Superchunk is back in town for a pair of sold-out shows (photo by Christian Lantry)
Saturday, September 18, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St., $22, 9:00
Sunday, September 19, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North Sixth St., $22, 9:00
www.myspace.com/superchunkmusic
We don’t know what we were thinking when we opted not to check out Superchunk’s free concert this past July at the South Street Seaport, but we were majorly bummed when we heard afterward that they put on a great show, bouncing around onstage like a bunch of kids and blowing the crowd away. Well, we’re happy to say that the Chapel Hill band is back for two area gigs this weekend, and although they’re not free, it’s hard to pass up another chance to see one of the most legendary alternative bands still out on the road. (The shows are sold out, but maybe you can search online or beg friends with tickets to let you go with them.) Singer-guitarist Mac McCaughan, bassist Laura Ballance, guitarist Jim Wilbur, and drummer Jon Wurster are touring behind MAJESTY SHREDDING, their first new LP since 2001’s HERE’S TO SHUTTING UP. While the quartet breaks no new ground on the album, which came out Tuesday on Merge Records, the label cofounded by McCaughan and Ballance back in 1989, it’s great to hear McCaughan’s lilting vocals and Wilbur’s alternately searing and crunching guitar sounds pounding out such fresh-sounding new tunes as “Digging for Something,” “My Gap Feels Weird,” and “Crossed Wires.” Superchunk, who has been featuring such older songs as “Art Class (Song for Yayoi Kusama),” “Driveway to Driveway,” “Slack Motherfucker,” and “Hyper Enough” at recent shows, will be at the Bowery Ballroom on Saturday night with Let’s Wrestle and at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Sunday night with Wild Nothing and Todd Barry.