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Maybe the band members felt that way, too, because when they return for the second set, they seem a lot looser and Dulli is in more genial form. They open with "Last Night in Town" (from this year's Dynamite Steps) and skip back to "That's Just How That Bird Sings" (from first album Twilight as Played by the Twilight Singers from 2000) before jumping to "Bonnie Brae" from 2006's Powder Burns.
Lanegan returns for "God's Children," taken from his and Dulli's Gutter Twins side project, Saturnalia, from 2008. He hunches uncomfortably over the mic and barely seems to notice there's an audience. He sticks around for swampy, bluesy covers of Massive Attack's "Live with Me" and Tim Rose's "Boogie Boogie."
Dulli seems to have settled into his usual role as showman. He spins a finger in the air and tells us it's time to bring it way, way down. People are still talking loudly on the sidelines, but Dulli is patient. He steps away from the microphone to grin at the cameras in the front row. The other band members watch as he urges us to hush. The moshers stop heaving. Unmiked, he sings the opening lines of "Somethin' Hot" from the Afghan Whigs' 1965 album: "I want you so bad, after tonight I'll never walk the same/And you're to blame." The room falls into a rapturous thrall. He's making us want more. He's making us wonder if we'll get more Whigs music. Lit by a single red spot and still away from the mike, he sings "I wanna get you high/I wanna get next to you," matter-of-factly. But we're not to be so lucky. He shrugs, nods to his colleagues, and they fire up She Loves You's "Too Tough to Die."
Dulli sits at the piano and introduces the band. "I'm the luckiest man in the room," he tells us - whether it's because he's having such a good time or because he's in the best band in the world isn't clear. "And now I need a kick drum, please!" he hollers as the band heads into the piano-driven, "Layla"-esque "She Was Stolen." Haden reappears, and the two exchange gleefully conspiratorial smiles as her angelic, dreamy vocals intertwine with his on "Candy Cane Crawl": "Slow down, lean in/Call up that feeling."
Back on guitar, Dulli drops the goofy frat-friendly chorus from Whigs' favorite "Miles Iz Ded" ("Don't forget the alcohol - ooh, baby!") into "Never Seen No Devil." He cups an ear to the audience as they sing along. "I think we should do another one," he whispers, and Haden departs as they launch into the drum-machine-driven "On the Corner" before leaving the stage for the second time tonight.
The first encore is all too brief. "This is for the ladies!" Dulli says, grinning, as the band plays the slinky "Love" from the first album. Then they step it up, with Dulli hollering, "SAN FRANCISCO, GIVE ME ALL YOU GOT!" as they tear through a funky "Annie Mae" and a storming version of "Cigarettes," the last of which is from his Amber Headlights side project.
The second encore is shorter still. The band re-emerges with special (late?) guest, guitarist Dave Catching. Dulli introduces him as "the most beautiful man in rock 'n' roll," and says they have to end on something there's no coming back from. They kick into some seriously rockin' guitar work on Neil Young's "Hey Hey My My" that feels slightly unrehearsed, and then they're gone again.
Critic's Notebook: I was sorry not to hear "Get Lucky," my favorite track from Dynamite Steps. And it was a shame about some of the audience members, who wouldn't shut the fuck up during the quiet songs. My pal Action Jackson referred to it as "a convergence of assholes from Benicia," and the moshpit as "a melting pot of disaster."
First set: Blackberry Belle
Martin Eden
Esta Noche
Teenage Wristband
St. Gregory
The Killer
Decatur St.
Papillon
Follow You Down
Feathers
Fat City (Slight Return)
Number Nine
Second set
Last Night in Town
That's Just How That Bird Sings
Bonnie Brae
God's Children
Live with Me
Boogie Boogie
Gunshots
Too Tough to Die
She Was Stolen
Candy Cane Crawl
Never Seen No Devil
On the Corner
Encore 1
Love
Annie Mae
Cigarettes
Encore 2
Hey Hey My My
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