Circa 1999
Blue Mountain
With Say ZuZu
- Date
- Circa 1999
- Dating
- Year is John's estimate; the night is unknown
- Venue
- Middle East Downstairs
- City
- Cambridge, MA
The night John discovered Say Zuzu. He later wrote it up on stateofthedesign.com: "I was at a Blue Mountain show at the Middle East in Boston and Say Zuzu was the opener. I was blown away." He went on to design for the band, and saw Say Zuzu again in 2022. No setlist database has this show and no ticket survives. Blue Mountain’s Tales of a Traveler came out in October 1999 and the tour reached the northeast that November and December, which fits — but the day is genuinely unknown, so it is not guessed here. John places it in 1999, with Say ZuZu opening.
The moment
Blue Mountain were the alt-country believers' band — Oxford, Mississippi's husband-and-wife trio whose Dog Days sat next to Trace and A.M. in every collection that cared — and John was a believer: this basement night was his third sighting, after two San Diego shows including their Son Volt support slot. The opener seals the New England chapter: Say ZuZu, Portsmouth's own alt-country outfit, whom John would see again at the Press Room twenty-odd years later. Genre loyalty, coast to coast.
From the time
- Blue Mountain
“Oxford, Mississippi's cult alt-country trio — beloved by exactly the people who were paying attention.”
The stub
No physical stub on file — this show was reconstructed from the
confirmation email. Drop a photo in public/stubs/ and add
"stubImage" to this show's record to attach one.