Live And In The Flesh
Mindless Self Indulgence - February 12, 2003
Mindless Self Indulgence hit the road pretty hard in 2003, making their way through Ottawa not only once that year, but twice! We were lucky enough to make it down to both of the February/December 2003 shows, and they both were equally amazing. I had recently picked up their Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy album from 2000 and was loving their mashed up hip hop/punk/alternative rock/techno style. It didn't seem like there was anyone else really out there at the time who you could compare these guys to. It was new, and it was fresh, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to catch them out on the road.
Following school that Wednesday in February, a few of us made our way into Ottawa to hit up the show. The quick forty-five minute drive went by in a flash as we were all getting excited for our first MSI experience. We didn't really know what to expect, but we knew it was going to be a wild show given the energy throughout the two albums that they had released so far. After finding parking downtown, we headed over to the venue to get in line before the doors opened up at 7. Thankfully we didn't have to wait long out in the cold before they let us in.
Babylon seemed like the perfect place for a concert, a nice small club atmosphere that allowed you to get right up close to the stage if you wanted. There were even some booths set up on the outskirts for those who were looking to catch up over a few brews. We weren't even of legal age yet, so we were focused on getting ourselves nice and close to the stage before the opener made their way out. Tub Ring, a band out of Chicago was brought along to open up the show. We had never heard of them before they took the stage (similar to most opening acts), and we weren’t quite sure what they would be like. To be an opener at a Mindless Self Indulgence gig, you must have to abide by some sort of weirdness criteria I'm sure. Tub Ring made their way out and had us digging their set in no time. Since just releasing their second studio album in October of 2002, they seemed delighted to be sharing some of their new jams with us. You could hear a bit of a Mr. Bungle influence within their music, and to my surprise, Mr. Bungle's guitarist Trey Spruance actually produced their debut album.
Tub Ring wrapped up their set and we were ready for some Mindless Self Indulgence. It wasn't long before the whirlwind hit the stage! Tornado blew through the speakers and had us loving every minute of their show right from the beginning. They ended up playing a good handful of tracks from their debut 1999 album, Tight, which was surprising. I was expecting the set to be much more focused on their FGWSSS album, it was nice to see them reaching back to their older material throughout the set. Mindless Self Indulgence had recently released their first live album titled Alienating Our Audience late 2002, which in turn was the name of this tour. There were a few tracks on the live album that hadn't been officially released on any of their other albums and we were lucky enough to catch a few of those. Needless to say, we loved hearing any of the songs from Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy; Clarissa, I Hate Jimmy Page, Planet of the Apes, Boomin' and Backmask just to name a few.
Mindless Self Indulgence wrapped up their wild twenty-one song setlist with another classic from FGWSSS, Bitches. It's safe to say that they blew us away with their performance that night. So much so, that we had to make sure we made it out to their second show in Ottawa later that December. I was impressed with all of the songs that they had played off of their debut album that night, so I decided to make my way over to the merch booth to pick it up at the end of the show. Jimmy Urine and the rest of MSI's crew were hanging out with the fans afterwards, which was always nice to see bands doing. Nothing shows your fans much more appreciation than actually coming out and providing some one on one time with them. I made my way over to them all and politely asked them to sign the Tight album that I had just picked up. Jimmy, the lead singer, seemed pretty ecstatic that I had picked up their first album, and had told me that it would be worth more than gold one of these days, as it had been long out of print. Not only was I able to get my hands on something so tough to come by, it was now autographed by the entire band! Keeping the 17 year old fanboy in check, I thanked them for their time and let them know they had blown us all away with their live show. Little did we know that it wouldn’t be much longer until we would be seeing them on that very same stage yet again in a few short months.