here it is (at least as much of it as we can remember), another year of rock karaoke for the abbaye’s anniversary. this year was a five and a half hour marathon with one ten minute break between two sets. we opened up with three of our songs, towards the end of the festivities ward and becker performed gbv’s “14 cheerleader coldfront”, and we ended the night with ward belting out “highway to hell”. other than those five songs everything else was sung by the party attendees who signed up to perform specific selections chosen from our list of 210 songs: including a very after-hours eight minute rendition of the who’s “a quick one (while he’s away)” which wasn’t even on the list but was performed perfectly by one late-night reveler without the aid of a lyric sheet. it was another great year and everyone who came up and sang did a fantastic job. below are the lists for both sets. as always the song titles performed for karaoke have the original band name after them in parenthesis.

humpty
afternoon is better
starting now
last caress (misfits)
dreaming (blondie)
psycho killer (talking heads)
here comes your man (pixies)
web in front (archers of loaf)
rocking in the free world (neil young)
academy fight song (mission of burma)
o valencia (decemberists)
game of pricks (guided by voices)
i am a scientist (guided by voices)
we gotta get outta this place (animals)
creep (radiohead)
my name is jonas (weezer)
anarchy in the uk (sex pistols)
queen bitch (david bowie)
drain you (nirvana)
twist and shout (beatles)
basket case (green day)
hyper enough (superchunk)
(what’s so funny about) peace, love and understanding (elvis costello)
can’t hardly wait (replacements)

gigantic (pixies)
all day and all of the night (kinks)
helter skelter (beatles)
left of the dial (replacements)
wrong (archers of loaf)
last caress (misfits)
just like heaven (cure)
sabotage (beastie boys)
i’m allowed (buffalo tom)
glad girls (guided by voices)
echos myron (guided by voices)
debaser (pixies)
(you gotta) fight for your right (to party!) (beastie boys)
14 cheerleader coldfront (guided by voices)
eight days a week (beatles)
motor away (guided by voices)
gouge away (pixies)
my name is jonas (weezer)
fake plastic trees (radiohead)
bikeage (descendants)
twist and shout (beatles)
surf wax america (weezer)
baba o’riley (who)
unfair (pavement)
father christmas (kinks)
should i stay or should i go (clash)
head on (pixies)
seed toss (superchunk)
fishing (superchunk)
academy fight song (mission of burma)
girlfriend in a coma (smiths)
have you ever seen the rain? (creedence clearwater revival)
basket case (green day)
listen to her heart (tom petty)
driveway to driveway (superchunk)
tractor rape chain (guided by voices)
a quick one (while he’s away) (who)
aneurysm (nirvana)
highway to hell (ac/dc)

a benefit for the kensington community food co-op with north lawrence midnight singers, gringo motel and kelly & the ruths.

humpty
good intentions
lifeboat
starting now
geometric mean
butterfly
afternoon is better
happiness is a warm gun (beatles)

a great time, the biggest crowd we’d played to at the time.

st. nick
good intentions
you never seem to mind
little builder
starting now
chelsea
afternoon is better
butterfly
finders
humpty
stock
psycho killer (talking heads)
weekend politics

gasoline heart opened and were awesome. since it was only two bands we came prepared with a 13 song set list which we expanded by taking a bunch of requests at the end.

aneurysm (nirvana) (only the first minute)
butterfly
geometric mean
humpty
afternoon is better
finders
everything pales
stock
slow down
starting now
shattered leaves
lemonade
gouge away (pixies)
(an evening in) pamplona
the evil powers of rock and roll (supersuckers)
unfair (pavement)
detroit has a skyline (superchunk)
aneurysm (nirvana)