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A friend of mine actually gave me a copy of Scars on blue vinyl a couple years ago because he had two! When I first started messing around on ebay I picked up as many of their 7" releases as I could, which turned me on to Unwound. Yes I was clueless, but what a treat being turned onto a band that already had a half-dozen amazing releases!

My SPBT fanboy story...In 2001 the band reappeared on a self-made fan website and started sharing stories about the how things went down and just chatting with people. A "share your music here" type thread popped up and I posted the herky jerky electronic music I was doing at the time. Mike said that he liked it and that I should send him some stuff. I did and he sent me a package back. It had a copy of Scars From Falling Down, which (I thought) I already had so I gave it to my buddy who I had gotten into SPBT. Turns out it was a Japanese version with 2 extra songs ( I Want it Now and a cover of Surrender)! Thankfully I had those songs on 7". I know it's dorky, but this is a treasured memory.

After you guys posted about seeing them last year I watched some crowd-shot videos from some of those shows. I was blown away that they have added Gut Feeling to their cover song repertoire! Beyond stoked for these shows in February. Hard to say if the show will one of a few stops or a single pair of shows since both bands seem to be following the "this is our vacation not our job" tour plan.

The shows were, as expected, fantastic. They co-headlined, so each band played close to 90 minutes both nights. The only song I remember being repeated was Egg by Donut, otherwise both bands had completely unique sets each night. I had never gotten a chance to see Alice donut, so it was a treat. Sissi is an excellent musician, so the only noticeable difference between her and the original bassist are the vocals and backup vocals. All 3 active guitarists played, though Richard only played drums during the trombone song (Waiting Room cover) the first night. Tomas doesn't really push his voice into "fry" range, but the songs don't suffer because of it. They all clearly love playing together and it shows. 10/10

SPBT were great as well. I remember Dorothy saying sometime in the last few years (probably in a Conan interview) that there were some old songs she didn't think she could pull anymore due to not playing much after they disbanded, but she was badass. Always been one of my favorite drummers and will continue to be. Noah is a great addition and really helps the sample-heavy songs sound more like the albums. First night they played Tulip and the "hits". Second night was a ton of covers (7 if I remember right) and some great older stuff (Lime Away, Christina, Slip among others). Halfway through the set a young all girl local punk band called WIFE band came out and played a cover of Bozeman with Borstal as a break down between verses. Mike's daughter was on stage playing keyboard and maracas for probably close to a third of the second night. As a dad, shit like that makes me unreasonable happy. 10/10

Both bands were better than they had any right to be, and the few shambolic moments where things fell apart for a moment or two were good fun to see.