Alicia and I went to see Lucinda Williams play at the Theater at Madison Square Garden last night, and boy was it a great show. By my count there were at least 3 new songs from her forthcoming new album, not to mention a huge back catalog of fantastic tracks, topped of with a smattering of great (and unexpected) covers. A recipe for fun if there ever was one.
The opening act, Buick 6, was a 4-some who played a FANTASTIC (and actually pretty experimental and exciting) set of instrumentals, ranging from rockabilly and blues to straight rock and some Wilco-esque alt country jamming. I was thrilled with their musicianship, and was dying to see more by the time they wrapped their last song (Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl," the only track that had vocals)... Boy was I thrilled when they came back out and were Lucinda's band! Ha!
Lucinda came out decked out in punk-style black (a surprise) and just jumped into a few songs, singing only. By about the third song in, she had donned her acoustic guitar and began to make some noise along with the band. She kept marveling at the excellent sound quality at the Theater space (I agree) and how big it was. She was all smiles, and very conversational and joking around.
For her encore, she and the band came back out, and broke into a Fats Domino song, then Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth." She lamented the need these days for a "protest song, and said this song was still (unfortunately) as true today as it was 30 years ago. She avoided getting too "high-horse preachy" (since it was pretty obvious that her crowd there that night did not particularly lean very "left" - Alicia and I being the youngest person in the crowd by a margin of, say, 50 years!) but said emphatically that "Democrats can wear Red, White and Blue TOO!" Ballsy. Funny. A bit Bawdy. And a completely honest and engaging performance. I can't wait to see her again!
Here are a few great tracks of hers, in no particular order. If you aren't familiar with her, run, do not walk, to get her back catalogue (especially "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road," one of my Desert Island Albums!) These are my 4 favorite songs from her, and strangely enough, she played none of them... oh well.. better luck next time! Ha!
Download: Lucinda Williams: Meal Firecracker
Download: Lucinda Williams: 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
Download: Lucinda Williams: Greenville
Download: Lucinda Williams: Passionate Kisses
Enjoy!
3 comments:
I was there and agree completely. I've seen her ... hmmm...6 times now, and she was the happiest and most confident last night of all of them. For better or worse (better to me) she did more of her rockers and fewer of the Jackson-type songs. I agree it was an odd crowd - not the typical Lucinda crowd from NYC. I guess cause it was a Friday we got a good does of the "rush for the 10:44 to Ronkonkoma" crowd. Still, a killer set. Her band gets tighter and tigher each tour.
Yeah, the crowd WAS pretty funny... the all were rushing for the doors at the encore, obviously needing to catch a train! ha! And you're right about the band.. they blew me completely away. I can't WAIT to see them again! Thanks for the note... the blog is new, I'm glad to see people are "finding" it!
:) jv
Lucky dawgs. She's awesome, and I've never seen her live.
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