Belly Up 09 January 2013

We walked into the Belly Up at 7:15 and the place was already packed and the opening act, Marlon, was on stage. Tall skinny kid, uncombed hair, singing into his too loud mic and finger picking his too loud electric guitar. Both were distorted. I enjoyed his songs very much, despite the buzz. He told me after he lived in Hollywood and played at the Hotel Cafe sometimes. GrumyMama and myself each made a mental note to go see him. His ultra pretty singer friend was good and I wouldn’t mind seeing her again either. Insert dirty old man joke here. They finished at 7:50 and by the time Lu hit the stage at 8:40 the mosh pit was packed and a tad overdone. I was perhaps 10 feet in front of Lu. Good times.

Lu began solo with Lake Charles and then Doug joined with Side of the Road. We were off and running. Lu rocked out with Happy Woman Blues, dancing and jumping around with Doug. Bitter Memory was played with a new bridge in the middle, Lu explaining it was at the request of T Bone Burnett for the TV show Nashville. I liked it better without the bridge.

There was a very nice couple of women standing next to me; a tiny gnome-like older woman at her 4th Lu show and her younger friend who was attending her first. A space materialized about halfway between Lu and myself so I talked this poor woman into moving closer, practically shoving her into the space. All was well for a while. I think it was during I Don’t Know How You’re Living that I noticed I couldn’t see the top of her head anymore. As it turns out, she was laying flat on the ground, seemingly out cold. Not good times. Tim had to go fetch security and by the time they arrived she was ready to get up and they moved her back to the other end of the bar where she could sit down and watch on TV. Oh dear. Shortly after this while Lu was talking about one of her songs, a woman next to me put her face right into the poor bastard standing next to me and screamed “Shut the FUCK UP” as loud as possible. I’m sure Lu heard it and may have thought it was directed at her. At this point I beat a hasty retreat back to the bar and watched the rest on TV with the poor woman I almost killed.

The first perfect moment of the show was a tremendous version of Ugly Truth, with Doug on pedal steel. Big winner.Nothing in Ramblin was a rare selection; I don’t think I ever heard it performed before. All in all a fun night and I look forward to our flight to Phoenix tomorrow. Tim and Stoger are at my house and all is quiet as I type and nap time has arrived.

It was great to see GrumpyMama as always, as it was to see Steve Poltz and Tim Flannery, 2 of Doug’s very good friends. Both are great musicians, and Tim adds World Series Champion to his resume as third-base coach of the San Francisco Giants. The band and crew were also kind enough to visit with the likes of us and ply us with beer.

I look forward to Tim and Stoger’s reports.

😆 —> tonyg’s reports.

The poor old lady (can we define old here?) wasn’t screaming into stoger’s ear? Stoger, can you hear us??

Thanks, all, for the play by play!

Yeah, my sympathies were with the female cusser too; the guy deserved it (not me, Lafayette). Not too much to add, except the “gnome” and her “younger” (slightly, slightly) friend had already insinuated themselves in front of me well before tony cleared them a further space, well well before the faint. “Younger” was not rude, but it was less a question to me at end of opening act than a statement: “us short ladies” will be bypassing you tall guys (Tim and me), thank you very much. Still, I was sympathetic to her fall, which actually happened during “Bus to B R”–Lu didn’t notice the hubbub until “Don’t Know How. . .”–stopping at one point, then starting over. For that matter, she stopped during song two or three and asked soundman John, in the middle of the song, to turn her vocal down–then restarted the verse. “Bitter Memory” was quite different, as Tony noted: she hit restart on that one too, which prompted her to speculate after that had she penned more songs with bridges back in the day, “Nashville might have covered more of my songs.” Mattie Delaney and Memphis Minnie got mixed up in her intro to the second encore song, but that was an inspired choice, one I probably have heard live only once or twice.

As for that female sideman for the opener, Tony captures her well. A native Southerner into the bargain, always nice, though I didn’t get her name.

We have seats the next few nights, praise be.

Live Review: Lucinda Williams and Doug Pettibone at the Belly Up, January 9, 2013