Glen Phillips officially released his new album Swallowed By the New last week and is currently touring around the country in support of the album. I was able to catch him playing a free concert at the Levitt Pavilion in Pasadena, California on September 17, 2016. He played a selection of songs from the new album, mixed in with work from his solo career, and some of the popular tunes from his band Toad the Wet Sprocket. Glen was supported at the concert by Michael Eisenstein on guitar, Abe Rounds on drums, Khäsy Modisette on background vocals, and the album’s producer, Paul Bryan, on bass. The set list was:
1. “The Next Day” from Mr. Lemons
2. “California Wasted” from New Constellation by Toad the Wet Sprocket
3. “Leaving Oldtown” from Swallowed By the New
4. “True” from Winter Pays for Summer, Before starting the next song, one of his big hits in the 1990s with Toad, Glen remarked, “This is from my previous incarnation and current incarnation…I’m full of Saturday night energy…it might get electric.”
5. “All I Want” from fear
6. “Baptistina” from Swallowed By the New, video from the show. Glen explained briefly in the intro about the Baptistina asteroid that crashed to earth and killed off most of the dinosaurs. Except NASA has claimed it was not a Baptistina asteroid that caused the E.L.E. and the origin of that particular asteroid is still a mystery. Perhaps he should write a follow up to his song as They Might Be Giants did with “Why Does the Sun Really Shine?” to correct the science posited in “Why Does the Sun Shine?“.
7. “Gather” from Winter Pays for Summer
8. “The Easy Ones” from Swallowed By the New, video from the show
9. “Amnesty” from Swallowed By the New
10. “Grief and Praise” from Swallowed By the New, video from the show. I caught a Glen’s introduction to the song where he explains the inspiration for it.
11. “Criminal Career” from Swallowed By the New, watch the video at the link for a funny bit before the song where Glen says, “I wanted a dog barking there” in place of that heavy guitar accent in the song and that by not having it like that on the album, “I missed an opportunity for greatness.” Borrowed a line from this song for the title of the post.
12. “Go” from Swallowed By the New, link to video from show. One of the enjoyable things about seeing a live Glen Phillips solo show is that he chats to the audience more than he does during Toad shows and you never know what is going to pop into his head that he is going to say into the microphone. That night it was, “I wanna go play Whac-A-Mole. It’s been a long time. Is there a good Whac-A-Mole parlor near here?”
13. “Walk on the Ocean” from fear
14. “Always Have My Love” from W.P.A. by Works Progress Administration
15. “Held Up” from Swallowed By the New, link to video from show.
16.” Sir Duke” Stevie Wonder cover, video from the show.
17. “Don’t Need Anything” from Winter Pays for Summer
