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I have a question for Lu’s hardcore fan base, of which I am a proud member… I’m taking a creative non-fiction writing class and writing an essay that is sort of a composite of the Lu shows I’ve been to (happily, many many shows!). Here’s the very random question: Does anyone remember the specific show when Lucinda stopped to ask “Who do you have to f*ck around here to get a fan?” She was hot and all the guys scurried around to get her a fan. Totally great. I think it was during one of the 30th anniversary shows, but can’t remember. And for bonus points, does anyone remember what song it interrupted (or was it between songs)? Thanks for helping with my “research”! Vmo
Pretty sure it was in the Midwest somewhere. She told the story during one of the El Rey week shows.
@vmorris wrote:
I have a question for Lu’s hardcore fan base, of which I am a proud member… I’m taking a creative non-fiction writing class and writing an essay that is sort of a composite of the Lu shows I’ve been to (happily, many many shows!). Here’s the very random question: Does anyone remember the specific show when Lucinda stopped to ask “Who do you have to f*ck around here to get a fan?” She was hot and all the guys scurried around to get her a fan. Totally great. I think it was during one of the 30th anniversary shows, but can’t remember. And for bonus points, does anyone remember what song it interrupted (or was it between songs)? Thanks for helping with my “research”! Vmo
Council Bluffs, Iowa–Omaha by any other name. I can probably “research” some more data soon. And I want to hear more about this cnf class and your project.
Stoger is correct on the location. Here’s a little more background of what was a very eventful night-it was 8/1/2007. I have never forgotten the date because it was the day that bridge fell over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis during late afternoon rush hour and being from there, as was our tour mgr, I spent a couple of hours calling family and friends making sure everyone was ok.
On the tour front we had just made our way to Council Bluffs from the northeast -two weeks of steamy hot mostly outdoor shows. Lucinda had been asking for fans onstage the whole time but hadn’t said much to me about it-she was mostly asking the tour mgr and her guitar tech and for reason still unknown they were not complying to her demands. There was some talk that we were recording all of these shows and the fans would be able to heard on the recordings -that was the only reason/excuse I heard. That night in Council was another sweltering night -we were watching the skies because it looked like a classic midwestern storm was about to blow in, but it held off long enough for Lucinda to take the stage with huge black rainclouds hovering overhead. Not long before the show Chet Lyster had called our then tour mgr and said he was tour managing Smoosh a pair of young sisters who had recently opened some shows-he wanted to know if it was ok to come by the show with the girls and hang out. With Chet and Smoosh standing in the wings Lucinda started the show and was visibly unhappy instantly -I was standing onstage almost straight behind her to the left and she turned and yelled something to me but I couldn’t hear what she said but didn’t really need to -I knew the look. I think she played one more song – and then the meltdown happened -almost literally. There was a pause- of course she couldn’t just step away and yell at someone off mike -no she had to turn directly in to the mike and say “Who do I have to f*ck to get a fan out here?” I have never seen two stage hands -one on each side move so quickly-and suddenly there were fans everywhere. Having been on the road with Lucinda for only a month I remember thinking that life was going to be a lot more interesting than I had ever imagined.
Now cooled down, literally and figuratively she recovered and finished the show with guns blazing. During the encore we asked Chet to sit in -I think it was Are You Down and Joy –and was very impressed with the way he and Doug played together. It was basically that night that Chet was asked to join the band -which he did almost instantly.
Ironically I went back to look at the setlist for this show but it one of the only ones missing -I also looked to see if there was a thread in the forum about this show but strangely there wasn’t so much as a word written. With this kind of night it’s just meant to be that way.Best tour story in eons. Funny, I was on a road trip over the weekend and listening to the live ‘Sweet Old World” session from this tour, and during band intros, as she introduced Chet, mentioned he was on loan *sort of* from The Eels, and continued with the “Chet managing the Smoosh Sisters and he had come to a prior show with them in tow and sat in on a few songs.” It had worked so well, she continued, he was asked to play some more shows. However, she never mentioned the meltdown. 😆
Some additional *color commentary* info on the tour for you, vmorris.
She was touring with Charlie Louvin, the show was at Harrah’s.
http://omaha.eventful.com/events/lucinda-williams-/E0-001-004937300-1
According to this article on CMT news, Charlie was invited for a 13 show run, and this particular show concluded that run.
http://www.cmt.com/news/news-in-brief/1563522/lucinda-williams-invites-charlie-louvin-on-tour.jhtml
Alright, true confession: I misheard the stage rant quote that night as “Who do I have to f _ _ _ to get a band up here?” Thank God my friend Trina disabused me of that after the show, before I posted. But I guess those were the days I “posted” in the form of an email letter forwarded to different friends/fans, before I joined this Forum proper? Could this even be? I may look in the archives myself, Mr. Tomo.
Also, I dug up this thread (I knew I had read/heard about the meltdown somewhere).
Here is the published piece:
…and said quote, excerpted and highlighted in RED.
Approaching Lucinda, Our Beautiful Loser
(Listen to) “Sweet Side”So you don’t always show your sweet side . . .
Just this side of strange in comparison with the other men at Lucinda’s concerts, I will admit that the main reason I enjoy myself at her shows, though, is mitigated through my sense as well as my perception of her anxiety that is normally—almost ritually—played out each evening she performs in a certain chronology. When she finally makes her way on stage (always very belatedly, in my notable experience), she brings with her an unsettling sort of presence. Lucinda’s affect and disposition is weighed down by a stony, stoic, silent stage fright for the first third of the set, as she moves her way through a handful of amazingly slow, overwrought, plodding, pitiful old songs (the kind anyone else would tell you not to perform in concert, much less for the first part of the damn set!) all the while deflecting the gaze of the audience and dissociating her from the stage she is performing on.
You run yourself ragged tryin’ to be strong
You feel bad when you done nothin’ wrong
Love got all confused with anger and pride
So much abuse on such a little child
Someone you trusted told you to shut up
Now there’s a pain in your gut that you can’t get rid ofAfter this, thanks to nerves and/or whatever liquor she’s got in her cup up there on stage (she says she drinks Grand Marnier to coat her throat, so there’s at least that . . . ), our once sheepish heroine warms up a bit, maintaining her anxieties and displeasures about her surroundings. Peppering—or, if you’re not into such tenuous forms of spectatorship, cluttering—her performance with false starts and vulgar outbursts, Lucinda has come out of her shell a bit (the last example that comes to mind is her, very seriously and angrily, stopping midsong to say, “Who do I have to fuck to get a fucking fan up here? It’s fucking hot!” and other times I’ve heard her scold people for talking during her set, asking them if they’d like to “fucking do it” themselves)—finally opening herself up to the crowd, only to turn, venomously and breathtakingly, against them. [End Page 40]
Wow, everyone! Thanks so much for this feedback! There’s no stumping Lu’s fan base! If my essay is any good, I’ll post it to the forum. I’m writing it to explore/explain, mostly to myself, what it is about Lucinda’s live shows and music that’s so compelling to me. I’m a music fan and love live music generally (someone called me “musically promiscuous”, but I think I prefer to the term ‘music slut’), but I don’t rearrange my schedule or see multiple shows in a row for anyone else. I’m also evangelical about Lucinda’s music in a way that I’m not about anyone else or anything else. Worth a little written introspection. Vmo
p.s. Tom, Thank you so much for taking the time to respond in such rich detail, and for trying to find the set list (!!).
Great research by all, thank you.
I’ve had no luck finding a set list for this show as well.Reminds me of my first ever Lucinda show-The West tour just before Council Bluffs @ Artpark in Lewiston, NY on July 18, 2007. I fondly remember no fans on stage 😆 and Charlie Louvin dancing up a storm with Lu.
Anyway, back to Council Bluffs for an interview with Charlie Louvin on “cussin'”
An excerpt:”Lucinda cusses like a bathroom full of sailors,” Louvin says of singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, with whom he’s been touring for much of the summer. The two perform Saturday in Birmingham at the Alabama Theatre.
”We were playing an outdoor show, and it was hot on stage, and Lucinda had asked them to put a fan out there for her,” he says. ”Well, she got up there, and the fan wasn’t there, and she started cussing, and the strangest thing was, the audience clapped for her. I just don’t understand it.”The whole article:
http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-stories/2010/11/kathy_kemp_interviews_charlie.htmllwj
A wealth of information! If I remember correctly, the reason Lu told this story at one of the El Rey shows during the 5 night stand was because it was another warm summer night and she was not happy with the status of the fan in front of her on the stage, either because it was off when she wanted it on, vice versa, or the direction of it. Something wasn’t right and she was about to go off on a toot but instead told the Council Bluffs story and turned it into a funny moment instead of a thermonuclear blast. The only other night during that 5 night engagement that looked like trouble was brewing was the night Doug somehow managed to miss his cue on Jailhouse Tears about 4 times in a row and I thought Lu was going to go mental. 😆
This is a fun topic. We could probably go on like this for a while. 🙄
@Lafayette wrote:
Also, I dug up this thread (I knew I had read/heard about the meltdown somewhere).
Here is the published piece:
…and said quote, excerpted and highlighted in RED.
Approaching Lucinda, Our Beautiful Loser
(Listen to) “Sweet Side”So you don’t always show your sweet side . . .
Just this side of strange in comparison with the other men at Lucinda’s concerts, I will admit that the main reason I enjoy myself at her shows, though, is mitigated through my sense as well as my perception of her anxiety that is normally—almost ritually—played out each evening she performs in a certain chronology. When she finally makes her way on stage (always very belatedly, in my notable experience), she brings with her an unsettling sort of presence. Lucinda’s affect and disposition is weighed down by a stony, stoic, silent stage fright for the first third of the set, as she moves her way through a handful of amazingly slow, overwrought, plodding, pitiful old songs (the kind anyone else would tell you not to perform in concert, much less for the first part of the damn set!) all the while deflecting the gaze of the audience and dissociating her from the stage she is performing on.
You run yourself ragged tryin’ to be strong
You feel bad when you done nothin’ wrong
Love got all confused with anger and pride
So much abuse on such a little child
Someone you trusted told you to shut up
Now there’s a pain in your gut that you can’t get rid ofAfter this, thanks to nerves and/or whatever liquor she’s got in her cup up there on stage (she says she drinks Grand Marnier to coat her throat, so there’s at least that . . . ), our once sheepish heroine warms up a bit, maintaining her anxieties and displeasures about her surroundings. Peppering—or, if you’re not into such tenuous forms of spectatorship, cluttering—her performance with false starts and vulgar outbursts, Lucinda has come out of her shell a bit (the last example that comes to mind is her, very seriously and angrily, stopping midsong to say, “Who do I have to fuck to get a fucking fan up here? It’s fucking hot!” and other times I’ve heard her scold people for talking during her set, asking them if they’d like to “fucking do it” themselves)—finally opening herself up to the crowd, only to turn, venomously and breathtakingly, against them. [End Page 40]
I’ll try to dig out my email from August 2007 (assuming one exists), then try to post or scan or retype or whatever it is that one does to get it visible here. Of course the writer of the above is a bit off kilter, no?
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