June 29, 2008 Iowa City, IA setlist and review

Stu, thanks for that excellent review. You should be working for a real music magazine!

Well done, Stu: I too had rerouting issues into Iowa City, and I was under the impression that the Englert Theatre was an auditorium on the U of Iowa campus. Much funkier and grittier than that, as you say: how about those souvenir green ticket stubs? You don’t get that out of TicketBastard.

Your setlist was completely spot-on. I’ll add just a few comments. Yes, the show was referred to as the tour opener by Lu before song two, as she understandably wanted a tabula rasa after Milwaukee (which of course had fine moments of its own). The intro before “Are You Alright” was very extended, with mention of her brother Robert living somewhere in LA. Elaborate intros were spoken before “Tears of Joy”; the new sound man is James from Capetown, South Africa; one guitar tech (who got a kiss on the lips from Lu upon walk-on, surely a good omen) named Gil is formerly of Ya Lo Tengo; Doug’s guitar tech Wolfie is from Scotland. “Out of Touch” was introduced with a shout-out to homeboy Bo Ramsey. “Little Rock Star” was compared by Lu to “Drunken Angel,” and she also revealed that Matthew Sweet will do vocals on the studio version. But it’s not the live premiere of that song, though she said so: she did it at the Dylan tribute in LA this year, and I’ve heard it at least once before, maybe at El Rey last fall. It may be the live debut of a reworked version, true enough. Truly, “Heaven Blues” was a first, and beautiful (but “Doors of Heaven” will not be on the upcoming record). I agree “Knowing” was a bit slower than in past, started so slow in fact that LU said “that’s OK, we need to calm down anyway” as encore began. I think they are leaning toward putting the ACDC cover on the record, which would be the first studio record since Car Wheels with any covers, right?

A bit more Buick6 dope: insofar as the band had a frontman, it was Doug, though he said virtually nothing besides thank you except (1) “some of you might recognize this next song” and (2) “we’d like to thank Lucinda Williams for inviting us over from Scotland to open.” They are still finding a center, I think, though I liked most of the songs. Ironically, Lu’s thick lyric book was prominent on stage while the guys worked their way through the all-instrumental opener. Lots of instrument-changing, Doug on harmonica for last song, chair brought out for Butch to sit in front of drum kit for one song, previewing what he did later during LU’s encore. It’s been almost exactly 11 months since Chet made his band debut, also in the state of Iowa.

Final footnote on Saturday night in Milwaukee: James told me he had never mixed Lucinda before that night, had never even heard her songs if I understood him right. This is probably standard in the business, if a bit shocking. But the sound was great in Iowa, and no one was plugging in cables mere minutes before the walk-on. It’s getting better, and going to be fantastic in the days ahead.