Great Evening at the Catalyst

FORUM Forums Lucinda Williams Lucinda Shows Great Evening at the Catalyst

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  • #29391

    As Lucinda so aptly shouted Saturday nite “It doesn’t get any better than this!”–a rock club full of standing, swaying, sweating fans, enjoying a very happy, exciting show, at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz.

    The first highlight for the evening was “Rarity”, played complete and unpaused, with the entire band. “Rarity” is a long, amazing song, which requires patience and devotion from the audience. It starts very slowly and innocently, and since it followed Pineola and Out of Touch, the audience started restless and unattentive to the subtleties of “Rarity”. However, several verses and minutes into the song, the audience stilled, and grew into the finale. Doug’s guitar is crucial to the momentum of the song, and Doug played just perfectly Saturday night.

    A second highlight was the joy of watching Butch Norton up-close on percussion. I know absolutely nothing about drums, but Butch conveys so much pleasure in his work that it’s absolutely contagious. If all of us could do our jobs with such intensity and pleasure…

    Hopefully, the Catalyst might take the proceeds from the evening, and invest in a decent air-conditioning system–but what’s a good show what sweating bodies??

    Setlist:

    1. Real Love
    2. Too Kool To Be Forgotten
    3. Steal Your Love
    4. Tears of Joy
    5. Pineola
    6. Out of Touch
    7. Rarity
    8. Little Rock Star
    9. Essence
    10. Come On
    11. Bleeding Fingers
    12. HoneyBee
    13. Atonement
    14. Joy/Riders on the Storm
    15. Righteously

    (end main set)

    After the pause, the band returned to the stage, and the mayor of Santa Cruz presented Lucinda with a proclamation, honoring September 6, 2008, as Lucinda Williams day in Santa Cruz. After Lucinda and the mayor hugged, the encore set followed with:

    16. Are You Down?
    17. I Live My Life
    18. It’s A Long Way to the Top…etc.

    A great evening, to end this segment of the tour…

    #37121
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Thx for the report.

    #37122
    stoger
    Participant

    What’s this, mayoral hugs? Ah, Lucinda. Paul, you capture the vibe well–sounds like Doug more than atoned on “Rarity” for any missteps the previous show. “Steal Your Love” sneaked in there too? My my. Hopefully, there was a fan on stage which was blowing on Lucinda, yet indirectly. Sorry to have missed such a perspiration-drenched evening, but I was back home doing my job: probably not as well as Butch Norton, but trying. Did Lucinda hang out at the adjacent bar afterwards? I’ve got to work things so I can make these tour finales–not the Ramshead of yore maybe, but plenty sweet. . .

    #37123
    fuji81
    Participant

    Steal Your Love…BONUS. Interesting discussion on this board lately. All I know is that I’m glad I stumbled across Lucinda’s music a few years ago. Count me in as one of your fanatics. The bus came by, and I got on. You can drive however you want, I’m a passenger for life. Bring on Albany, Toronto, and Rochester.

    #37124
    gwen
    Participant

    What a great show, though Catalyst could definitely use some air in the big room — I had to go out into the smaller club room out front [where they have many fans!] several times and missed part of the show because the heat was making me sick. I loved how tickled she was by the mayor’s appearance, she was grinning ear-to-ear for the rest of the show.

    I got a couple photos, including of Lu with the proclamation:

    more photos from the Santa Cruz show here:
    http://flickr.com/photos/gwen/sets/72157607223449709/detail/
    please credit with that link if you use this or any of my photos on your blog…and let me know! I always like to see where they end up 🙂 thanks.

    #37125
    Inside Job
    Participant

    My good friend Stoger -just wanted to note a couple of things. The Rarity false start in Sacramento had nothing to do with Doug -and in no way was she mad at him as one poster here guessed. She was very very mad at herself because she had gone into soundcheck that afternoon and worked for nearly two hours on that song (and Horses-but mostly Rarity) -and it was sounding amazing. What happened was there is an odd chord change about 1/3 into the song and she missed it and that’s when she stopped -and then got mad at herself-and then was trying to get the band to keep going and couldn’t -and then she panicked and well you’ve heard the rest. She was so disappointed because this was its live debut of this version and after hearing the song in soundcheck she was very excited about finally doing it– and we all thought it was going to bring the house down -and it would’ve. Right before she went back out for the encore that night -she said to the band “are y’all ready for Rarity–okay here we go”
    Also just for the record -she actually had never ever played the song with a band- the one or two times she did it live was on the tour with just her and Doug. Just some fun facts for a Friday.

    #37126
    fuji81
    Participant

    Hey Inside, that solo tour with Doug had some magical moments. Love Buick 6, but there is something about that stripped down, naked approach that moves me every time. If you have anything from that tour in the archives, I would love to see it released in one form or another.

    #37127
    gravel roads
    Participant

    i am so thrilled to hear about rarity and that it seemed to run cohesively with everyone in the band in santa cruz. i was so excited when i saw she played it live again a few weeks ago! i think that song is just amazing. i have never heard it live…listened it first on a couple of bootlegs…shouted it out at many shows on the east coast last year hoping she would play it. i would have been happy to be the one to have heard three verses of it. looking forward to the album in october!

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