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Just back to my hotel from an excellent, mellow show at the beautiful Park West venue. More on the venue later. First, the setlist:
1. Motherless Children
2. Disgusted
3. Nothing in Rambling
4. Rambling On My Mind
5. Jambalaya
6. Lafayette
7. Happy Woman Blues
8. Sharp Cutting Wings
9. Sundays
10. Passionate Kisses
11. Side of the Road
12. The Night’s Too Long
13. Big Red Sun Blues
14. I Just Wanted to See You So Bad
15. Crescent City
16. Factory Blues
17. Changed the Locks(end first set)
(start second set)18. Tears of Joy
19. Too Kool To Be Forgotten
20. Unsuffer Me
21. Still I Long For Your Kiss
22. Come to Me Baby
23. Come On
24. Honeybee(end second set)
(start encore)25. Jailhouse Tears (with Robbie Fulks)
26. Joy (with Rosie Flores)Park West is a beautiful venue, with an extremely wide stage, and an audience area spreading across the full width, allowing for excellent sight lines. The rear of the venue features a mixture of bars, tables, couches, chairs, and stools, arranged at multiple angles and heights, providing varied views of the full stage. The front of the venue is a dance floor, with flexible configuration. Tonight, the dance floor was populated with about 12 rows of long, skinny tables, set perpendicular (not parallel) to the stage, with portable chairs adjoining the tables. The chairs could be angled to view the stage, or rotated to talk with your friends at the table. The 2 outside rows on each side were elevated about a foot, which provided a great view of the stage. According to reliable sources among Lucinda’s team, show #2 may have the dance floor as standing room instead of tables; however, the waitress staff indicated that show #2 would be seated as tonight.
The show was ticketed to begin at 7:30, and Lucinda began about 7:55. I arrived about 6:40, and I was able to select most any of the good seats, although the front 2 rows of chairs at the center perpendicular tables had been taken by 6:40.
There is a coat check, which may be useful if the dance floor is standing room. Tonight, the coat check was essentially unnecessary, since people could drape their coats on the seats.
There are full bars and waitress service, but no food.
Wow, Paul: those engineer-like design descriptions seem spot-on. Two dollar per item coat check can be quite a boon for a man coming straight from Midway Airport. Anyone out there interested in “saving” one spot (be it seat or stand) for a late-arriving humble Tennessean, for tonight?
Nice setlist, Paul. Thanks for posting it. Nice to see “2 Kool…” & “Jailhouse Tears” (w/ a guest vocalist to handle duet duties, no less!) make an appearance. Two of my (many, many) favorites.
Thank you as well for the detailed venue description. While my legs and back might appreciate the somewhat odd table / seat arrangement, it makes me very satisfied with the choice we made of going to the three shows in New York over Chicago. I really do much prefer the energy of shows with people standing up right against the stage (although I do understand other folks do not). I also find the combination of seats & tables contributes more to a “lounge” type atmosphere, oftentimes encouraging “chit chat” during a performance, something I detest (not to say it occurred last night – it very well may have not). Of course, neither set up necessarily impacts the quality of the performance itself, although I do believe Lu & the band prefer the standing venues…
Have fun tonight everyone – I look forward to your postings…
Tom
Makes me super excited for tonight and tomorrow! Though, I do agree, I hope that they have removed the seating for the two remaining shows. People seem to enjoy the music more that way.
@Snicky wrote:
Did Buick 6 do an opening set?
No. During the 30th Anniversary Tour, Buick 6 is not playing an opening set for those shows that follow the 30th Anniversary format (i.e., specific albums covered each night). The three Chicago shows follow this format.
Tom
Thanks for posting the setlist, Paul. I figured someone would get to it before I dragged myself out of bed today (more on that later).
Anyway, I agree that the Park West is a great venue. I didn’t arrive until about 7 and still snagged a seat on the right side of the venue, maybe 5-6 feet from the stage, which I was happy about. Last night was definitely a pretty loose show. Lu had to confer with the band to decide whether they were going to play Stop Breaking Down or Disgusted, and there was a little confusion about who was supposed to be on stage with her during some of the Ramblin’ songs. Butch also ended Factory Blues a little too early, which led to a bit of a tense moment. I could tell Lu was trying to laugh it off, but she was upset. Anyway, no Buick 6 set last night, but Butch was wearing the Buick 6 T-shirt and showed it off to the crowd, mentioning that it was for sale out in the lobby. Lu told us that the picture of her with duct tape over her mouth on the front was “an inside joke that got started in the studio.”
There was a pretty lengthy break between the first and second sets, about half an hour. When Lu came back, she told us they were doing a bit of an impromptu rehearsal backstage (presumably with Robbie Fulks and Rosie Flores). The second set was good, especially Still I Long For Your Kiss and Come To Me Baby. And the encore with the special guests was indeed special.
Anyway, I normally agree with tntracy that standing beats sitting at a Lucinda show. I was surprised to see they’d set up tables and chairs last night. I was grateful in this case, though, since I’ve been fighting the flu for the last couple days and honestly don’t know if I could’ve stood for 3.5 hours. Unfortunately, I think the flu’s going to keep me away from tonight’s show. 🙁 I could probably handle the show itself, but the 5 hours of driving before and after was rough enough last night and I’m not sure I could do it tonight. I expect detailed reports of what I miss! 😉
@Disco Stu wrote:
Unfortunately, I think the flu’s going to keep me away from tonight’s show. 🙁 I could probably handle the show itself, but the 5 hours of driving before and after was rough enough last night and I’m not sure I could do it tonight. I expect detailed reports of what I miss! 😉
Sorry to hear you are “under the weather”, D.S. Knowing how much you love to see Lu, I’m betting you must feel pretty terrible if you are going to miss tonight’s show!
I hope you feel better soon!
Tom
Good show last night. The Park West is one of my favorite Chicago venues. Not a bad seat in the house and good acoustics. We got there early to get a good seat on the floor. I hope they do not open up the dance floor since we have similar plans tonight and tomorrow night…and I am too old to stand for the entire 3+ hour show. Those going to The Pageant in St. Louis on Saturday night won’t be disappointed either. Another excellent venue.
Chicago Sun-Times review of last night’s show:
http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/hoekstra/1824390,lucinda-williams-anniversary-tour-101409.article
@mshedg wrote:
Chicago Sun-Times review of last night’s show:
http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/hoekstra/1824390,lucinda-williams-anniversary-tour-101409.article
“Longing moments like this are really what make anniversaries matter.” Nice!
Thanks for posting the link, mshedg.
Tom
mshedg wrote:Chicago Sun-Times review of last night’s show:http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/hoekstra/1824390,lucinda-williams-anniversary-tour-101409.article
Love this line: ‘She looked like an extra from “Whip It.”’
😆 😆Knowing how much you love to see Lu, I’m betting you must feel pretty terrible if you are going to miss tonight’s show!
Yeah. I’m just glad I made it through last night’s show (and more importantly, my wedding last Saturday :)). Still disappointing, though. I can’t wait for reviews so I can read about what I missed…
Congratulations on the nuptials, DiscoStu! Were you able to squeeze in any additional Lu songs to the wedding song list?
Another review from Night #1. My brother actually gave me the hard copy this morning from the paper. Features a large B & W photo of the full band (with Lu) as well as an inset photo of Lu.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertain … 5996.story
We did, as a matter of fact…in addition to dancing to I Just Wanted To See You So Bad, we also played Something About What Happens When We Talk toward the end of the night. 🙂
So sorry we didn’t get to meet up in Chicago…I wish I hadn’t had to miss last night’s show, but it was an easy decision to make given how lousy I felt. And reading that night #2 was standing rather than sitting (which normally I’d prefer) only confirms that I made the right choice. Oh well; now I’ve just got to hit an extra show next tour!
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