Setlist (10/18/2009 at Northern Lights in Clifton Park, NY):

1. Growing Old Is Getting Old
2. Well Thought Out Twinkles
3. Sort Of
4. There’s No Secrets This Year
5. The Royal We
6. Little Lover’s So Polite
7. It’s Nice to Know You Work Alone
8. Future Foe Scenarios
9. Kissing Families + (There’s No Way of Knowing…Which Direction We’re Going)
10. Catch and Release
11. Booksmart Devil (first 1:00 or so)
12. Panic Switch
13. Lazy Eye
Encore
14. Substitution
15. Creation Lake
16. Common Reactor

The last time I saw the Pickups (8/22/2009 at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Hillsboro, OR), the setlist was nearly identical. They did not play Substitution (or Booksmart Devil), so there were only two songs during the Encore. The Hillsboro show was a benefit concert (Pet Aid 2009) in support of local animal hospitals, and was played on an outdoor stage at the Fairgrounds. Cage the Elephant opened for SSPU at both shows, but the Hillsboro show also featured Manchester Orchestra instead of An Horse.

First of all, An Horse. I didn’t really pay much attention to them, but what I heard seemed formulaic and repetitive. I can imagine the studio recordings would be a bit more polished and perhaps more layered with cutesy sound effects, but their live performance left some to be desired. I preferred Manchester Orchestra as the supporting act.

Cage the Elephant was a bit more eccentric than last time, which is saying quite a lot considering they were already completely crazy the last time I saw them.