.com/cart.php?target=product&product_id=2372

Currently, only 21 tickets remain.

With Chuck in Santa Monica on Friday and opening for Dave Alvin in Whittier on Saturday, I got excited when the Rubinoos announced a show at the Bootleg Theater on Sunday.  Chuck produced their new album and co-wrote every song -- maybe he'd drop by.  I've seen him there twice with the Mission Express.  Instead, he's playing Humphrey's Backstage Live in San Diego. a 40-seat room where tickets are priced at $91.  More intimate than McCabe's -- wish I could go.



To give you an idea of what Chuck sounds like by himself, there's a livestream of him solo at Paste Studios in New York City nearly three years ago, with brief interviews before, during and after he performs "Bad Year for Rock and Roll," "Open Up Your Heart" and "Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins" from his then forthcoming album, still his most recent.

[Brian]

I schedule my vacations so I don't miss a Montrose Peace Vigil on Fridays.  The last time that I remember being absent was 2010 for a Crowded House concert, which might remain the band's last performance in L.A.  When McCabe's in Santa Monica announced a solo Chuck Prophet show on November 15, I knew I'd have to break my streak.  It's not just because he performs so seldom in Southern California, something well documented in this thread.  I had never seen Chuck onstage alone.

The 18 song set list spans the last two decades of Chuck's career.  Two unnamed new songs are rendered below in lower case using key phrases from the tunes.  He kicked off the evening with the B-side of the "Castro Halloween" single from "Temple Beautiful," one of the best albums recorded by anybody in the 2010's.

• I Call Your Name (2012)
• Wish Me Luck (2014)
• High as Johnny Thunders (new)
• Bad Year for Rock and Roll (2017)
• Storm Across the Sea (2002)
• Doubter Out of Jesus (All Over You) (2007)
• If I Was a Baby (2014)
• Jesus Was a Social Drinker (2017)
• Apology (1999, by request!)
• Ford Econoline (2014)
• Would You Love Me? (2007)
• Nixonland (new)
• Summertime Thing (2002)
• Love me like I want to be loved (new)
• The Left Hand & the Right Hand (2012)
• You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp) (2004)
• Get off the stage (new)
• Willie Mays Is Up at Bat (2012)

Chuck was fully engaged with the audience -- leading a couple of sing alongs, soliciting requests, telling stories and talking about what's going on with him and us -- all while stripping even his most electric songs to their bare acoustic essentials.  He said that he wrote three songs about presidents Lincoln, Nixon and Trump for his forthcoming album and he played two of them.  Chuck was born in Whittier, just like Nixon.  His song about Trump, perhaps his most political composition,  struck the right balance between recrimination and reconciliation.  Will the refrain, "get off the stage," be accomplished before the album gets released?  One can only hope.

[Brian]

Just before Chuck Prophet took the stage at McCabe's last Friday, this video of his new song "High as Johnny Thunders" was posted on You Tube. Thunders, who died in 1991 at the age of 38, was the legendary guitarist with the New York Dolls and the Heartbreakers. Here, Chuck performs at a nearly empty Make-Out Room in San Francisco with a magnificent band -- including violins!

[Brian]

Just hours ago, Chuck Prophet released the video of the first single from his forthcoming album.  The "Marathon" video, directed by Darrell Flowers and edited by Lauren Tabak, features Chuck's band mate and wife Stephanie Finch.  As he wrote in his newsletter today, the song "seems kind of nostalgic. But it’s not. Once you get past the krautrock bassline and The Everly Brothers acoustics and the relentless groove of The Mission Express, it’s a song about Depression era dances with roots in the Salem Witch Trials and the anxiety of anyone today who’s short on rent again. The gig economy. Reality shows. Exploitation. Dance marathons of the Great Depression were the first reality shows. And like Pro Wrestling, blurred the line between theatre and reality."

The album, "The Land That Time Forgot," comes out May 15.  Yep Roc Records is taking preorders:

yeproc.11spot.com/chuck-prophet-the-land-that-time-forgot-cd-and-first-edition-lp.html

Now we have three songs from the new album. "High as Johnny Thunders" is embedded above. Last month, Anni posted "Get Off the Stage," Chuck's plea to Trump, on this page of the Montrose Peace Vigil message board:

montrosepeacevigil.proboards.com/thread/1021/new-video-chuck-prophet