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Three of my favorite bands all use lyric books or sheets. Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies has a book. Bob Dylan now uses printed lyric sheets he lays on an unused pedal steel. Bruce Springsteen uses a teleprompter. I’m sure there are others I’m not thinking of now.
I can’t remember a 20 song setlist without writing it down; I don’t find an artist referring to lyrics onstage as a problem.
Thanks for the reports from Sunday’s show…I was wondering when they’d appear, would have loved to have caught this show (Essence is probably my favorite Lu album), but can’t do everything. Wanna be sedated had to be fun. Keep those setlists and reports coming!!!
I haven’t checked my WWT disk yet from NYC yet (it’s in the car for the ride home tonight)….the edit doesn’t surprise me though, from my watch she started the album around 9:25 and finished around 11:05….100 minutes or so. With the luxury of some time post show, I’m sure they could have edited out the false starts, etc and trimmed the sucker to 80 minutes…but given the time constraints they had to do something.
Modulus, it must have been shocking to you to see a band with people who’s hair isn’t coiffered impeccably. A guitar player who brings 8 guitars on the stage! Wow, none of the good guitarists do that. The singer sometimes consults the words…those excellent bands who play the same setlist night after night never need to do this…some have even evolved to the point that they don’t even need to sing live…the advanced technology does it for them! Doesn’t that sound like fun, Modulus? You must go to a lot of concerts!
At least you mostly kept your opinion to yourself during the show, which I do appreciate, seriously.
But, Modulus, in the words of Bob Dylan (another artist by the way that does all the things you critique Lu for) “I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes…”Here’s a solid review of the show from today’s Star Ledger by someone who’s seen one of two shows before.
Changing her tune
Running the emotional gamut, Lucinda shows more range
Saturday, September 29, 2007
BY JAY LUSTIG
Star-Ledger Staff
ROCK“See, I’m full of all kinds of surprises,” Lucinda Williams said Thursday night after singing “Honey Bee.” This new, not-yet-recorded number was a gritty blues, with sexually suggestive lyrics delivered in a tough but flirtatious way. Imagine Chrissie Hynde gone roots rock.
The show, which took place at the Shea Center for the Performing Arts at William Paterson University in Wayne, had plenty of other moments where Williams could have used the full-of-surprises line, as well.
She covered “Riders on the Storm” by the Doors — not exactly a band you’d think a blues- and folk-rooted artist like her would have much interest in. In a long, rambling introduction to her song, “Fancy Funeral,” she railed against the funeral-home industry. “Are You Down?” — which, as she explained, was inspired by Brazilian music — was as laid-back as the rest of the show was intense.
Williams, who was backed by a casually masterful four-piece band, is a veteran singer-songwriter who has been releasing albums since 1979, but hit her stride in the late ’80s and hasn’t let up since.
She played one of her five best albums, in its entirety, during the first set of each of her five recent Los Angeles shows, with other material in the second half. She will do the same at each of her five upcoming New York performances. (The Doors’ Robby Krieger actually guested at one of the L.A. shows, and Williams says she has been performing “Riders on the Storm” since then.)
Thursday’s concert did not have a full-album theme, though there was still a sharp division between the first and second halves. There was a quiet and meditative (but still deeply emotional) feel to many of the early songs, like “Rescue,” “Fruits of My Labor” and “Are You Alright?” Then she announced, “Enough of this serious folkie s—. F— art, let’s dance.” And it was pretty much all loud and explosive from then on, whether Williams was chastising an ex-lover (in “Come On”) or expressing a desire for spiritual growth (in “Unsuffer Me,” where drummer Butch Norton’s restless playing echoed Williams’ words perfectly).
Listening to her can feel like eavesdropping on a psychotherapy session, with the patient delving deeper and deeper, until a moment of catharsis is reached. “If I didn’t have this” — meaning the opportunity to write songs, and perform them — “I’d probably be in a mental institution,” she said at one point during the show.
The end of the evening was heavy on covers, with a delta-blues excursion (Lil’ Son Jackson’s “Disgusted”) and a romp through Fats Domino’s “I Lived My Life,” in addition to “Riders on the Storm.” The encore featured two more covers, both protest songs — one old (Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth”) and one relatively new (Thievery Corporation’s “Marching the Hate Machines into the Sun”).
“Peace, love, revolution,” Williams said, as she left the stage.
Veteran country singer Charlie Louvin opened the show. He initially achieved fame as half of the Louvin Brothers, a singing and songwriting team that also featured Ira Louvin, who died in 1965. Now 80, he released a self-titled album this year that included collaborations with artists like George Jones, Elvis Costello and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco.
Frail of voice but strong of spirit, he presented a fine, old-time country set, harmonizing sweetly with bassist Brent Wilson and telling corny jokes between songs. It was a rare opportunity to hear classics like “The Christian Life” and “Cash on the Barrelhead” sung by the one of the men who co-wrote them, and to hear him celebrate his old partner.
“Your voice is strong even though you’re gone … I still hear your part,” he sang in “Ira.”
Lucinda Williams, Wayne NJ September 27
Shea Center, William Paterson CollegeGreat, tiny venue. About 900 seats, arranged in a tight cluster (no center aisle, so the rows are 20+ seats across), and with nice steep theater seating. When I ordered my ticket they told me they couldn’t get me Row A, but she said she could get me center Row B. Fine. Nice surprise when I found out they don’t use Row A, since basically you can’t fold the seats down without hitting the stage. So I ended up first row, and with the steep racking essentially you are sitting at about barstool height, on the very front of the stage, maybe 3 yards from Lu. Amazing to be so high up that close to the stage. It’s astonishing that Lucinda ended up playing such a small, and as she called it, intimate venue.
I’ve been to hundreds of concerts, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard sound that good. Crystal clear, nice stereo separation between instruments and LOUD. When you can feel the thump from the strings on electric guitar solos you know you are cooking with gas. Between songs the crowd was so quiet you could hear the fans on stage.
Charlie Louvin and his band opened. Old guy with a young tight band. Seems like a nice guy, but overall a bit too country for me. I lasted most of the way through his set, then went to the lobby where I picked up the CDs of all of Lu’s El Rey shows.
Chet played second lead guitar, and took a number of the leads. Butch Norton really pounds the drums, I think the only person I ever heard who hits the drums harder may be Winston Watson (from Dylan’s early to mid 90’s band).
Ray’s got the setlist…the Buffalo Springfield song is “For What Its Worth”
After the show a woman jumped over the Row A seats and grabbed a setlist, earning some mild bashing from Flappy. I called to Flappy and asked him nicely if I could get a setlist, which he gave to me along with a signed drumskin from Butch which I hadn’t asked for, or even seen. Class act. The only changes I noticed vs the setlist was Come On and Bleeding Fingers were listed as alternates, as was Disgusted and Hard Time. Words and West were listed as alternate end songs, but neither was played. Not sure if Live My Life was on the list (setlist is sitting down in the car still, I’ll check later). Lu was on somewhere around 9:25 and off around 11:05.
On to NYC Saturday.
Thanks, this is GREAT news. It would have been a hassle to track these down otherwise and I’m happy to help support Lu and the band.
I’d love it if you can offer a lossless option.
They are onsale now…need to call the venue.
Weird process, they claimed they couldn’t tell me exactly where the seat was when booking…I called back later and found out second row center so it worked out fine.
Lots of my favorite bands use some form of lyric prompting. Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies has a lyric book. Springsteen uses a teleprompter. Dylan uses lyric sheets when playing the organ/piano. Before late 2002, I don’t think Bob used any prompting, but he would also rarely sing the song with all of the original lyrics in the right order.
I think, if anything, it’s Lu’s perfectionist streak that creates issues…I can’t recall any band having as many false starts as Lu does…she should just plow ahead, a lyric flub or two is not a big deal.
I’ve also heard all but one of these songs live previously . I thought (and still think) a lot of the songs themselves are quite strong. Unfortunately, I’m kind of in the camp of the New York Times review who panned the production…there’s just too much going on and it overwhelms the simplicty of the songs. Organs, violins, etc….it’s overkill. When you’ve got talent like Tony Garnier and Doug just let them play. I have the Best Buy version (man, I hate having to patronize places like that), and the two raw demo tracks are much stronger than the full production versions. Of course your mileage may vary.
The good news is I imagine Lu will be playing the tracks in a way much closer to the demo versions (unless Doug starts playing violin), and they should be as strong or stronger than they were in the prior live incarnations.
Plus, there should be a heck of a start to another album already ready to go.
