Wino Wednesday: Saint Vitus, “Blessed Night,” Live in France, Oct. 2014
The Saint Vitus 35th anniversary European tour with Orange Goblin — who started out as “special guests” and now seem to be co-headlining — is only a couple days away from passing a full month. While on the road celebrating one of doom’s widest legacies, Vitus are performing 1986’s classic Born too Late in its entirety, unquestionably their most influential record fronted by Scott “Wino” Weinrich. They did the same on the US West Coast earlier this year and I’m hoping they’ll bring the show east maybe in the New Year, but either way, anything Vitus does, someone’s at least gonna shoot it on their phone, so yeah, there’s plenty of footage out there if you know what you’re looking for.
I’ve yet to find a clip of a whole set, but I’ve seen a couple setlists where they haven’t broken up Born too Late to spread it throughout, which is what they did in the US, but instead are simply playing it backwards, so that they start with “The War Starter” and end with the anthem “Born too Late” itself. Fair enough. If you’re going to play that song, you want to play it last; it’s been their closer for years and makes an excellent encore. They haven’t forgotten their latest work, either, though. “Blessed Night,” which you can find below recorded from the first night of the tour, comes from 2012’s Lillie: F-65 and was the first song Vitus wrote after getting back together, solidifying its relatively speedy progression while on the road performing their classic material.
Though word came out a while ago they were writing, I have yet to hear any kind of official notice of a follow-up to Lillie: F-65, and they don’t seem to be playing anything new on this tour — clearly that’s not the focus of the 35th anniversary run — so “Blessed Nights” is about as recent as it gets. Hope you enjoy and have a great Wino Wednesday:
