September 22, 2009 Milwaukee, WI set list and review

September 22, 2009
Pabst Theatre
Milwaukee, WI

Motherless Children
Stop Breaking Down
Lafayette
Happy Woman Blues
I Just Wanted To See You So Bad
Big Red Sun Blues
Changed The Locks
Pineola
Something About What Happens When We Talk
Memphis Pearl
I Lost It
Drunken Angel
Joy
Are You Down?
Get Right With God
Real Live Bleeding Fingers And Broken Guitar Strings
Righteously
Unsuffer Me
Come On
Honey Bee

encore:
Plan To Marry
I’m Happy I Found You
Nothing In Rambling
It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock and Roll)
Happy

I traveled to Milwaukee last night not really sure what I was going to get. I knew that nothing could top the experience I had in Minneapolis, but I was still hopeful for another great show.

I got to the theatre a little late and after buying a drink and a T-shirt, got to my seat just as Buick 6 was getting started. I can’t recall how many of their songs were new compared to what I had seen them play in 2008, but their set was definitely engaging. One song was very heavily drums-oriented and featured Butch on a second set of drums closer to the front of the stage, while Chet moved over to his set and backed him up. Probably my favorite Buick 6 song of the night. Butch also said a few words (actually, the most I’ve ever heard him say!) regarding the availability of their album in the lobby, as well as the fact that it happened to be cheaper than any of Lucinda’s albums. 😉 But he reminded us that we probably have all of hers anyway, so that shouldn’t be a factor.

I met up with Jim from Chicago, another fan I’ve crossed paths with at quite a few shows (Lucinda, Dylan, and some others) in the past few years, and chatted with him before Lucinda’s set. I couldn’t resist pulling out my camera and showing him some photos from Friday night. Not to brag or anything, but c’mon – if being in attendance at Lu’s wedding isn’t something worth sharing, what is? Anyway, he said he lurks here from time to time, so if you’re reading this, Jim, I’ll look forward to seeing you in October at both Lucinda’s Chicago shows and the October 31st Dylan show.

Lucinda’s set was identical to Friday’s set for the first eight songs. Normally, it would bother me (regardless of whether it was Lucinda or some other artist) to hear so many of the same songs again, but taking into account which songs they were – six of which were songs I thought until recently I’d never see her perform live, four of which I’d only seen for the first time on Friday, and all of which I really enjoy – I couldn’t really ask for a better start to the night. She seemed a little tentative at first but really hit her stride with Happy Woman Blues.

I wondered how close a copy this setlist would be to Friday’s, and she threw me for a loop with her other two selections from Sweet Old World. Something About What Happens When We Talk (another favorite of mine, and one that last night left me scheming as to how I could convince my fiancee to let me add it to our wedding playlist) was followed by Memphis Pearl, another big surprise for me. She also shared a story about the song I hadn’t heard before; she wrote it after seeing a woman digging through a garbage can in Los Angeles and wondering what the woman’s story was and what had happened in her life before then.

When she got to the Essence album, she introduced it as the album that had made a lot of listeners question what she was doing – “hmm, this doesn’t sound like Car Wheels.” She compared it to the reception that Dylan got with Time Out of Mind, which I found to be an apt comparison. Both albums aren’t what I’d consider characteristic of the work they’re best known for, but both are among my respective favorites.

All I can really say about the last six songs of the main set is that they rocked. I imagine that comes as no surprise once you’ve seen the setlist. I thought Honey Bee was particularly strong, and last night’s rendition reminded me of the first time I ever heard it, performed live in the very same theater a little more than two years ago. I’ve never heard a recording, either the album cut or a concert recording, that can do justice to the way it sounds live.

Given the twenty-song main set, I wasn’t expecting a long encore, but she ended up doing five more songs. She made it through Plan To Marry and I’m Happy I Found You a lot more easily than she did on Friday, I imagine (and understandably so!), and I’m falling in love more with the Hank song each time I hear it. I don’t know how many songs she chose from, but I think she picked a great one to put music to, and one that suits her voice perfectly as well.

Post-show, I waited with Jim and some other fans outside her bus to see if I’d be lucky enough to talk to Lucinda again. I was not, but she was kind enough to sign autographs last night. Her sound guy (I think it was her sound guy…I know I met him at the wedding, but I’m fuzzy on details) took the 8×10 photo I’d printed of me with Lu at the reception onto the bus and she signed it for me! Big thanks go out to Lafayette here, without whom I’d have neither photo nor autograph. 🙂

So I’ve got a little tour hiatus before I hit the first two nights of the Chicago run. I’m excited to see what she chooses to play there, particularly on the first night. I’d imagine Lafayette and Happy Woman Blues are near-certainties for the Happy Woman Blues portion of the night, but I’m anxious to hear whatever she decides to round them out with. I’m also glad that the Chicago run is GA and standing; everyone sat down for the whole show last night (with the exception of a few fans who danced their way down the aisle during Happy), and I’d much rather be standing and moving around during the songs that almost demand it.