Hey gang - quick question that I'm hoping someone in the know can help me out with:



The Chems are playing a show in Oakland, CA, USA on April 29th with New Order. As hard as it might be to believe, the Chems are the opening act for this one (can't imagine any band that would want to follow a Chems show").



Does anyone know if the Chems would play their normal two hour set, or an abbreviated version as the opening act.



Quick story: Chems played a show in San Francisco two years ago with Paul Oakenfold. The Chems went on first and played their full set, and tore the place up. Oakie ended up only spinning for about 30 minutes before turning over the decks since the crowd had nothing left to give him.

Hmmm. Good question.



My guess is the Chems won't do anything to infringe on the New Order set - New Order are like, their idols so I imagine they wouldn't mind giving over the stage to them once their set is done. However, if this is a double bill like the Chems and Oakey set, you might get lucky and get the full 2 hours from Tom and Ed. I'm just guesstimating here - I really have no idea!! But if you're going to that show, one thing's for sure. I'm jealous!! ;)



I liked your brief summary of the Chems/Oakenfold deal. That's cool about the Chems wiping the crowd out so they were too exhausted to get into Oakey!

I am currently living in constant fear that they will play an abbreviated set. I just pawned my Coachella ticket on eBay and bought tickets to the Oakland date - grad-school will be getting crazy around that time, so saving myself the long drive to Indio is a big plus. However, I do NOT want to see an abbreviated set. Last time I saw the Chems, at Coachella '02, they were closing the main stage, but weren't able to take the stage until about 11 PM because of logistics and Bjork being a primadonna. The city of Indio has a strict 12 PM noise curfew, and Coachella artists get severe fines for going over it. The previous year, in 2001, the Chems were DJing at Coachella and ended up being pretty-much forced off the stage mid-set, so in '02 they were very-much aware of the curfew. As a result, we recieved an hour-long set. The treatments were abbreviated, and the set was closed after the Test. No encore, no freakin' TPPR. It was freakin' traumatic for me. I sood there for a short while simply refusing to believe that it was over. A Chems set without TPPR? Blasphemy! And besides that, at that performance, their full light-show wasn't even set up (don't know if that was intended or just a result of time-constraints).



But seriously, this event really did traumatize me. Before this, the Chems were my gospel, and a Chems concert was my church. Afterwards, I barely listened to the Chems for two years. It really turned me off. Any time I listened to the Chems after that, I was just reminded of the incident, and my anger at the Coachella promoters (for other issues too...) just kept percolating.



That said, the ticket says 7:00 PM. We can assume that means doors at 6:00. If the Chems actually started playing at 7:00, they could play the full, 1 hour, 45 minute set and be done by 8:45. With a half-hour to 45 minute set-change, New Order could be on stage by 9:30 and play 'til 11:00 or 11:30. Even if you push everything back an hour, there's plenty of time for each act to play a full set. The only adversely affecting factor that could exist would be an Oakland noise curfew. I don't know if there is such a thing, and I don't know exactly how much noise escapes the venue, but I do seem to recall something about a crackdown on the Oakland underground scene back around '99 that may have involved such a curfew. Sadly, the city is not the insanely uber-liberal pinnacle that its sister city across the Bay is. (Of course, Oakland has to deal with a lot more of the gritty realities of the urban existance...)



Anyway, when I saw The Chems in SF in Oct. '99, freakin' Underworld and DJ Shadow were the opening acts (and I'd thought Red Rocks couldn't be topped!) DJ Shadow played for 45 minutes, which was about normal for the time, and Underworld for 90 minutes, which is well within the range of their normal set-length. Afterwards, the Chems played their full, one-hour, twenty-minute Surrender-era set. A simply magnificent evening. And though Underworld held the opening slot and really did abbreviate their set (evidenced by the set-closing, five minute - half the normal length - but nonetheless rokkin,' treatment of Moaner) they certainly shared the evening's spotlight with the Chems. I can only hope for something similar with the 29th's performance...

Yeah, you're right about the Chems playing an abbreviated set at Coachella - it's what they always do at that festival. But hey that's a small gripe and I'm not really complaining. I thoroughly enjoyed myself last time around but I'm still waiting to hear The Private Psychdelic Reel live. ;)



I'm so glad the Chems closed the night. Bjork was supposed to close out Coachella, but she was bumped down so the Chems could have the closing slot. I'll never forget getting to the venue around noon and receiving a set list. I was sitting on a grassy knoll and there were these Bjork fans sort of behind me. They were practically in tears that Bjork wasn't closing Coachella and the Chems were!



I'm still very much looking foward to seeing the Chems in the more intimate tent, it'll be a nice change I think from trying to situate myself out near the main stage. I heard it's hotter than Haites in the tent but I don't care.

New Order are in serious danger of being blown off stage. They are rubbish live. They might even resort to backing tapes.



NO may have been pioneers back in the day, but the Chems are so good I'm seeing them twice in the same week next month - and that's in two cities 400 miles apart!

whirlygirl Escribi�:

Yeah, you're right about the Chems playing an abbreviated set at Coachella - it's what they always do at that festival.

Really? Did they play an abbreviated set at '99? (Were you there?) I'd wanted to make it that year, but I was a college freshman sans car. I actually had to take a train up to SF and ride back down to Santa Cruz with some friends to even make it to the SF show on the preceeding night.

Yeah, I was at Coachella in 1999. It was the first time I saw the Chems, such a mindblowing and positive experience, it really changed the way I felt about their music. I went to the show not expecting or knowing much of how they do what they do live, and that includes how long they normally play for. To the best of my now somewhat faded memory of 6 years ago, they played for about an hour, maybe a bit longer... Beck was the closing act for the main stage that evening and the Chems were up before him. Anywho - I distinctly remember watching Spiritualized who's set happened to overlap the Chems. Didn't help that the Spiritualized crew took forever and a day to set up the gear onstage plus some poor roadie had to light about 200 candles on stage before Spiritualized came on, causing a massive delay. It was like, come on, I want to see a little bit of Spiritualized before I have to dash off and see the Chems! But yes, the Chems won out, I barely made it to the mainstage before the opening buzz of Hey Boy Hey Girl started. I wish I had a set list of that night... it was pretty much a musical onslaught, and a very emotional experience for a friend of mine who ended up in tears saying she could feel the music in her bones and in her soul... then it all came to an end with Sunshine Underground.



*sigh* memories...