Currently going through a major reappraisal in the house of Plain Or Pan? at the moment is Elliott Smith. I’ve been playing all my outtakes stuff and gone a-diggin’ in the deepest corners of the fabulous internet. Not surprisingly, my wee treasure hunt has turned up some good stuff, not least the following concert….
Some of you may be familiar with the Black Sessions. Effectively the French equivalent of a John Peel session they go out live over the radio. Usually there’s also 2500 promo CDs pressed up and distributed to the lucky few. The Teenage Fanclub one recently went for funny money on eBay (get it here). Perhaps not surprisingly I’ve never seen the Elliot Smith one, but I now have the next best thing – a badly edited mp3 version of the concert.
Elliott gets ready to rock out
Recorded at la Maison de Radio France on November 6th 1998, it was eventually broadcast on the 30th December at the end of the same year. It’s an ‘XO’-heavy show, complete with backing from the band Quasi and it’s rockingly good. Not quite AC/DC rocking, but for Elliott it’s pretty full-on. The set was…
Speed trials
Bled white
XO (Waltz #2)
Bottle up & Explode
Sweet Adeline
Baby Britain
Happiness
Division Day
I didn’t Understand
Between the Bars
Say Yes.
No individual tracks, the whole show is here as a .rar file.
Bonus track: Here‘s a nice wee alternate version of Bled White from the ‘XO’ album, complete with false start.
Plain Or Pan 
Can’t wait to listen to this. Actually, guess I COULD wait, because I downloaded this morning but haven’t listened yet. But when I do, I know it will be great.
Ace K.
P.S. That vocals only “Gimme Shelter” is a world shaker.