Versus are playing some shows! They played a surprise show in Brooklyn and are also opening for Yo La Tengo in a few weeks in New York. (I saw them open for YLT once around 2000 and they made a great pair.)

This is one of my all-time favorite bands and I haven’t seen them play in a really long time. On the other hand, I saw them at least 5 or 6 times so I don’t feel any super urgency. They played at a Teenbeat anniversary show a couple years ago and I had too much going on to make it. I’m always ambivalent about reunions, although I got a ticket to see the reunited Dinosaur Jr. in a couple weeks. There was also news today, via pitchfork, that My Bloody F’in’ Valentine are playing some shows in the UK and putting out a new record. Not sure how I feel about that. Part of me wants to go (and I just got an email with flights to London for less than $200 each way!) and part of me is disappointed. Sometimes I am not sure bands should ever get back together. I don’t know what the MBV reunion will consist of but it’s hard to imagine they will get back together and accomplish anything new that they didn’t achieve definitively 15-20 years ago. Hmm.

Versus, though, seem to just be friends (and partly family) who can get back together from time to time just for fun. I would still like to see them again… In the meantime Brad from Bradley’s Almanac has linked to a bunch of youtube videos of the Versus show (they played “We Got the Missiles” !?) and they make me happy even though they are not of the awesomest quality. Too bad Fontaine is so hidden in shadows, I’m still totally crushing on her after all these years…

Here’s a ripping (as always) version of “Morning Glory,” though Richard doesn’t remember the words (he must not have been studying the obsessive website I once made of his lyrics):

I remember seeing them play this song years and years ago and headbanging guys in the audience totally rocking out in thrilled anticipation of the stuttering drumbeat during the verses. Versus fans are a weird lot.