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Also, I listened to the Disk that I bought last night and at some point Lucinda says she is an artist, not a performer. Ok call me crazy but when you perform live and make money doing it, that makes you a performer.
I find it amazing that people are criticizing someone for shouting out that the guitar was low in the mix (it was) and yet no one makes a deal out of the self-centered, continuous “i love you Lu” nonsense that goes on during her shows. Selfish people want that split-second of attention focused on THEM and are rude and disruptive. Show some respect for the performer.
A few more things….Jesse Malin is a living link between the New York punk scene of the late 70’s/80’s and has some great “war stories” about NYC during that time. He’s always entertaining. Sorry you didn’t like his clothing.
Steve Earle was fantastic. Yeah, he botched part of Jail House Tears but the fact is, he is a professional, he took it in stride, had some fun and KEPT PLAYING. Unlike someone else we know Wink
Overall, the show was disappointing. I looked so forward to hearing Car Wheels performed in its entirety and it left me feeling underwhelmed. I will say that with each song, she seemed to progressively get more comfortable, and it showed in the execution of the songs. But the opening Right in Time felt like she had just woken up from a nap. The second set was just an awkward disaster. I felt so uncomfortable at times. LW needs to realize that people love her, and that if there’s a mistake or whatever, people don’t care, they love her anyway and she needs to keep the show going. It ruins the flow of the show and leaves people feeling uncomfortable.
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Ditto, at least Jesse acted like he wanted to be there and he put his all into his perfomance, key word is performance by a performer
maybe i shouldn’t have logged on after having a few (more) beers after i got home last night. it wasn’t the umitigated disaster my initial post may have implied but i think consensus is, it was an off night. happens. after reading other’s recollections of the night i can point to exactly disappointed me SO much. no feeling, emotion, nothing, in lake charles. i hadn’t seen her do lc in a couple of years and was probably looking forward to that tune the most. then, for me anyway, she just raced through it. nothing. and to counter that, jackson to end was just beautiful. then the one that really had me scratching my head and mumbling jhc was words. i think that song is brilliant it was going just exactly perfect. or so i thought because lu decided it wasn’t just exactly perfect and killed it. i thought all the guests played really well but it definitely tends take away from any flow the show starts to develope. i guess the onus of my disappointment lies strictly with me. i was anticipating a big night. i learned from 20+ years of chasing some hippy band around, anticipate nothing, anything you get is bonus. lesson relearned. who’s ever going tonight, have fun, see you thurs.
Yes, Lucinda can drive you crazy some nights. Let me just say that there are also some very talented musicians who no longer play with her because of her behavior.
i don’t think anyone is making excuses for LW. Whatever happens on stage is part of the show, and most of you know that she stops and restarts her songs all the time, it is nothing new. Like Lu says ” take it or leave it.”
I think it’s funny that Gretschman thinks Dylan or Lucinda owes him perfection. You bought the ticket man, buyer beware, no where on the ticket or on an album’s liner notes does it say, “satisfaction guaranteed.” It is fine that you’re dissatisfied, but to think that she owes you something diferent from what you see or hear, is selfish and shows no class.i too was at last night’s show, and have to agree lucinda’s vibe was a bit awkward at times. it’s a shame she can still get so freaked out by reading one bad review, and in the tiny ‘time out’ magazine, to boot.
i thought the first CWGR set was great, and two or three songs were brilliant! hearing ‘jackson’, probably my favotite lu song, for the first time live was a great treat.
set 2 was certainly more hit or miss, and although i didn’t mind any of the guest, i wish they had accompanied lucinda, not done solo numbers. i came to see LU. the notable exception was steve earle, who’s ‘ellis unit one’ sent shivers down my spine. also, his close association with CWGR made his time on stage understandable. he & lucinda clearly have a long, strong bond.
i’ve just finished listening to the cd that was available of the first set, and all of the weird vibes seem to disappear. all i hear is a brilliant(unedited) redition of a classic album.Lucinda has guts and integrity. Stopping the songs wasn’t the action of someone trying to be a diva, it was impossible for her to hear it wrong and put it out there. She wasn’t being unprofessional, on the contrary, she has profound regard for her fans and that’s why she can’t abide it being mediocre even though it might sound great from where we sit.
How do you think she writes what she writes? Just because she makes it look so effortless doesn’t mean every phrase, word and note isn’t worked and reworked and refined to perfection.
I was at Irving Plaza on Sunday night for “Essence” and can say, without reservation, that it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. Janis, Jimmy, Otis, Bob have all shaped my life in various ways but none of them came close to the…well, Janis maybe…but no one superseded the honesty and generosity and soul Lucinda has.
Everyone knows TIME OUT is completely lame, but reviews can be devastating, I don’t care who you are.
Don’t beat yourself up, Lu. You are a gift.In general, I think the shouting out at shows has to be reigned in — it’s getting out of control. Of course there’s a spectrum of appropriateness, but shouts also seem to beget more shouts, and there’s often an unfortunate snowball effect after the first few hollers.
The posters who are expressing support for the guy who asked for Doug’s guitar to be turned up are doing so because they agree with the shouter. I’m not saying the guy wasn’t right, and I’m not making this point to start a debate about levels and acoustics and the quality of the CD recordings they were selling after the show. But just like other shouters, this shouter was making the moment about HIM and HIS seating location and HIS opinion and HIS experience and HIS audophilia. On basis of principle, it’s no different than shouting out commentary or persistent requests or professions of love or most anything else you’re likely to hear at a show, barring anything vulgar or cruel, of course.
Lucinda responded to the balcony shouter, which was entirely her choice and/or automatic emotional response. Her response, coupled with the effect of her accidental reading of the Time Out review, seemed to cause her insecurities to start creeping to the surface of the show. (One of her responses to the balcony shout was: “I don’t want to get another bad review.”)
So, while the “turn it up” shout wasn’t as inherently cringe-inducing as the guy who shouted “be good or be gone” to Lucinda after she killed the first performance of Unsuffer Me, or the lady behind me who shouted out about Steve Earle’s comb-over, it still constituted an audience member shouting out his own personal statement to a theater full of people who didn’t pay $65 to hear him say anything.
As it’s been mentioned here, a lot of us feel that performers have responsibilities to their audiences, and that they sometimes need to look past small imperfections for the sake of the larger experience. (The irony being that stopping a song 2/3 of the way through and getting upset about it usually detracts from the quality of the show rather than improving it.) But audience members also have a set of generally accepted and understood responsibilities (though sometimes it seems like only a few of us actually try to follow them). Along with turning off our cell phones and not holding our cameras over our heads to block the views of people behind us, how about we make a good faith effort to keep the soliloquies to a minimum?
Just saying….
When taking in a live show there are so many factors that can change my experience that I have no control over.
A asshole sitting close by being disruptive, nazi security staff, bad sounding venue, bad seat to view the stage, health of a artist; (mental and physical), health of me that day, guitar tech or sound tech not doing their job…
my point is anyone that goes to a live gig expecting a defined and definite music experience is setting themselves up for a fall. Especially when it comes to true artist. i.e., Lucinda Williams, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams…
If you want safety in your listening experience i would suggest either staying home and listening to the LP or take in a performer that is more the “paint by numbers” type.
Half the fun for me is not knowing what i will get. Fortunately for me i get more magic than i do dud’s. Especially when it comes to Lu’s live shows.
Tonight she will probably “smoke” the place!
Newsday has a good review of the show so there you go.
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/ny-etlucinda1003,0,6709063.story
anyone else like Lucinda’s temper? I know it keeps me on my toes.
Also, just for the record, Mr. Earles’ comb-over was DISTRACTING! 😆
Thanks for posting that review tonyg! perfect example of one mans trash is another’s treasure!
I loved reading all of these posts! This was my first LW show so I was really scratching my head after last night’s show trying to figure out what the hell had happened. I think we all agree there were moments of brilliance and beauty but the second set was wild! I guess it didn’t bother me too much since I would prefer to see a raw, real performance than a slick, staged one. However, there certainly were a few moments that made me a little uncomfortable. Her band handled it beautifully though, I have to say. From what I’ve read here, this isn’t the first time this has happened and they seemed to take it in stride. They are all fantastic performers. I agree that it certainly wasn’t the “turn up the guitar” comment that set her off. Maybe it was the less than glowing review she mentioned from the Time Out she read earlier in the day. I wish I could go to another show this week to see more of her ever changing moods.
I unfortunately arrived a little late and missed the first couple of songs so I didn’t even realize that that Fionn didn’t play. Was there an explanation? I thought I would be there in plenty of time with a opening act but that was not to be.
Steve Earle is awesome! His solo song was amazing. I have heard of but never seen Jesse Malin in person. Regardless of whether you like his style, you have to admire his energy during his set. He seemed to be trying to bring up the mood of the show and the crowd. I thought that was very cool.okay, I’ll admit that Jesse had high energy and even that I even sort of liked the first song…but then you have to admit that that second song was a total joke! Not that I think it’s true, but I almost felt like he could have been pulling an Andy Kaufman on us…that shit was so bad!
Fionn was great too when he played w/ Lucinda’s band on Sunday.
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