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Any political talk, as Matty predicted in the Rochester thread?
Good to see “Everything Has Changed” back in, only second time on this leg I think.
I applaud the Buick 6 CD being still available–as I do Blake Mills’ Break Mirrors on the merch table. Still, that band name is a bit passe, no? Good instrumental stuff, regardless.
Thanks to Tom and Matty for these fine reports. Matty, you got so worked up about the Foley legend that you later had “Blaze” instead of “Blake” playing live guitar last night! Has our 24-year-old gone the duct tape route for real? Anyway, I think you’re right that this is a new story in front of “Drunken Angel”–and perhaps a story more authentic than the “senseless barroom brawl” framings of yore. Not that there’s anything wrong with poetic license and that traditional type of introduction: It’s a great song, isn’t it?
“Are You Alright” in the mix, sweet.
Tom, thought you mean friends from Austin, Tx made the long haul there for a minute, but of course you mean your own Austin, MN. Hopefully, some blue-collar unionized Hormel stock kept the rightist Mayo circle segment in check with some raucousness. No VIP tier at Park West (or in Madison), I daresay.
Nice thread, both in-Lu-siders and my fellow fans. I would tend to agree with Blake that the dichotomy between ballads and rockers is (thankfully) not as clear-cut as is sometimes interpreted. That said, I like the Charlotte-Fargo pattern of two Lu sets (though I am also fond of the pattern of yore, one continuous artist/band touring throughout and opening night to night). In this Fargo case, it gave the front row patrons time to come back to consciousness and have another glass of house wine I suppose. No quirky Frances Dormand-character-like presences, I’m assuming. Geez, I thought “Fargo Theatre” might imply gutted seats in former movie palace, gritty floors, but obviously not. At least it sounds like Lu didn’t comment from the stage on front row indifference: or did she? At any rate, here’s to what was no doubt a fine tour debut of “Overtime.” And here’s to hoping Rochester was a rollicking standing house, with no “Mayo Gold Circle” or the like.
@blake wrote:
Learning How To Live was a bit more like Learning How To Play tonight; we all needed to refresh our memories on that one. When it comes around again, I’ll be ready!!
You fooled me, sideman. True, “Steal Your Love” came out of the gate smoking first time on the tour (and hasn’t let up since). “Learning How to Live” didn’t seem to me newly wrinkled, though it’s been awhile since Lu and any band played it live I think. One of my favorites, solid if not spectacular version. Perhaps Gia Ciambotti will lend some background vocal grace to it live on one of these June-ish west coast gigs. Failing that, it’s pretty damn good as is.
1 I Just Wanted to See You So Bad
2 Can’t Let Go
3 Right in Time
4 World Without Tears
5 Convince Me
6 Copenhagen
7 Something About What Happens When We Tall
8 Ugly Truth [duo with “bad ass” Blake Mills]
9 Born to Be Loved [rest of band intros, “the mighty rhythm section”]
10 Are You Down [“I like it when I get to stand over there and watch these guys”]
11 Hot Blood [initially attributed to Rough Trade record, corrected after to SOW]
12 Buttercup
13 Those Three Days [followed by “Everybody Likes that Song”]
14 Come On
15 Little Rock Star
16 Essence
17 Righteously
18 Changed the Locks [Lu mentions Friday the 13th–“it doesn’t have to be bad luck if you don’t want it to be”]
19 Honeybee
______________________
20 Blessed [started solo, band walk-on]
21 Joy
22 Don’t Let the Devil Ride
23 Get Right with God [followed by walk-off “Keep up the fight” and “Don’t let the bastards win”]It doesn’t get much better than standing between “westwords” and “cawane” [“cawa”?] for a Lu show: shades of a certain celebrity wedding, autumn 2009.
Kudos to tour manager Eric for pulling the hook on opener Lionel Young, a fine bluesy artist but one who ignored the 5-minute warning from a functionary–the Big E could well find work as a pitching coach or big league skipper if this little tour management thang don’t work out. I mean, the bullpen was ready. ONce Young exited, the turnaround time was a record I think, 15-20 minutes, no more.
Hope you got to the charred Gram parsons area of the national park, Tony. Pappy and Harriett’s is great, didn’t see the Lu show there but later talked to proprietor Robin who spoke of that show outdoors, where Lu cut her fee so as to play that great spot. Have seen Anne McCue there, also Sara Petite there twice. Good karma.
Come on Paul, I know you’re in Colorado, debating between tomorrow night’s Lu in Boulder and Carrie/Pieta in Denver, Swallowtail Club I believe it’s called, on Yale Ave.
Fine report, Tony. Spooner Oldham is one of middle TN’s most in-demand sidemen, as you no doubt know, on keys and such. Little STevie, hunh? Sounds like the Greendale cast of thousands dwarfed the leftovers who showed up here.
Hey my Canadian friend, I was quite as a mouse during “Ventura,” just so you know.
For all my Cain’s bashing, I should add that my hotel shuttle driver told me it was one of only three stops on the famed Sex Pistols tour, east coast, west coast, and downtown Tulsa. I’ll concede some points there.
And I know some of you don’t feel I cover the fashion angle sufficiently from show to show, so I would like to add that Lu and Blake sported “matching” flannel checked shirts for Tulsa, hers more red/pink, his orange. The rhythm section boldly went with one-tone dark colors. I was told Butch donned a banana upon his re-walk-on after “Lake Charles” & “Ugly Truth,” but I could not verify this empirically.
As I was saying…
At walk-off of main set, Lu bemoans having to cut things short and says she was just “following orders” in doing so*
Encore
15 Joy
16 Don’t Let the Devil Ride [a blues song worked up just today, no artist or performer given but same source as “Holy Rock” which led to “Stand on the Rock” in GRWG–this intriguing song has a line in it about “take the devil’s hand/you’ll have to join his band,” or some such]
17 Get Right with God [with “Stand on the Rock” interpolated and at one point Blake chanting that while the others do the lyrics to “GRWG” proper”–afterwards, Lu uses the word meltdown again and apologizes, yet exits smiling]* And I did get a gander at the set list, which had not only “Those 3 Days” on it, but “Where is My Love” and “Little Rock Star” besides. I’m sure we’ll get those in future; also the duo post-Lake Charles was to have been “Ugly Truth,” but that was when the “orders” got communicated to skip over, another storm in forecast apparently.
So maybe that answers the Facebook poster, Tim, but if he/she truly “stuck it out”, he/she knows which songs (only one) were started then dropped. No more than 4, maybe 5, songs in total were not done. I understand the disappointment, but it wasn’t quite the debacle this person implied. Let’s call it vintage Lu. those of us who really truly stuck it out got good bang, I thought. Kudos to the crew and band for fighting through this, and it was good to see Lucinda smile at least, at last. Knoxville hail-on-the-bus exponentially ratcheted up this evening, never a dull moment.
Boys, I appreciate your confidence in me (I think), as expressed above.
When Parker told me in Tulsa that KC’s was an outdoor venue, I thought little of it. Fortunately, there was no opener; the skies let loose about 8:30-8:45, and Lu walked on at 9:30 or a bit after with a “quite a night, huh?”–the lightning/thunder had subsided, but it was drizzling. After the first song, she said “I’m not going to talk much, so as to get as many songs as possible in before curfew.”
1 Can’t Let Go
2 Right in Time
3 2 Kool 2 B 4 Gotten [during which I retreat under shelter stage left, fortunately having a VIP ticket]
4 Convince Me
5 I Lost It
6 Well Well Well
7 Born to Be Loved
8 Lake Charles [solo]
9 Buttercup
10 Those Three Days [aborted after a few words/Lu starts a series of f-bombs, most interestingly as an adjective in front of the word “sprinkles,” surely some of the best reverse hyperbole heard in awhile/Lu compares this venue to Fayetteville, which moved show indoors, says there should be an “option” to do it here, as “the fans deserve better”/goes on to talk about people leaving and her starting an hour late and “My blood sugar level”/and yes, uses the word “meltdown” herself]
10a Out of Touch
11 REal Live Bleeding…
12 Essence
13 Changed the Locks
14 Honeybee
_____________________rest in a minuteSpot on, Parker–nice meeting you and your wife, also coffee4throad who handed along a fine gift CD and knows his Dylan in and out.
“Ventura” was a tour/Blake debut I think, beautiful.
“Technical difficulties” plagued the start of “I Lost It,” so Lu went back to the well on the bumper sticker/I found it background intro as a bridge to the song.
Between song 14 and 15, Lu took time to reference multiple names among the opener-de-jour (my phrase not hers) pattern of this tour. Jesse Aycock (last night’s) was someone she was listening to in LA and on the bus prior to the Cain’s show; she seemed delighted that he was chosen to open. Amos Lee was plugged (much applause) for the future, and Erika Wennestrom of the Heartless Bastards was cited as an example of a successful (and more) recent-past opener.
All that said, I wouldn’t call the atmosphere or the crowd the most sterling of the tour. When I can mill and roam and chat and return up front seconds before Lu’s walk-on and still easily nab a rail-hugging spot (stage-Sutton), something’s amiss (though no complaints about the perch). There was the guy behind me who delighted in informing everyone that Lucinda was 63 (!?!) years old; there was the third guy in line who announced that his first exposure to Lu was Talladega Nights (no shame in that, but I thought I was a late bloomer, damn). Parker and wife, coffee4 and I were hustled out of the house less than 2 minutes after “Get Right with God” ended, landing on the North Main sidewalk to observe an already dimmed venue sign (which never had a marquee with performers’ names to start with). All kudos to Lu’s team and crew–but the local boys were less than impressive. I don’t care how historic the house is (and yes, the stars out front in the pavement with names like Cindy Walker and Tommy Duncan were nice to see, as were the framed photos inside of Bob Wills and so on), I wouldn’t call Cain’s a top-drawer venue for its fans.
I felt a little guilty near night’s end that I hadn’t paid much heed to Jesse Aycock and his sideman earlier, given Lu’s plug. But there you have it. The holding pen of a smoking area had a nice angle on the signage and on dusky downtown Tulsa. I could make repeated trips to the bleachers to chat up Parker. Crowd density is desired from one perspective of course, but sparsity keeps it pleasant in another sense.
@Lafayette wrote:
I’m impressed, stoger, you knew David was former JM guitarist. Common knowledge or did you use a cheat sheet? 😆
WELL, I SIMPLY TURNED TO TOUR MANAGER ERIC AFTER THE SET AND ASKED “WHERE HAVE I SEEN THAT NAME GRISSOM IN LINER NOTES? WHO HAS HE PLAYED WITH? THE “M” BOYS–MELLENCAMP AND MCMURTRY–DOMINATED HIS ANSWER. YOU’D BE SURPISED HOW MUCH I “CHEAT” FOR MY INFO ON THIS FORUM 😀 . . .
Even more JM references in this thread. Mellencamp’s 2001 effort was titled “Cuttin’ Heads.” 😉I have to agree, Lu has a tight band with the addition of Blake. Not to be forgotten is David. I always feel like the bass player in a band plays the role of an offensive or defensive lineman—protecting the quarterback or opening up holes for the running back— a key player that seldom gets the recognition they deserve.
Thanks for the reports all! Apologies for raining on your setlist parade, stoger.
