Hoodoo Gurus w/ Goldstar at the Abbey - 3/25/07

It's not often that you get to a see a band in concert whom you've been listening to for almost 20 years, especially when you thought they'd broken up about 10 years ago. It's also not often that I'm arguably the youngest person in the crowd. But lo and behold, my update email from Pollstar told me that the Hoodoo Gurus were playing the Abbey, and I felt obligated to get a ticket. I'm very glad I did.

Goldstar, who is apparently a local Chicago band led off the evening, and quite frankly, I found them to be pretty entertaining. I want to be delicate about this, but these aren't exactly spring chickens we're talking about. Throw in the matching shirts, and I'm sure one can be forgiven for underestimating them. But they played a very tight set, threw in some comedic banter between songs, and generally seemed to be enjoying themselves on stage.

The Gurus took the stage shortly thereafter, and after firing up with about a 20 second jam, they launched into "I Want You Back". They played an excellent mix of songs from across their eight proper albums, without too much focus on any one in particular. They hit all of the major tracks, though I would have loved to have heard Leilani, Death Defying, Desiree, or I Don't Mind, I can't really complain about the set list. I've tried to reproduce what I could remember, and this, like always, is not the order in which they were actually played:

1. I Want You Back - Stoneage Romeos
   
2. Dig It Up - Stoneage Romeos
3. Kamikaze Pilot - Stoneage Romeos
4. Bittersweet - Mars Needs Guitars
5. Poison Pen - Mars Needs Guitars
6. Like Wow, Wipeout - Mars Needs Guitars
7. What's My Scene - Blow Your Cool
   
8. Where Nowhere Is - Blow Your Cool
9. Middle of the Land - Blow Your Cool
10. Come Anytime - Magna Cum Louder
11. Another World - Magna Cum Louder
    
12. Miss Freelove '69 - Kinky
    
13. 1,000 Miles Away - Kinky
    
14. The Right Time - Crank
    
15. Form A Circle - Crank
    
16. Be My Guru - Stoneage Romeos (Bonus Track)
    
17. At least two or three from Mach Schau
18. At least two or three from Blue Cave

That's a pretty impressive grouping of songs. I usually expect about 15 songs out of a headliner. Anything on top of that is gravy, and they played upwards of 20 last night. They even tossed in a couple of requests.

Decent crowd. I'd guess the Abbey holds a couple hundred people (a little bigger than Schuba's), and it was more or less filled. I was about 10 feet from the stage, and it looked pretty packed behind me. If you're a fan, or even if you just have a passing familiarity with their stuff, do yourself a favor and check them out. It's called entertainment, folks. Not every song has to change the world.