Aspen Setlist

1 I Just Wanted to See You So Bad [Blake headgear debut]
2 Can’t Let Go
3 People Talkin’
4 Right in Time
5 2 Kool 2 B 4 Gotten [Blake’s hat off]
6 Blue
7 Ugly Truth [duo]
8 Born to Be Loved
9 Steal Your Love
10 Buttercup
11 Out of Touch
12 Come On
13 Those 3 Days
14 Are You Down
15 Essence
16 Real Live Bleeding Fingers… [followed by “thanks for digging into your pockets during these tough economic times–tough for some people anyway”]
17 Changed the Locks
18 Honeybee
_______________________
19 Blessed
20 Righteously
21 Joy

Ah, Aspen. I’m not sure much pocket-digging was needed in a town as this. Seldom am I grateful for the run of rockers to begin, the ballads to end, at a Lu show, but at least the last half of the set successfully drowned out some of the hubbub behind us stage right during the slow songs. Maybe this granola-fed crowd didn’t care that much, maybe they had just come from the slopes (is is that season?). To be fair, many people seemed very into the show, singing along. A certain ominous tone was set, however, when someone attempted right before walk-on to get a handwritten note posted on the front mike stand featuring “special requests”–one of which was “3 Blocks Away.” To his credit, guitar tech Rick didn’t allow that, tossing the paper vaguely back toward the audience. And that little number was not performed in the show. Some chatterer behind us said to her cronies at one point, “She’s a big name,” a kind of backhanded compliment for Lu showing up in this town I guess. There were reserved seats above the standing pit, but when I tried to cut through to the men’s room I was barred by an employee who announced that because I didn’t have a “sparkly” wristband, I needed to take the long way around. Upon my arrival, though, I was so diverted by a 2006 photo of Shannon McNally on the men’s room wall that I forgot my purpose in entering. At least some greats have played here; West Words confirmed that the women’s room had some male luminaries featured, eg., Charlie Sexton and Ben Harper. Gender equity, to be sure.

I kept looking for Martina Navratilova in the crowd, but no.

WE barely made it. A tunnel accident on I-70 made the opening act late, and West Words and I sat in her rental car for a good two hours, twelfth in queue. But it all came good, what with a relatively late (8 p.m.) doors. kudos to Eric for getting his crew through hours before, overnight from Boulder.