Elliott Smith: New Years Eve 1999 (Knitting Factory)

Kevin Moyer Twitter: @KevinMoyer

When I was working on the documentary "Elliott Smith: Heaven Adores You", many friends and fans were gracious enough to share their keepsakes with us - memories, videos, pictures and etc.

Sometime in the middle of production, Elizabeth Racz sent me a giant box full of Elliott Smith related stuff that she had collected over the years. In that box was so many things - magazine covers, interviews, posters, etc - and a number of VHS tapes, most marked with glitter and bubble stickers on the spine.

On one of those VHS tapes was the full performance that Elliott did on New Years Eve 1999 in NYC at The Knitting Factory. The show was filmed by a friend of hers who had accompanied her and another friend to the show that night, and with her blessing I am uploading the full previously unreleased performance here. I have seen a few clips from this same tape source online, but never the whole show.

I think its a nice snapshot of him at the time, and a fun gig to enjoy too, complete with the NYE countdown and champagne toast and all of the on stage banter that goes with it, as well as a George Harrison cover to start the New Year and later an impromptu performance of "Bye" on piano too.

Friend and former publicist Dorien Garry, who was there that night with him, talked to us about this for the film, and offered this quote to be shared here, in her own words :

"In typical Elliott fashion he was a little bewildered by being the focus of the night on such a historical NYE. "Is that what people really want to do on New Years Eve?" He felt like he really needed to up the ante and give people some moneys worth. So that meant he borrowed a bunch of bizarre red clothes, a fuzzy bath robe and red knit red hat, as a costume of sort, to jazz it up. He was especially nervous about leading a countdown to midnight, and the Knitting Factory had put a bunch of bottles of Champagne in the dressing room for him to pop and share. Since none of us were exactly seasoned Champagne drinkers he fretted for a minute that he wouldn't get the bottles opened in time. i offered to start trying to open them a few minutes before midnight and starting taking the foils and twists off the tops. This led to the bottles slowly, and steadily starting to loudly pop open from the dressing room which was a mere 5 feet away from the stage. So as Elliott played a quiet song a few minutes before midnight, a disruptive popping sound starting keeping an uneven tempo and adding to what was a pretty comical night, which was being heavily marketed as the end of the world. It was one of my favorite nights with Eliiott, he pulled it all off amazingly, and the night was a long fun adventure..."

Elliott Smith
LIVE 12/31/1999
The Knitting Factory @ New York

SETLIST

- Happiness
- Son of Sam
- Easy Way Out
- Clementine
- LA
- Everything Means Nothing to Me
- Say Yes
- HAPPY NEW YEARS / COUNTDOWN
- Give Me Love, Give Me Peace on Earth (George Harrison cover)
- Stupidity Tries
- Everything Reminds Me of Her
- St. Ides Heaven
- Between the Bars
- Southern Belle
- Pitseleh
- Ballad of Big Nothing
- Independence Day
- ENCORE
- Rose Parade (Aborted)
- Bye (on piano)
- The Biggest Lie
- Angeles
- Last Call

Tape courtesy of Elizabeth Racz and friend. Digitized from VHS tape by Kevin Moyer.