Ned Flanders: I'm going to a Christian rock concert.
[holds up two tickets reading "Chris Rock in Concert"]
Ned Flanders: It's gonna be one wholesome evening!
--The Simpsons, "Children of a Lesser Clod" (5/13/01)
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Last Sunday, GF and I traveled down to Wolf Trap to see Lucinda Williams' show. It was my first trip to that particular venue, although I've been to a couple like it: A few years back I got to see Radiohead at Merriweather Post Pavilion, and the summer before I moved down here I was at the Phish show at what was then the Garden State Arts Center, now the PNC Bank Arts Center.
(Looking at that list alone, I'm thinking that I've got some eclectic taste in my concerts. I've also been to the Allman Brothers at Jones Beach (twice), Foreigner at Jones Beach, Billy Joel and Rod Stewart at Nassau Coliseum, Paul McCartney at RFK Stadium, Tool at the Verizon Center, and I've also seen Taylor Dayne, Jane Wiedlin, the Subdudes, 24-7 Spyz and a few others at private events. Hm. This is rather boosting the argument rather than refuting it...)
The show was slated for 8:00, but we presumed that that time was reserved for the opening act, Charlie Louvin. Charlie is real old-school country music; in fact he and his brother toured as the Louvin Brothers until, career-wise, they parted ways the year I was born. Now, that's old-school.
Louvin just released an album a few months ago, with some pretty interesting guests on it, so I ordered a copy of the CD to see what it was about. It's not bad but it's not really my speed, either. At least I had some idea of what I'd be hearing.
We got to the venue at almost exactly 8:00, parked the car and made our way in. Sure enough, Charlie Louvin had just started. There was something not quite right about the sound coming from him and his band but it didn't occur to me until later on that it was because I was hearing a lot of the sounds that the audience made coming through the amps, almost as though the crowd was miked. GF and I staked out a patch of grass on the slope above the walkway, where we had a decent view. Not having been there before, I decided to wander around and see if there were any fun souvenirs to be had.
There are two souvenir stands at Wolf Trap (that I saw). One was devoted entirely to Wolf Trap stuff. (It is a national park, after all; government needs their cut.) The other one held the artist-type materials. There wasn't any Louvin stuff except for the CD. For Lucinda Williams, there were CDs, assorted T-shirts and some keychains. At that point I didn't buy anything. I got some beverages and re-joined GF.
Louvin finished at almost 9:00 and I took another walk around. As I got closer to the artist souvenir stand I noticed that several of the T-shirt sizes were out of stock. I figured I'd better move. That's when I realized that there what were seemingly identical shirts (designated #1 and #4) were, in fact, different: each shirt represented a different leg from the tour. The #4 shirt was from the previous leg, which is why it was only $15. However, the shirts in my size from the current tour were gone. I confirmed this with the woman behind the counter, and she noted that I was correct. As I ordered a #4 in my size, she suddenly realized that she had a #1 that was just returned by a customer. It was the one draped over her shoulder. Kismet! So I got a shirt from the current tour.
Lucinda Williams is a fantastic performer. The arrangements change only a little bit from the CDs, but always for the better. She's truly a perfectionist: at one point she stopped a song about a minute in because there was something she didn't like about the mix. Then they simply started over again. There must have been a technical glitch we didn't know about because, early on, there were several between-song consultations with band members and with some of the crew, and she told us that "we had a set list, but set lists are made to be broken."
Lucinda (see how we're pals, now?) had a little story in between each song, which gave us a little of the backstory involved, and she seemed to be genuinely touched and impressed by the reception that the audience gave her. Maybe it's a put-on, but I kind of liked it.
In the end, I had a great time and would certainly return for another show. I'm thinking about going to see the live broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion" in the spring.
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