10-4-07

There are a lot of back stories from all of the LA and NY, but the NY ones are the freshest right now so I thought you might them interesting and enlightening, and a peek at what high wire act some of this was. And some of it is just for the record.
Lucinda was never aggravated or pissed during the last night-she did get a little flustered when she restarted Passionate Kisses, because she had planned it all day to be the birthday song for Tom. But that’s Lucinda, even in that case she wanted it to be just right.
David Byrne did ride his bike over, and actually had ridden over on Tues and was hanging out before the show. He left saying that he thought he would be able to come back later for the second set. He later called and said that he couldn’t make it but that he might be able to make it Weds, which he didn’t. On Thurs morning another very high profile artist called and said he was sick and that he would not be able to make it. Twenty minutes later David Byrne called and said he wanted to come by. He asked to do Over Time because he loved the song and listened to Lucinda and Willie’s version on his Ipod. At the same time it was discovered that somehow David Johansen thought he was suposed to come on Weds night, and was not expecting to show up on Thurs until that afternoon. Both of them ended coming to rehearsals and working on their songs and were extremely great to everyone in the band and crew. David Byrne did Heaven as Lucinda’s personal request becuase she used to do it years ago.
Take Me To The River (and with all due respect it is an Al Green song not a David Byrne song), however was not rehearsed, and was completey impromptu. It was thought that it would be the perfect song to end the ten shows, and David Byrne was asked during the song right before it if he could do it, and he smiled and said “okay sure”. Afterward everyone in the band marvelled at how great he sang.
In regards to Weds night the reason that it turned into a bit of a hootenanny was because Joan Osborne and a couple others just showed uo and Lucinda wanted everyone to come out and play and have equal time.
Again most of the second set was not rehearsed and done on the fly, which made for a bit of a different night, but in the end everyone had a great time.
Just a glimpse at how spontaneous some of these shows were.