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2001 - Concert Dates

2001-01-12

Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA

Setlist

The Giraffes

2001-01-13

Cellophane Square (U-District), Seattle, WA

Setlist

In Store Performance. Chris and Tad will stick around to talk and sign autographs.

The Chris And Tad Show

2001-01-19

EMP's Sky Church, Seattle, WA

Setlist

Local musicians paying tribute to Dylan, Elvis and the Beatles will include Chris Ballew (of the Presidents of the United States of America), the Walkabouts, Rusty Willoughby (of Flop), Eddie Spaghetti (The Supersuckers), the Giraffes and Dave Keenan and Friends.

2001-01-30

Tech TV, Seattle, WA

Presidents' video interview is slated to air on TechTV Jan 30. The piece features Dave & Chris at the Seattle-based music store Emerald City Guitars. The story will run during a show called "AudioFile"

2001-04-07

EMP Liquid Lounge, Seattle, WA

Set 1:

Good Morning Tycoon / Mixed Up Son of Bitch / Congratulations In Advance / Hopeless (Rub it In)

Set 2:

Sharpen Up Those Fangs / What Will The Corporation Do? / Cowboy Mod And The Horse / European Boys / Remnant Kings

Set 3:

Couple Of Bugs Getting Married / Shreds Of Boa / I'd Rather Drool At You From Here / Poodle Mouth

Notes:

Very interesting show song wise, as many of the titles played ended up on Love Everybody and These Are The Good Times People albums.Congratulations In Advance was an album title for an unreleased Giraffes album.

Songwriters plan to play solo then team up to end the night for some multi-acoustic four piece rock... and its free

Review:

k, so I went to the funky little concert at the EMP on Saturday night. My group (about 8 of us) got there at about 8:00 p.m. (start listed for 9:00 p.m.), and it was already pretty crowded. We lucked into two front row tables as a couple of tourists got up and left-it was a bit close to the amps, but still pretty sweet. Saw Zoe from the list there as well-said "hi" briefly.
All the guys (Ballew, Trachtenberg, Benson, and Willowby) came out for a sound check, and did the usual silly things that you'd expect at a Ballew event. The format (explained by Chris after the sound check) was this: each musician would come out for a four song set, then all four would get together for a four song jam. Then, they would do it all over again. Pretty sweet. As luck would have it, Chris went first, and here's his four song set:
-Good Morning Tycoon
-Mixed Up Son of Bitch [excellent, damn funny song]
-Congratulations in Advance
-Hopeless (Rub it In)

As Chris was walking off the stage, one of my friends asked him about a song we had heard at one of the Giraffes concerts (it's something about a postman waiting at the door or something). I think Chris said that song would be out on a new CD (can't remember if he said Chris and Tad or the Giraffes-I'm guessing Giraffes, though). He also said that he was spending a LOT of time right now working on the Chris and Tad thing, which I though was interesting considering that I thought the Giraffes were the current emphasis. Regardless, I got in a "hi" for you, Lyon, and he said something about thinking I looked familiar from the FOAS World Tour.

Robb Benson (Nevada Bachelors) went next, followed by Trachtenberg. And by the way, Trachtenberg is one goofy guy-he played a little tiny organ/syth type thingy, and just went off about all sorts of strange stuff. I doubt I could get into a CD of his, but he was funny as hell live. Rusty Willowby finished up the single performances.

The guys named their four-man adhoc group "The Remnant Kings." Here's their first five song setlist:

-Sharpen up those fangs
-What will the Corporation do?
-Cowboy Mod and the horse
-European Boys
-Remnant Kings

As promised, Chris then did another four-song set, which included these songs:

-Couple of bugs getting married
-Shreds of boa
-I'd rather drool at you from here
-Poodle mouth

Once again, Robb, Jason, and Rusty came and went, and at that point, my group was getting pretty drunk, so we decided to head out. As I was walking out, I could barely hear The Remnant Kings playing a rendition of what I think was "Suk or Shine." I could be wrong, though. I wish I could provide a little more analysis of the songs, but I didn't take THAT many notes, and I've never been that good at that, anyway. It was mainly Giraffes/Chris and Tad type stuff, as you'd expect a solo show to be.

Yeesh...that was longer that I thought it would be. Enjoy, and if anyone has any other questions, let me know.

Peterson

2001-04-13

Crocodile Cafe, Seattle, WA

Setlist

Chris And Tad

with Young Fresh Fellows, The Model Rockets, Roy Loney & The Longshots

Press:

"(Crocodile) Tonight may well prove to be a watershed moment in the history of rock and roll. It has been a few years since Roy Loney has graced our city. A legend among connoisseurs of rock music (he started the Flaming Groovies back in '65), Roy brings true style to his performance, shaking and shuffling like he isn't a day over 12 years old. The Longshots are the only band in history that could do justice to Loney's heartbreaking ode to unrequited love, "Second Cousin," and Roy's oft-covered "Teenage Head," the song that launched a thousand garage bands. The rest of tonight's bill reads like a veritable who's who of local, loony rock mayhem. Sure to be a crowd-pleasing good time." - Nate Levin

2001-04-25

KCPQ Channel 13, Seattle, WA

Setlist

The Chris And Tad Show

Review:

finally had a chance to watch Chris and Tad doing their Q13 Morning Show stint this weekend. Almost everything they played for commercial outros was off their album, including Shelby Jenkins (Track 1) a couple of times. The only full song they did was PNW Blue, which included several little organ and guitar solos that are not in the track on the album. In fact, both my girlfriend and I noted that the live version was decidedly long for a Chris Ballew song (surprising). At any rate, they also took some interview questions, and the only real thing of note was they mentioned a couple of live performance dates, including May 18 at the Sunset Tavern (in Ballard), and May 8? in Olympia somewhere. Both guys were wearing these funky sailor/captain type hats, which they attributed to the fact that they had just purchased a new yacht (joking, I'm pretty sure).

I think someone mentioned they had a dual deck recorder or something-if they want to borrow the tape to make copies for interested parties, that's cool by me. Otherwise, I think I saw a little TV store up the road that makes tape copies for like $6 or something (don't quote me on the price). I'd be willing to do that for the cost and postage. Or if you have some other arrangement you'd like to make, just let me know...

Later, Peterson

2001-05-01

Sunset Tavern, Seattle, WA

Songwriters night with: John Ramberg Jen Wood Jacob London Robb Benson Chris Ballew and Tad Hutchison. This will be a broke down acoustic night of shamblings and ramblings and we have no idea what we are doing but we are not doing what we usually do so it should be a dumpling of fresh sounds.....

The Chris And Tad Show

2001-05-05

Tractor Tavern, Ballard, WA

Setlist

Giraffes with Sycophant.

2001-05-11

4th Ave. Tavern, Olympia, WA

Setlist

Opening for Chris and Tad is N0. 13 Baby featuring Jason Finn. The ad says it's an "All Pixies Tribute". $6 21 & over. Also The Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players.

2001-05-18

Sunset Tavern, Seattle, WA

Setlist

Trachtenberg Family Slideshow players Chris and Tad The Moonbabies. Word has it that The Moonbabies are from Sweden and have some sort of slide projector too. Chris and Tad will have to get one for this night as well and we can have PROJECTOR WARS!

Tachtenburgr Family Slideshow Players, Chris And Tad, The Moon-Babies

2001-06-08

Sunset Tavern, Ballard, WA

"(Max's birthday party!) We are not sure yet about other bands but Max is working on Huge Spacebird and its his birthday too!"

The Chris And Tad Show

2001-06-22

Sunset Tavern, Ballard, WA

(Home Alive benefit party) Chris and Tad The Model Rockets The Band That Made Milwaukee Famous Kurt Bloch will be DJ supreme tonight..

The Chris And Tad Show

Review:

Man, I hate when work takes me away from my PUSA-related reporting duties... At any rate, I went to the Chris and Tad show at the Sunset Tavern on Friday for my birthday shindig. They were actually having their one-year anniversary bash, and it's a pretty cool place. Lots of deep red painting/decorations, cool pictures, etc. Not nearly as divey as I expected, and I like divey bars. But still a neat place.

Opening bands were as I expected, and I was particularly happy with The Band That Made Milwaukee Famous. Just before Chris and Tad were to go on, I actually had one of the strangest meetings with Chris that I've heard of-we both walked into the bathroom together, and proceeded to have a brief conversation while sitting in two neighboring stalls. I won't bore anyone with the details. Heh...

At any rate, Chris and Tad went on, and played a pretty good sampling of songs from their album-I specifically remember "Jilted on the Tarmac," "Radio Control," "Sunshine Pig," "PNW Blu," and "Bread and Butter." There were a couple of songs that I think I recognized from the Giraffes live show (or maybe their albums), but I can't confirm that. This was my first time seeing Chris and Tad live, and they definitely are as close to PUSA (in energy level, at least) as any of Chris' side projects have been. There wasn't quite as much of Chris' side banter as some of the other live shows, but he and Tad were still clearly having a pretty good time up there.

That's about it...enjoy...

Peterson J,

2001-08-18

Shenanigans, Seattle WA

Setlist

Press:

THE CHRIS AND TAD SHOW, DOLOUR, TRACHTENBURG FAMILY SLIDESHOW PLAYERS (Local 46) Once again, the silly and great Chris and Tad Show performs with the silly and brilliant Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players for a night of all-ages shenanigans, and some really good pop. Dolour, a more straightforward local project, will ground this show with fine, visceral Brit-pop melody, and a trademark bright performance. And since tonight's show is all-ages, Rachel Trachtenburg, the opener's outstanding eight-year-old drummer, actually gets to hang out in the crowd. JEFF DeROCHE

The Chris and Tad Show, Dolour, Trachtenburg Family Slide Show Players (8 pm, all ages), $1/$5

2001-08-27

Knitting Factory, Los Angeles, CA

Setlist

The Chris And Tad Show - 9pm

2001-08-27

Spaceland, Los Angeles, CA

Free Show the same night as the Knitting Factory Gig.

The Chris And Tad Show - 12pm

2001-09-01

Reading Festival, Ridge Theatre, Vancouver, BC

Setlist

Reading Festival

The Chris And Tad Show

2001-09-07

Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ

The Chris And Tad Show

Setlist (or what Q recalls of it... in no particular order):

Shelby Jenkins / (new song... something about a monkey?) / Jilted On The Tarmac / I Got The Bloo / Jogger / Film Party / Stay With Me / Bread and Butter / PNW Bloo

Review:

Chris and Tad ROK the Right Coast!

On September 7th, 2001 Webmaster Q traveled from DC to Hoboken, NJ to meet up with "The Grape" (of the PUSA mailing list) and catch the Chris and Tad show... Q warned Chris that he and Grape would be attending. Upon arrival at maxwell's, Q and Grape walked through the door to find Chris and Tad seated in the restaurant part of maxwell's, waiting for their entrees. Chris spotted Q (maybe it was the glare from Q's head, but most likely the Subset T-shirt was a big help.) Chris was very gracious, thanking the guys for coming, and added Q and Grape's name to the guest list.

There were very few fans in attendance, but C+T still Rocked the house... These guys are as much fun to watch as they are to listen to. Throughout the show, Tad's "Children's Kit" was in some form of disarray, things falling over, falling apart, upside sideways etc. The ride cymbal would alternately be either up or practically on the floor, where Chris would just kick it when needed. they soon won over the crowd with the infectious pop songs and goofy stage antics. Chris would alternate between his vintage Silvertone guitar and his trusty "orgatron 1", a customized Korg keyboard. At one point he noted the fact that he was using a magazine rack for a keyboard stand, because they wouldn't let him bring the stand on the plane. (Trying hard not to make an aliyah joke here...) During PNW bloo, he managed to play both the guitar and the keyboard by poking at the keys with the headstock of his guitar, as seen in the photo.

Tad's kit was the epitome of the scaled-down drum kit, consisting of a 15" kick drum, a teeny snare and tom, an equally teeny floor tom, a pretty standard looking ride cymbal, and some completely trashed hi hats. During "I got the Bloo", he played the drums with a pair of plastic maracas that were tied together with string, which made for all sorts of antic opportunities. The maracas were entangled about and throughout most every drum on his kit. a extra special effect was brought about by placing the floor tom, upside down, on top of the rack tom, and playing the bottom of the floor tom with the maracas (lots of tangling amongst the legs of the floor tom.)

Probably the best part of the stage antics was during the finale/breakdown of PNW Bloo. Chris grabbed the Orgatron from the Magazine rack, jumped off the stage, put the keyboard on the floor, and proceeded to lie spread eagle, prone on the floor, all the while playing away...

After their set, Chris and Tad handed out copies of "Hand me That Door" to the fans at the bar, and Basically hung out in the bar for a half hour or so, chatting with friends and fans. Chris filled Q in on all the latest goings on in the Ballew musical world, which will be included in the next update. Grape snapped a shot of Chris and Q To add to the site, here it is....

Thanks to chrisballew.net

Another review:

Okay, things have settled down around here to allow me some time to describe the ROK that occured Monday, Sept. 10th.

I had a class that was supposed to run from 6:20 PM to 9:40 PM. Now, this was the first class of the course, so I decided that it might be a good idea NOT to skip it. I had heard that the Chris and Tad gig was starting at 7:00 PM. No problem, I figured, just go to class and leave early.

The first thing the teacher stressed was the importance of attendance.

So perhaps leaving early wasn't an option...

She eventually ended the class at about 8:35, after much anxiousness on my part. I ran the feck out, grabbed my borrowed video camera, and ran to the PATH station. Got to Hoboken, ran the mile to the venue. (There was quite a bit of running.) I got to the venue just slightly after 9:00.

On the street, through the window, I saw Chris and Tad both setting up.

I finally got to see them in person, after all my years of loyal fan-i- tude.

I ran in, and they were halfway through I Got the Blue. I frantically tried to turn my camera on, only to find that the charger I had received with it didn't work at all. So, no power. It didn't matter, I was there. I sat on a barstool 4 feet away from Orgatron.

Here's the setlist (at least the part of it that i saw)

I Got the Blue Bread and Butter Chippenrock (something about sending monkeys into space) Jilted on the Tarmac I Made up my Mind Jean Jacket (An improv song, I believe, made up about a member of the audience with a jean jacket) PNW (Pacific Northwest) Bloo

The performance was goofy and amazing. Tad busted out his plastic maracas to use in place of drum sticks, and Chris played keyboard with the head of his guitar. At one point, Tad announced that he was begining the deconstuction of his drum set, and so he took out a flute and mimed a fanfare while chris actually played it on Orgatron. Funny, funny stuff. He then loosened the screws on the drumset and continued to play, improvising with the falling pieces.

All in all, my first time seeing a Ballew-related band play was nothing short of awesome.

Afterwards, I got to meet the man himself. After my clumsy introduction, we talked for something between 10 and 15 minutes. He told me that he was currently working on music for a computer videogame, and also for a few movies, including a Disney movie and the Scooby Doo movie. He was nice, and opened up right away. It was like talking to an old friend. And old friend who had never met me, of course. I told him about the music video I made for Meanwhile Back in the City, and he took down the URL. It roked.

I then got to meet Tad. He was just as nice as Chris, and was equally eager to talk about his upcoming projects. He said he had recently finished his cartoon Shelby Jenkins, and offered to send me a digital copy of it. (YEAH!) His art was on display all around the restaurant, and it was very, very cool. He also said that Mix-a-Lot and the boys might possibly be getting back together again to release the SubSet CD. (Very VERY good news.) Also, the second Chris and Tad album is almost completely recorded, and they have to pick from 20 different new songs. (More VERY VERY good news.)

All in all, it was an incredible night.

Unfortunately, it was almost completely overshaddowed by the horror that occured the next morning. But, we're all slowly getting over it.

So, I think that's everything. Have any more questions about the show? Just ask 'em.

-Chris M.

2001-09-01

Ridge Theatre, Vancouver, BC

Setlist

Reading Festival

The Chris And Tad Show

2001-10-28

Seattle, WA

Fundraiser for the Independant Media Center. Costume party with "heroes and villians" theme...

Giraffes

2001-11-08

ASCAP Showcase, Sit-n-Spin, Seattle, WA

An ASCAP showcase....FREE SHOW

Giraffes

2001-11-08

The Showbox, Seattle, WA

The Stranger Christmas Party

Giraffes

2001-11-15

KCTS-TV, Seattle, WA

Chipanaut Rock (YouTube) / Bread And Butter (YouTube) / PNW Bloo (YouTube)

KCTS-TV (Channel 9 in Seattle)

The Chris And Tad Show

Hey all. Just got this note from Tad (of Chris and Tad)::: TV's Chris and Tad will be on KCTS-TV (Channel 9 in Seattle) Thursday night Nov. 15, 7:30 pm, on "KCTS Connects". C&T will play some of their most requested sides, including "PNW Blues", "Chimp-o-naut Rock", and "Bread and Butter". This TV appearance will no doubt convince their fans that they really are "TV's Chris and Tad". Also appearing: Quincy Jones (no fooling!). The show will also be replayed on Saturday around noon. NOT TO MISS!

Just wanted to post a quick review of Chris and Tad from the PBS show last night. As Ron mentioned, they played three songs interspersed throughout the show--"Chimp-o-naut Rock," "Bread and Butter," and "PNW Blu." They did outfit changes for each of the songs: for "Chimp-o-naut Rock" they were dressed in full Eskimo type coats with fur-lined hoods pulled over their heads (probably not a wise idea, because it looked like the studio was steamy, and both Chris and Tad were sweating profusely); for "B & B," they had sailor/captain hats on (similar to the ones they wore for the Q13 morning show videotape that some of you have); and for the finale "PNW Blu" they were wearing Adidas-type track outfits. I hadn't heard "Chimp-o-naut Rock" before, but the other songs were pretty similar to the versions off the CD, although I think Chris was experimenting a bit with the Organtron vs. the guitar in some sections of "B & B." Tad was doing his usual drums sections falling over and still playing, and even set up one of his drums upside down on top of another to finish off "PNW Blu." Unfortunatley, I don't think the effect is nearly as fun without a live audience... In a brief interview, they remarked about how they were doing tunes for Disney movies and Walter Cronkite (?!?!). Not too much else to note... That's about all from Seattle... Peterson

2001-11-30

The Breakroom , Seattle, WA

he Jason Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players record release party.....if you have not seen the Trachtenburg show you MUST!!!! (probably Chris solo or with a little drummer cause Jason will be in a tropical spot and Mike will be kissing his children)

The Giraffes

2001-12-20

Crocodile, Seattle, WA

The World of Dr. Illteams, Various Artists

The Chris And Tad Show

2001-12-21

Crocodile, Seattle, WA

A two night event put on by Kurt Bloch from the Fastbacks/Young Fresh Fellows....It is a holiday event with a 10 band CD going as party favor to the attendants. All the bands on the CD will have played the two nights.

The Chris And Tad Show