Frank Black - live notes. 1996/1997

WORKIN' HARD
1996 was a few busy year for Frank and his band, spending most of it touring the world in support of The Cult Of Ray.

HARDLY WORKIN'
1997 was quite the opposite, with only a handful of live appearances. In January, Frank was asked to perform at David Bowie's 50th Birthday Party at Madison Square Garden. He joined Bowie for two songs: "Fashion" and "Scary Monsters". Later that month, Tom Petty asked Frank to open for him at a few shows during his sold-out 20 show stint at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

BIRTH OF CATHOLICISM
Then in March, Frank and his newly christened band, the Catholics, played a show at Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana. A week later they headed into the studio and recorded a demo for the next album. They were so pleased with how it came out that they decided to put out the recording as the album. However, record label issues delayed the release of Frank Black & The Catholics for several months. Some tracks leaked out here and there (one cut, "Dog Gone", was played on John Peel's UK radio show in July of '97) but the CD didn't finally come out until April '98 in the UK, with the US release following a few months later.

{songs performed 1996/1997}
(Instead of trying to get setlists for every show, I just took a bunch of setlists from each year/era, and divided the songs up by how often they were played)

regular rotation
(probably played at the majority of Frank's 1996/1997 shows)
(I Want To Live On An) Abstract Plain
Big Red
Brackish Boy
Calistan
Dance War
Freedom Rock
Headache
I Don't Want to Hurt You (Every Single Time)
Jesus Was Right
Jumping Bean
Kicked In The Taco
The Last Stand of Shazeb Andleeb
Los Angeles
The Marsist
Men In Black
Pray a Little Faster
Superabound
Ten Percenter
Thalassocracy
Two Reelers
Whatever Happened to Pong?
White Noise Maker
You Ain't Me

occasional rotation
(played once in a while / somewhat often in 1996/1997)
Adda Lee
Announcement
At The End of The World
Bad, Wicked World
The Creature Crawling
Czar
Don't Ya Rile 'Em
Handyman
Modern Age
Sir Rockaby
Skeleton Man
The Vanishing Spies
Village of the Sun
You Never Heard About Me

rare occasions
(played very rarely; probably not more than a few times in 1996/1997)
(Some known performance dates are in {brackets})
Close Your Eyes [working title of 'I Need Peace'] {January 22, 1996 Peel}
The Cult of Ray {September 21, 1996}
Everybody Got The Beat [partial] {September 21, 1996}
Everyone Is Wrong {January 22, 1996 Peel}
Everytime I Go Around Here {September 21, 1996}
Fazer Eyes {April 22, 1996}
I Could Stay Here Forever {September 21, 1996}
I Heard Ramona Sing {September 21, 1996}
Man Of Steel {January 22, 1996 Peel}
Mosh, Don't Pass the Guy {February 9, 1996}
Oddball {September 21, 1996}
Old Black Dawning {September 21, 1996}
Punk Rock City {September 21, 1996}
Pure Denizen of the Citizen's Band {September 21, 1996}
Sister Isabelle {September 21, 1996}
Six-Sixty-Six {September 21, 1996}
Space is Gonna Do Me Good {April 27, 1996}
This Is Where I Belong {July 18, 1996 Radcliffe}
Wave of Mutilation {September 21, 1996}

Guest Appearances
(Frank sitting in with other artists on stage.)
Fashion {Frank guesting with David Bowie, January 6, 1997}
Oddball {Frank guesting with They Might Be Giants, September 19, 1996}
Particle Man {Frank guesting with They Might Be Giants, September 19, 1996}
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) {Frank guesting with David Bowie, January 6, 1997}
Spy {Frank guesting with They Might Be Giants, September 19, 1996}

Frank Black Gigography