Mac McCaughan & Phil Cook play solo for Moving Island

 

All photos by Kevin Norris

On Saturday afternoon, a small crowd gathered at the new Raleigh arts space/community center dubbed Moving Island to hear some great musicians perform to raise money for the organization.

Young Volcanoes hit the stage first, playing a set of laid back pop tunes. The quartet was a little rough around the edges, but is definitely a band to keep an eye out for.

Almost an hour after Young Volcanoes wrapped, Mac McCaughan took the stage for a set that was well worth the wait. He hit the ground running with "Crossed Wires" from Superchunk's latest album Majesty Shredding before playing "February Punk," the b-side of "Digging For Something." Mac noted that he wanted to play the song because of its relation to the Raleigh scene, but didn't elaborate further.

A series of Portastatic tunes followed, including the Summer of the Shark tune "Paratrooper" and the title track of the 2008 rarities collection Some Small History. The crowd got a real treat when Mac played the Superchunk song "Stretched Out," which he said that the band never played live.

He rocked Queen's "I Want To Break Free," which was an odd choice but worked, and closed with a rousing version of The Kinks' "Better Days."

After a short changeover, Phil Cook took the stage with his "Feat," his feet, to play a brief set of mostly instrumental tunes. He opened with the banjo tune "Waiting On the Oven Bun," titled for the fact that he'll be a father soon.

The entire set was fantastic and showed off Cook's fantastic musical ability and keen since of melody. Most of the songs from the set will be on a new album that he said that he recorded earlier in the week. We'll keep you posted when more info on the album becomes available.

Moving Island is in a bit of an odd location, but it's a fantastic building with a great deal of potential. It's rough around the edges now, but hopefully the money raised with the show will help with further improvements. We'll be keeping tabs on the organization and keep you posted on new happenings there as it grows (also check out more info HERE). Also, you have to go by sometime and checkout the view of downtown Raleigh from there. It's rather stunning.

Mac McCaughan set list
Crossed Wires
February Punk
Paratrooper
Some Small History
White Wave
Stretched Out
I Want To Break Free (Queen cover)
Rope Light
Song For a Clock
Better Days (Kinks cover)

Phil Cook and His Feat set list
Waiting on the Oven Bun
Frazee, MN
You Can't Stop a Tattler
Hungry Mother Blues
(a song for his dog Willy)

Young Volcanoes


Mac McCaughan


Phil Cook & His Feat