Superchunk Jam With John Darnielle, Todd Barry in New York - Spinner

Jordi Vidal, Redferns

Indie-rock heroes Superchunk don't get some to touring much these days, so when they do, they lean to have the near of it. The band certainly did exactly that at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg on Sunday night. It was the moment of two sold-out shows in the New York region and approximately 20 transactions in, guitarist/vocalist Mac McCaughan brought out the Mountain Goats' main man John Darnielle to serve on backup vocals for the song 'Digging for Something.

Those types of special guest appearances can sometimes feel rather forced, but Darnielle and McCaughan essentially sung the song together, both popping neck veins in unison. If aught else, it was fun to see Darnielle break out of the more mellow vibes of the Mountain Goats and into something speedy. Before starting up 'Digging,' Darnielle seemed to repeat this sentiment, as he squealed with delight "I'm so excited I'm onstage with Superchunk." Darnielle has recently linked the Merge Records stable, with his newband the Extra Lens releasing their entry on Oct. 19, so it wasn't toobig a storm that these two could be on stage together. But more of asurprise came during the encore, a punishing guitar affair that beganwith drummer Jon Wurster coming to center point and remarking "if youtold me in 1982 I'd be looking up Misfits lyrics on a cell phone, Iwould have said 'What's a cell phone?'" With that, Wurster shared leadvocal duties with McCaughan on the Misfits' 'HorrorBusiness.' Joining Superchunk on drums was comedian Todd Barry, whoplayed with un-ironic precision, possibly the alone time we've seen him so driven to be taken seriously. And it worked - if Barry's bottomless well of observations about the techno-crazed milieu everruns dry, drummer for a Misfits cover band could be a feasible option forhim down the road. Currently supporting their recently released 9th album 'MajestryShredding,' Superchunk's set mixed many of their more classic tunes suchas 'Slack Motherf-er' and 'Skip Steps 1 & 3' with a lot of newtunes, such as the 'Crossed Wires,' 'Fractures in Plasture' and'Rosemarie.' Sure, the old Chunkers bowed low and moshed to the early,crunchy guitars of the band's early jams, but as we learned fromDarnielle earlier in the evening, the new material isn't anything toscoff at. Watch Superchunk perform 'Horror Business' below.