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Jeez, would I take this setlist and the extra 5 songs… hands down…over listening to Amos for an hour plus.
Thx for the setlist, west words.
couple notes:
Lu gave a brief shout out of condolences for Clarence (and Bruce) before Copenhagen.
Amos Lee got a lot of time, finished around 9:15. Got a good reaction from the crowd, but for me an ok’ish band, and he got kind of tiresome for me. No real desire to see him again…gives me a little more time to get to the Beacon tonight.
First time hearing Blake with the band, loved the atmosopheric touches he gives, lots of nearly synth and pedal steel like tones (in addition to his rocking solos)….added a lot of depth, perfect spookiness for Copenhagen.
Butch smashes the drums even harder than I remember, he is nearly bouncing out of his seat during Unsuffer Me.
Wellmont continues to be a great venue for a show, tonight I got there around 7:30 and was still comfortably able to stroll up 6 people or so back from Blake.
On to NYC.
It seems like the “natural” length of Lu’s shows have typically been closer to 20 songs, or near 2 hours….some of the really special ones stretch out longer, but it is not like she normally plays 90 minutes or 16 songs (thankfully). It also sure looks like the show is either sold out or real close, always nice to give a packed house something extra.
I saw Amos Lee a couple years back when he opened for Dylan, he was ok to listen to and I wouldn’t mind hearing him again…but clearly I ain’t schlepping to NYC and spending a worknight out late to see him, in fact unless he is really good tonight at the Wellmont I may blow his set off Thursday. Plus, I’d gladly trade his entire set for 2 or 3 more songs by Lucinda and band.
Lastly, we all know the curfew isn’t a hard and fast rule…it is a financial rule. Always a possibility to spend the money on overtime and give the crowd a thrill. This venue has the same rules and same curfew as the Garden (owned by the same group). Two years ago I had to leave a Neil Young show at MSG during the last song because my parking lot closed at 1AM (I left the venue around 12:45). Bruce pretty regularly blows past the curfew, sometimes significantly.
Thanks Stoger for keeping us up to date from the road…some nice songs getting out into the rotation so far.
Cool. The album shows were fantastic and I’m sure would work well, although they obviously wouldn’t be new and man, they’d be tough to top. I like the “decades” approach, kind of a different spin on the albums idea (and you can get special guests associated with that decade, etc).
A slight variation on the acoustic/electric idea would be to do two sets, an opening acoustic set…intermission…roaring electric set. Personally, I’d miss the electric component in an acoustic format and vice versa.
Whatever you guys come up with will be worthwhile, I’m sure! Hate to be greedy, since you do seem to play NJ and NY quite a bit, but once you work through Chi town make sure you come on back for these shows.
Yup, pls keep those setlist reports coming in!
(Got to imagine that AC/DC cover is going to stay in the set down there)
Btw, I bought a “Buick Six” shirt from the Friendly Forum’s famous friend Susannah last Sat. No discount on that one. I plan to wear it at my next Dylan show, knowing full well that Bob won’t play that song live ever again.
Don’t ever bet on Dylan not doing something…they’ve played Billy and One More Cup of Coffee so far at the first 2 shows of the tour.
I wore my “West” shirt at both Dylan and Springsteen shows last year.
With the new band some of the songs that really blew me away this tour were different than in the old B6 configuration. I normally gravitate toward a more rocking sound, but some of the slower tunes like Blue, Greenville, Side of The road and the blues numbers (Can’t Let Go, Things We Used To Do, Disgusted) seemed to really jump out with the new band. With Doug wailing away stuff like Joy, Rigtheously, Rock Star and particularly in my opinion Unsuffer Me really shined. It may take a while for a combination of the setlists and the band to gell.
Sounds like a nice, long show. 28 (or 27 and a half songs) is really getting up there. Must have been kind of a funny seque from Fruits and the beginning of Over Time to a “f it” lets just stand up and rock.
Review from Philly Inquirer:
A night of rocking country
By David R. Stampone
For The Inquirer
Ten tunes into Lucinda Williams’ sold-out Keswick Theater concert Friday, the satisfied crowd might have thought it had heard the theme of the show.
Undeniably one of America’s greatest living songwriters, the intermittently acoustic-guitar-strumming Williams had intently swayed through track after compelling track, mostly slower country-tinged numbers assaying unrequited love or flat-out tragedy. (“Drunken Angel” is the latter, a poetic 1998 lament for murdered tunesmith Blaze Foley). Even the set’s second selection, “Happy Woman Blues,” the folkishly chugging title track from the 56-year-old auteur’s second album (1980), was ultimately downhearted: “Tryin’ hard to be a happy woman/ But sometimes life just overcomes me.”
But not even halfway through the 24-song set, these countrified ditties gave way to more rocked-out songs, peaking with an encore set that offered the 1,300 listeners a closing vintage AC/DC cover, “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll).”
Maybe there was an early hint of music to come in Williams’ solo reading of “Passionate Kisses,” her Grammy-winning 1988 song that first brought her greater attention via Mary Chapin Carpenter’s hit cover: “Is it too much to demand?/ I want a full house and a rock-and-roll band.”
The dark-haired woman in the black leather jacket at center stage had that, in the form of the versatile Buick 6, Williams’ regular backing band. Perhaps energized by the arrival of new guitarist Eric Schermerhorn (replacing longtime member Doug Pettibone), the lethal, dual-guitar four-piece fired off at will Friday. Indeed, as on “Real Love” – a romance-achieved celebratory rocker off Williams’ ninth album, last October’s upbeat Little Honey – many tunes had Schermerhorn and his six-string compadre Chet Lyster squaring off like a tasty roots-rock version of Television’s art-punk ax-slingers Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd.
The guitarists’ stinging bluesy leads and spectral quavers gave Williams’ material a palpable potency that made her repeatedly praise the room’s good sound. After delivering such encore covers as Guitar Slim’s “Things I Used to Do” and Lil’ Son Jackson’s “Disgusted” (featured on her 1978 debut), she returned to uncoil a country-funk take on Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 classic “Ode to Billie Joe.”
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20090309_A_night_of_rocking_country.htmlI was absolutely a fan of Doug’s…I’ll remember for a long time standing dead in front of him at Irving Plaza watching him shred on World Without Tears night. But we all have to move on, if the band and Lu need to grow and develop things must change.
The new band’s sound is a bit smoother and maybe more organic in my opinion. Eric relies a lot less on the effects pedals. Righteously, which was a base for Doug to solo gloriously from in the past now has a more cohesive flow. If the band sound was a soup (if this analogy makes sense), the Doug version of the band was a spicy Thai soup, with sharp bursts of chile. The new band is more a gumbo, the spiceness is still there but now incorporated a bit more in the overall mix.
Basically, I miss Doug a bit less than I thought I would while listening to the new B6. It’s not as if the new band doesn’t rock.
ok, now with a bit of sleep:
I agree with Ray about the subdued/reflective mood. Looking at this show on paper I expected a set more on the rocking side, especially compared with the seated Keswick show the night before. Definetely still worked though, at least from the very front.
I can’t recall any venue where the audience can get quite that close to the stage. There is no pit or barrier, the crowd comes right to the front, plus they seem to set up the band very close to the front edge. The first row could easily reach out and grab Lu’s mic stand. In fact the two women dfc reached out and peeled off the setlist between encores, which seems a bit much. I was one back from them and figure Lu was no more than 6 feet away.
As in most venues, soundwise you’re probably better back a little bit. Particularly would make sense here as they have small fill in speakers mounted right on the front of the stage and if you are next to one that is mostly what you hear. I got a chance to look around the venue a bit post show and it seems like some really nice spots to hang, they have three built in levels on the floor and the first “step” right behind the soundboard with a low barrier to put drinks seems like it would be primo if you’re comfortable 15 or so rows back.
I know Montclair a bit, and heard horror stories about parking. I grabbed a spot on a side street about 1/3 of a mile of so from the venue and am glad I did, the area right around the venue is jammed post show plus you’ve got the stress of a ton of flashing blue lights besides.
If not sold out had to be very, very close especially on the floor.
I took a quick look at the stage setlist post show and there were no changes, not even any song choices listed.
Eric tried to get David to take a bass solo during Joy, no dice.
Thanks for the last couple nights Lu, catch you next time.
