Steal Smoked Fish

Lyrics

Across* the Burnside bridge before
Anyone shot their movies there
We hid from the whipping rain
When we had run out of cocaine
Dispatch down to Plaid Pantry
Two on point, and two on sentry
Ah, the joys that the lesser days bring
Make you throw back your heads and sing

God bless all petty thieves
With tins of oysters up their sleeves
Feast when you can
And dream when there's nothing to feast on

Across a different bridge today
Over the river and down Broadway
Feels so good to have you here
Some of you will be dead next year
I see your destinies above you
Like angels who don't love you
Let them kiss you and hold you tight
As long as the money's right

God bless all my old friends
And god bless me too, why pretend?
Feast when you can
And dream when there's nothing to feast on

God bless the guys from my old neighborhood
Gone past the point where any blessings can do them any good

Attach** the C-4 where you must
Disappear in a cloud of dust
But spare a thought for what it covers up
Pour a triple and raise your cup
We were here once, me and my friends
But we destroyed all of the evidence
And vanished into the night
At least we got that one right

God bless us, all of us
We who learn to shun the light
God bless all vampires every night
Feast when you can
Feast when you can
Feast when you can
Feast when you can

Banter

• This song is for a bunch of people, most of them ghosts. (2014-06-14)
• JD: This is a song about -
  Audience: Peter!
  JD: Nah, I don't write songs about Peter, that would be weird. I always feel funny saying this, because we all have our own paths through the demons that haunt us, and they're not all the same path, but, there was a time in my life when the outlook was jails, institutions, or death. And that's what happened to a bunch of my friends, and several of them are in this song. (2015-04-02 - Mercy Lounge, Nashville)
• This next song is a song I play on both guitar and piano, so I'm trying to decide what I wanna do. It feels a little different, textually, on whichever instrument, so I gotta decide. Piano. [woo!] The lovers of piano know they must speak first. [unintelligible joke] This song is a melancholy song about a bunch of friends of mine, the ones I don't know for sure are dead, or what became of them. (2015-04-04 - The Jinx, Savannah)
• I would not have picked this to be the song that a fight would have broken out during in Savannah, Georgia, but that's... I'm only telling you that becuase you're my neighbors, I don't want you going woo and going, ah, I better pick a fight during that one to keep the tradition. Not all traditions are good. I'm hoping that's a one off tradition. It was the weirdest thing because this is a slow piano ballad about, you know, people who are gone, who I loved, and uh, lost track of. And, you know, getting into my zone there, and I remember Quinn, I remember Irene, no one knows what happened to Irene, and I open my eyes and there's a guy takin' a fist to the jaw. Well. That's what happened in Savannah. (2015-04-07 - Cat's Cradle, Carrboro)
• I haven't played this song at position 1 [guitar] this tour, I didn't really check to see if I know it at position 1, so I'm going to do a little of this irritating sort of noodling, and you can pretend that it's soloing. [chords] That's right, that's right, that's right, and when I come to the bridge, what will I do? [F#m chord] That's an F#. Minor. And then a G. It's a Mountain Goats song. It's not actually that complicated. Cool. [audience: uncomplicated! woo!] Uncomplicated is good. Most of the best rock music is uncomplicated. Except for Allan Holdsworth who is a prog guy I'm totally into. [audience: but the feelings are complicated!] That's exactly the point. This song kind of exemplifies that concept. Exactly. (2015-04-11 - City Winery, New York City)
• Alright, there's an audible in the setlist here, where I have one that I didn't play last night in the solo section, and then one that I did, but I really enjoyed. So I have to decide now. [audience: play both!] No, I'm only going to play one of them. Because it's an audible. It says this or that, and I'm Roman Catholic. So I'm not going to go off of the script, and make my own decision. Because then I will feel ashamed. And the shame will be delicious, and I will carry it with me wherever I go, but at the same time, I don't know if I'm prepared to carry that shame just yet. Because if I delay it, then it'll be even more delicious later. That's just what it's like with us Catholics. I wanna play the one I played last night, 'cause I'm feeling a connection to this song right now. It's about a bunch of friends of mine who are gone, Ivory and Devin, Devin's around, but Emil is not. (2015-04-12 - City Winery, New York City)
• I feel like a hard one which is why I wanna share this song with you. This song is about drug addicts. [woo!] I know there'll come a day in the future and they'll be like, Imma go listen to that show by that guy I saw that one time, when I was the kinda person cheering when I heard the words "drug addict". I heard that and went, 'I know this song is for me.' This song is for you. (2015-04-16 - Bogart's, Cincinnati)

Live Performances

• 2015-04-02 - Mercy Lounge, Nashville (JD solo - recording)
• 2015-04-04 - The Jinx, Savannah (recording - JD solo, interrupted by a fight, and pointedly resumed at "some of you will be dead next year")
• 2015-04-07 - Cat's Cradle, Carrboro (JD solo - recording)
• 2015-04-11 - City Winery, New York City (recording - JD solo)
• 2015-04-12 - City Winery, New York City (JD solo)
• 2015-04-14 - House of Blues, Boston (JD solo)
• 2015-04-16 - Bogart's, Cincinnati (JD solo - recording)
• 2015-05-26 - Gothic Theatre, Denver (JD solo)
• 2015-05-27 - Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City (JD solo - recording)
• 2015-05-29 KEXP (JD solo - recording)
• 2015-06-02 - Great American Music Hall, San Francisco (JD solo - recording)
• 2023-10-06 August Hall (JD and Matt duo)
• 2023-10-10 The Knitting Factory (JD and Matt duo)

Footnotes

• * "beneath" instead of "across", in every live performance (except one? 2014-06-18?)
• ** "deploy" instead of "attach" (2015-04-02, 2015-04-07, 2015-04-11, 2015-04-12, 2015-04-16, 2015-05-29, 2015-06-02, 2023-10-06)