2014-06-14 Bottom of the Hill (San Francisco)
Setlist
Recording
Banter
- This is a song about how, when things are going very badly for you, like really badly for you in your personal life, not in your relationships – I mean that's part of it – but it's all rolled into one, right, because things are bad in your head, and in your heart, and in your body, and everywhere. Like bad, terrible. And you reach this point of stasis with it, and then it begins to feel like progress. It's not like you're getting better, but you're getting better at not being well, right? [Audience laughs.] But I mean, it's funny now, right? At the time, it's maybe less funny. At the time, it feels more like demon possession. But it feels like the moment of demon possession where you go, 'Man, if I'm gonna be possessed by a demon, then fuck it. Let's just demonically possess this world. Let's just do the things we demon-possessed people do. If people can't handle my possessed self, that's between them and whatever god they worship, but as for me, in my house, we shall worship the devil.' That's what you say, right? [Audience cheers.] But this is the thing I'm always trying to point out. We say 'woo!' about that, but the devil I'm talking about is not the devil you actually like, it's not the devil of whiskey and smokes or whatever. It's the devil who stands between you and the things you hoped to become. The devil who stands between you and your better self. The one with whom you form an allegiance at some point in your life, because you can't escape him any other way. And then later, you recall this time with great trembling. And this is called 'In Memory of Satan.' In Memory of Satan
- This song is for a bunch of people, most of them ghosts. (Steal Smoked Fish)