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Orpheum Theatre
Madison, WI
October 25, 2008Disgusted
Happy Woman Blues
I Just Wanted To See You So Bad
The Night’s Too Long
Something About What Happens When We Talk
Pineola
Drunken Angel
Can’t Let Go
Out Of Touch
Essence
Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings
Righteously
Unsuffer Me
Come On
Honey Bee
Tears Of Joy
Real Love
Little Rock Starencore:
Marching The Hate Machines Into The Sun
For What It’s Worth
It’s A Long Way To The TopRight from the start, I knew it was going to be a pretty special show when Lucinda came out and announced that she was going to play songs from every one of her albums, starting from the very beginning and working her way up to Little Honey. This was a very nice surprise, coming after she did something similar in Minneapolis on Thursday night (which was, as far as I know, the first time she’d ever done that). I had been expecting her to open with Real Love, but knew something different was coming when she strapped on the acoustic guitar.
It’s no secret that I always yearn to hear rare early songs when I go see a show, and tonight (my 8th show), I got what I’d hoped for. Happy Woman Blues, I Just Wanted To See You So Bad, and The Night’s Too Long in the same set, not to mention one after the other? It doesn’t get much better than that. After the first four songs, Lucinda could’ve played just about anything for the next hour and a half and I wouldn’t have complained.
It was really interesting getting to see her work her way through her catalog. She stayed on acoustic guitar for the first nine songs, up through Out Of Touch, and the beginning of the show definitely leaned toward a more laid-back sound. It blossomed into a full-on rock show by the end, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been following Lucinda lately.
I can’t say enough how great it was to hear so much of her early material. Little Honey has continued to grow on me, but her early classics will always impress me, and she really sang them well tonight. I’m used to Lucinda coming out and singing the first couple songs a little tentatively, but I didn’t notice that this time. She seemed in very good spirits from the start, and it translated into a really good show. The only hiccup came during Righteously, but rather than restarting the song she just took a few seconds to regroup and then restarted the particular verse; it was the opposite of what happened during Jailhouse Tears the other night (and to be fair, she didn’t have the pressure of a live webcast tonight, of course).
I wondered what she’d do for the encore, since she’d worked through each of her albums in the main set, and while I would’ve loved a couple more originals from Little Honey (Circles and X’s, Jailhouse Tears, and If Wishes Were Horses come to mind), she chose to stick to covers, two of which are on the upcoming protest EP and the last one, of course, closing out Little Honey. I think It’s a Long Way To The Top works a lot better live than on the album, and it rocked tonight. Lu ended up playing the drums alongside Butch by the end, which was fun to watch.
The audience was pretty excited tonight. The Orpheum’s a pretty small theatre, and the show wasn’t quite sold out (at least, as of 6:30 anyway) but it seemed pretty full. We got there about 5:30 and were among the very first to arrive; we grabbed seats in the front row, but the Orpheum had a bit of open space in front of the stage for standing. From our seats, we were very close to the stage and to Lucinda, but it was frustrating to have people who probably arrived long after us to move up in front of us. The hybrid seating/standing arrangement seems to be the worst of both worlds; I’d rather have either GA seats or GA with no seats at all, where it’s clear that you need to take your place in the front right away and guard it. That’s more of a venue complaint, though, and the bottom line is that the show was a great one, annoyances with the crowd notwithstanding.
This was, if not the best show I’ve seen, darn close; the first five songs alone make me want to put it at the top of the list. This was my girlfriend’s 4th show and for her it was definitely the best one, which is pretty high praise considering that she likes Lucinda’s earlier material much, much better than the last three albums. It didn’t hurt that the first half of the show had a few of her favorite songs, of course. But she said even the recent material impressed her tonight.
Oh, and Buick 6 was pretty good, too. I said after the Iowa City show this summer that while I like their songs, I just can’t really get into instrumental music live. That hasn’t changed, but I did enjoy them more tonight than I did a few months ago. They played a similar set, with covers of Black Dog (as Doug said, they like to call their version White Kitty) and Cinnamon Girl. Cinnamon Girl was the only song they sang on, and Chet and Doug did a very nice job.
All in all, very fun show tonight. I hope Lucinda and the guys enjoy their short break before the next leg of the show, and I’ll look forward to seeing them again sometime next year.
You beat me to the punch, Stu: well done on the report. I was one of the “annoyance
” among the fans who showed up relatively late and strolled frontward, but a sign in the foyer which read “Dancing is Allowed. For best view, please sit near back of theater” gave me license. I’d like to bottle that, and strongly considered ripping the sign off the wall for future posting at certain Lu venues. Let’s hope the many of us up front by 9:20 didn’t get you too riled. I do sympathize with your seat-claiming, which went south in some ways later. You’re absolutely right about the quality of the show. Merch guy Rob had told me Lu showed up for sound check in Madison and ran through both “Lafayette” and “The Night’s Too Long,” so it wasn’t surprising to get the latter, a wonderful treat. Aside from that, it was a similar list to Minneapolis set two, true. Lu called it a “special setlist” upon walk-on. In front of the AC-DC cover she dedicated it to “the next president of the United States,” and announced that next Tuesday would mark the release of the 4-song EP “Lu in ’08.” She paused during “Come On” to tell us “it could be a political song,” going on to compare unsatisfying sex with unsatisfying politics. Smooth sailing, great energy. As Lu said, they get a ten-day break, and Madison was the last show prior to the election. Rock the vote.Well, I just think splitting things up the way the Orpheum does is weird. You’re absolutely right, though, that once we got inside it was clear how it was going to work. I just prefer venues that are either all standing and it’s very clear that you need to stake out a spot early, or all seats and while you may end up standing during the show, at least you won’t have people crowding you and pushing past you all night. Oh well. I do prefer standing during a show, especially since Lu’s been rocking harder lately. And again, we still ended up with a good view. (I’m so used to Dylan shows where not only is there a rail in front of the stage, but he’s set up so far back that being 6 or 8 people back from the stage tonight, we were about the same distance from Lucinda as the very front row is from Dylan; so from that standpoint, we still had a great spot to watch the show).
Interesting to hear about the soundcheck; Lafayette is another oldie I’d love to hear. It’s great that after the last year and the LA and NY album sets, plus the reintroduction of Happy Woman Blues, it really feels like anything’s possible and Lucinda could break out songs that haven’t been played in a long time. As much as people here have bemoaned the emphasis on the last couple albums (and let’s be clear, I’m one of them), she really has been playing some great old ones, too. I didn’t mention Pineola specifically in my first post, in part because I’ve seen it several times, but it’s still a classic I’d be happy to get in any show. And the best part about The Night’s Too Long was that it was such a surprise; I kind of expected Crescent City to follow I Just Wanted To See You So Bad like it did in Minneapolis.
Glad to hear you had a good time and drew similar conclusions about the show.
@Disco Stu wrote:
it really feels like anything’s possible and Lucinda could break out songs that haven’t been played in a long time.
Wow. What a great setlist. I’d love to have been at this show (standing, of course 😮 ). The setlist is almost shocking — not even 2 weeks after the release of her new album, and Lu plays only 4 songs from that album — at the end of the show, no less! — and one at the end of the encore. Maybe there is nothing to read into this “special setlist,” but it is certainly interesting. Thanks for the reports and observations Stoger and Stu. You are lucky to have been there.
Nothing to read into -being the last show of long leg she just wanted to change it up and do the show like the second half of the Mpls set. She probably would’ve done a couple more from Little Honey, but being the last show before the election she wanted to do the protest songs. At one point she was going to do all four but after a month+ on the road and 6 shows in 7 nights she went as long and as hard as she could.
Thanks to Stu, Inside Job, and others for all this. I failed to mention that Lucinda compared Orpheum Madison to Fillmore SF and Minneapolis 1st Avenue during the height of the proceedings. Not too shabby praise, since she loves those clubs.
Disco Stu.
What a great writeup of the Concert in Madison. Sounds like an awesome show customized just for you, and your date. I’m glad to hear you turned around a bit in your opinion of the tour and the latest album. Thanks for adding the notes on Buick Six, we really enjoyed those last two songs as well. White Kitty? Hmmmm…… Next the need to do Cowgirl in the Sand.
Steve
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