THE DAMAGE IS DONE

The Features
“Bring On The Night”
Live @ The Boro
January 11th, 2003

Man, listening to this brings back a lot of memories from the Boro. The bar and grill, conveniently located literally across the street from MTSU’s campus, was home to many epic Features shows. It would get crowded and hot really easily, but that overpacked cramped atmosphere was where the Features of this era thrived. Pure raw energy, captured here in this muffled and raucous recording of one of the band’s lost gems.

I haven’t been inside the Boro in six years probably, but my oh my are those memories still clear in my head.

OTHER VERSIONS

The Features
“Oh My Love”
Live @ The Boro
January 11th, 2003

This is just great, right? It’s great. I love this song. Also the mix on this seems to be heavy on keys, so get a load of that!

A VERSION APPEARS ON:
Buffalo Head, 7” single release (2002)
Blow It Out, single release (2005)

OTHER VERSIONS 

The Features
“Armani Suede”
Live @ The Boro
May 2nd, 2002

A VERSION APPEARS ON:
The Features, EP release (1997)

OTHER VERSIONS 

The Features
“Kari-Ann”
Live @ The Boro
May 2nd, 2002 

I talk about the May 2nd, 2002 show a lot on this blog, and that’s partly because I consider it to be one of the best shows they’ve ever done, but also because the band did something like 30 songs at that show (I am at work and do not have my database handy; yes, I WORK). That means that when all’s said and done, this one concert is gonna be responsible for a ton of the tracks on this site.

Also a note on how I’m deciding what to post everyday. I’ve tried to get it down to a science, one that is objective and not based only on OMGMYFAVESONGSOHMAN. In my database I have a list of every Features song in my collection. Next to the song is the total number of versions I have followed by the number of versions have been posted to this site. From that I get a measurement of the percentage of song versions every song has posted on the site. I sort it with the lowest percentages first and post a version from that lowest-ranked song every day. That way I won’t burn through all of the versions of “Harder To Ignore” (of which I have 4) when I still have plenty of “Kari-Anns” to publish (19 total). To keep things from getting stale (AND APOLOGIES IF THEY ARE!) I try to only post a song once every 30 days (this rule gets tossed in event weeks like Acoustic Week). 

Like I said previously, there are still around 20 or 30 songs that have still not been posted to this site, including one big’un that I have 14 versions of and have post nary a one to the site. Can you guess which one that is? Mysteries!

A VERSION APPEARS ON:
Exhibit A, UK album release (2005)

OTHER VERSIONS

The Features
“Two By Two”
Live @ The Boro
May 2nd, 2002

A VERSION APPEARS ON:
The Beginning, EP release (2001)
The Beginning, Fierce Panda EP release (2003)
The Beginning, Universal EP release (2004)
Leave It All Behind, single release (2005)

OTHER VERSIONS 

The Features
“Some Way Some How”
Live @ The Boro
May 2nd, 2002

Here’s the second time “Some Way Some How” was ever played, and it shows. Okay, that sounds harsh. Not in a bad way! As in, Matt Pelham actually calls the song a “work in progress.” It takes a little while for them to get the song going, but once they do you hear almost fully formed greatness. Such a powerhouse of a song. Also note the guitar solo that would later get removed.

A VERSION APPEARS ON
The Way It’s Meant To Be, Fierce Panda single release (2004)
Exhibit A, album release (2004)

OTHER VERSIONS

The Features
“Stagecoach”
Live @ The Boro
May 2nd, 2002

If you haven’t yet fallen in love with “Stagecoach,” please spend all of June doing so. It’ll be a great relationship, trust me. I’ve been in love with this song since I first got this very demo nine years ago and it has never let me down. So sincere and quiet, yet so rollicking and freewheeling. The best.

Also a note about the May 2nd, 2002 show, and that particular period in the band’s history: they played 27 songs that night. Twenty. Seven. Have you ever heard of an unsigned band doing that before? Playing nearly thirty original songs to a crowd that not only knows every word to every unreleased song, but not only tolerates but celebrates spending two hours in a sweat soaked dive like the Boro? And the songs in rotation then! Present were the newer Buffalo Head era of songs mixed in with the Mahaffey Sessions and The Beginning era of songs, with a cover of Wings’ “Jet” and old favorite “Paid To Think” to boot.

Truly epic.

OTHER VERSIONS

The Features
“Buffalo Head”
Live @ The Boro
May 2nd, 2002

Here it is, what I consider the definitive version of “Buffalo Head” from one of the band’s tightest shows. Guys, I wore my CD-R of the 5-2-02 show out when I was in college.

Also if you listen closely at the beginning, you can hear an audience member tell a joke. “What do you call two black guys riding motorcycles in Los Angeles? Chocolate CHiPs.” Now, the Damage Is Done does not support mildly-offensive-but-still-racially-themed jokes, but I have to point out that my friends and I for the longest time could not figure out why someone was saying “chocolate chips” right before seeing an awesome rock concert. Now we just wonder why someone was telling a bad joke before seeing an awesome rock concert.

A VERSION APPEARS ON:
Buffalo Head, 7” single release (2002)
The Way It’s Meant To Be, single release (2004)

OTHER VERSIONS

The Features
“Serious”
Live @ The Boro
January 29th, 2000

I gotta say, I’m still fascinated by this bootleg. I guess I had never listened to it, or really paid attention to it, before yesterday. So here’s a version of “Serious” from early 2000, not too long after I assume Rollum joined and not too long before a definitive version of this was recorded for the Mahaffey Sessions. This song raises another Features query: when does Matt Pelham decide to graft old lyrics onto new songs? Just seven months prior to this, elements of what would become the lyrics of “Serious” were present in the super obscure “Down You Go.”

OTHER VERSIONS

A VERSION APPEARS ON:
Blow It Out, UK single release (2005)

The Features
“Paid To Think”
Live @ The Boro
January 29th, 2000

This show at the Boro provides an interesting snapshot of the band at the turn of the century. The setlist reads like a tracklisting of the Mahaffey Sessions, with “Circus” and “Thursday” tossed in as well (if there are Mahaffey versions of EITHER of those songs, email damageisdonetumblr[at]gmail[dot]com and hook a brother up!). It’s interesting to note that the versions of “Serious,” “Dark Room,” “See You Through” and “Oh My Love” from this show are raw and lacking definite lyrics. The band was creating a lot of new material all at once, and man, what a batch of songs.

That being said, this version of “Paid To Think” shows the band playing an old favorite with rock steady confidence. Also it’s weird to think of a time when “Paid To Think” was the guaranteed, old-favorite crowd pleaser and a song like “Dark Room” (which would later be one of the songs to fill the void of “Paid To Think”) was unknown. The audience even sings along in this recording, which for 2000 blows me away. Were the MP3s of the Dortch Sessions traded online back then? Or was “Paid To Think” just that popular that people knew it just from being played all the time?

2000, what a crazy year. Am I right?!

OTHER VERSIONS