Del Amitri, Gin Blossoms

Irving Plaza, New York, NY......

Although Gin Blossoms would go on to having four top 40 hits in the U.S. including one top 10 placement while Del Amitri would only have three top 40 hits (including one in the top 10), when this concert took place Del Amitri was the bigger band and thus the Scottish group was the headliner.

Del Amitri released their brilliant debut album in 1985 but it came and went with little notice in the U.S. outside of some college radio stations (including my WICB, at Ithaca College). I loved that release but when no follow-up album came out for years, I figured sadly that they were a one-and-done band. But then, they had a new album in 1989 on a new record label and lo and behold--the band scored their first top 40 hit in "Kiss This Thing Goodbye." It took the label two tries to make it a hit, releasing the song as the album's first single without success but then re-releasing it in the summer of 1990 and taking it to the lower depths of the top 40 (peaking at #35). By then, I had a job working in the mailroom of A&M Records (Del Amitri's label) and I was happy to be contributing to the success of a band I had championed, even if it might have only been adding meter stamps to packages being sent to music writers and radio stations promoting the band. 

By the time of this concert, Del Amitri had another single zooming up the pop chart, "Always the Last to Know," from their third album, Change Everything. The song was then already a top 40 hit at #33 after eight weeks on the Billboard pop chart and would peak at #30 two weeks later. 

So the band was a hot commodity at this concert. It was the first time I saw them, and they did not disappoint.  

 Tempe, Arizona's Gin Blossoms had just released their second album New Miserable Experience, which would be their breakthrough release. It would spawn two top 40 hits but it was a slow-burner. The hits wouldn't happen until late 1993/early 1994.

We played the album heavily at WHTG, even before it was released via the Up and Crumbling EP which came out in October 1991 and including "Mrs. Rita" and "Allison Road." I was a confirmed fan, and this show was the first time I saw them as well.

 

the original cover for New Miserable Experience