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The 40 greatest concerts in Boston history: 14

Lou Barlow + Elliott Smith | Green Street Grill | October 4, 1998
By PHOENIX STAFF  |  October 25, 2006

elliotT_2

elliott_smith
Elliott Smith in the late 90s
Mondays were the nights to hang at Green Street. The music was always good, the food cheap, and half the Boston music scene would be in attendance. So it was no surprise when Lou Barlow picked Green Street as the place to offer a formal goodbye to all his friends and fans in town. And, as sad as it was to loose the Sebadoh frontman — to LA, of all places — Barlow did it right. He didn’t slink out of town like so many have. He brought pieces of his stereo, a whole box of singles, and all kinds of other yard-sale stuff with him to give away to the crowd as he performed his farewell set. There were others who played, but by far the most famous guest performer was Elliott Smith, who’d taken a train up from Brooklyn and apparently gotten quite loaded on the way. Elliott had played some great sets in Boston, which was for a while sort of a second home to him; this didn’t match up to any of those by a long shot. He forgot lyrics. He apologized for playing badly. He had trouble tuning his guitar. But he was among friends. And the whole feel of the night was that here in Boston (well, Cambridge, actually) you could be among friends even if you didn’t know every single person by name.
40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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  Topics: Live Reviews , Lou Barlow, Mission of Burma, Elliott Smith,  More more >
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Comments
The 40 greatest concerts in Boston history: 14
The Elliot Smith story has me transfixed lately. One afternoon about four years ago I was sitting in Bukowski's near the Pru when the bartender put on Figure 8. I love going to this bar for any number of reasons, but one of them is I might learn something. There is something about this guy that intrigues me. Naturally I marched home and put about five of his CDs in my Amazon bucket and started listening to him in earnest soon thereafter. I have never seen him, but I just bought his paperback autobiography to hopefully get some facts. Anyway, I bought a bunch of Sebadoh records over the years, but to me Barlow is more myth than legend. I don't mean to offend anyone here because clearly he has great ability, but I struggle with artists who endlessly release stuff that only the diehards will ever take the time to digest. And this from a huge Guided By Voices fan. Go Figure (8).
By John Farrell on 10/26/2006 at 9:40:27

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