Concert Catch Up (11/5/05 - 11/10/05) 3 shows



So last night was another great night at the Barking Spider. I was hanging out with my friend Leo and while enjoying some great music I started to talk a little about my frustration with this blog. I'm a firm believer in identifying stressful things in your life and doing your best to eliminate them. The problem being that this blog is one of the few things that really excite me. I talked about being so far behind on my shows (not wanting to start blogging them out of order) and how that really impedes on what I could be writing about currently. Leo came up with the idea of just briefly documenting multiple shows in one entry. Kind of a simple idea, but a good one. So I'm here at the Spider again tonight (seeing Brooks West) and I'm going to hammer out a couple shows.

Then this week I'm going on an 8 day vacation to Mexico to visit D (who's been getting his Masters down there) and vacation out at Puerto Vallarta (with several stops between Mexico City and PV). So I'll be back on the posting bandwagon after that (purposely choosing to not bring my laptop with me).

G. Love & Special Sauce / Marlboro 50th Birthday Party (11/5/05)

This was an interesting show because Marlboro had taken over the Cleveland Agora for this 50th Anniversary Party, and the only access was through a promotion for Marlboro smokers. You received a mailing with a number to call to reserve tickets - and it was a free show. Through the transformed gates into the show, you were constantly greeted by smiling Marlboro reps. There were food tables setup EVERYWHERE, and they played live rock concerts on the big screen. We all just ate and watched the concerts waiting for G. Love. Security was tight! As the show began I saw people getting escorted out left and right for taking pictures with their phones...

G. Love was CUTE. I really had no idea. I had a couple of his older albums (where his face is not prominently represented) and never really caught up with him since then, nor had ever actually SEEN him. Very cool guy. My best description of his music was Jack Johnson meets Jason Mraz with a little B. B. King and Justin Timberlake! I know know... what the hell. Anyway, I was getting frustrated with the tight security and once I knew I was ready to leave, I busted out my Treo 600 and snapped a shot. Instantly I was tapped on the shoulder and briskly escorted out by two (very angry) guards. I don't know what the hell was up with that, but I was happy to leave.

Now while the actual picture is crap and I probably wouldn't have ever included it... I'm going to just because they were such dicks about it. :)

Dar Williams & Girlyman (11/8/05)

At this point, I'm on a concert-roll (November was a busy month)!! And this is where this summation thing is kinda disappointing, because Dar really deserves a blog entry and a half! (whatever that means). Unfortunately we missed most of Girlyman, but we were able to catch Nate's version of "Son of a Preacher Man" with Dar's band. After seeing that the floor (HOB) was blocked off for this show (first time seeing that) we exchanged our tickets with just enough time to grab a front row seat!! Though it was disappointing that this show wasn't better attended.

Dar was a beautiful, charming, funny, and just plain old wonderful - as she always is. Very refreshing after the G. Love experience. She played lots of new songs, which was very cool. Julie Wolf was performing with her, and she even sang "The One Who Knows" solo. Next she played one of my favorite songs "After All" which has my favorite lines:

Well the sun rose with so many colors
It nearly broke my heart
And worked me over like a work of art
And I was a part of all that

You should take a listen to it:

I ended the night buying a Dar t-shirt. I even paid $25 for it, and I'd only do that for Dar. (unfortunately, no photos for this show)

David Mead / Jesse Payne (11/10/05)

Wilbert's is a great venue, though I feel bad for the people I've seen because there's hardly anyone ever there. I had a couple older albums of David's that I never listened to, but because he was going to Wilberts, I decided to give the show a shot. I sat at the bar, wearing my newly purchased Dar shit and ordered food. The bartender mentioned the shirt and then proceeded to tell me how she was the show, stayed afterward and ended up getting drunk with Dar for 2 hours after the show! Ugh. How disappointing that I didn't think to stay around...

Jesse Payne started the show. He was fine... hard to live up to after just seeing Dar. David definitely had the Irishman looking to him, with his red hair and and a wool jacket (and whatever kind of hat that is). Being so few people there, he stated that "the intimacy of the situation warranted introductions." I think there were 6 of us there. His show was great. Very similar to Josh Rouse, but he really stepped it up a lot. This live show was much better than the pop-produced earlier albums I have. He also was very fun and had a great sense of humor. At one point, even even walked into the "crowd" to get us riled up. He even joked about this being his first time in Cleveland "as we may have deduced from our numbers." He proceeded to switch between the guitar, piano and eukelele. He finished the show with a British folk song... The Darkness' " I Believe In a Thing Called Love"!

Afterward we chatted at the bar for a bit. We realized we both write in the same Moteleskine notebook, and he threw his at me to prove it. I'd definitely go see him again.

Posted: Sat - July 8, 2006 at 01:32 AM           |

©