2004 Concerts (Part One)

As most people have probably figured out by now, I’m one of those people who chronicle everything about his life. I actually keep track of every book that I’ve read that you can buy Cliff Notes for, with an unstated goal of one day reading them all (and when I’m feeling incredibly compulsive, thinking about reading them all in alphabetical order. Which, for the record, is not going to happen). Anyway, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’ve kept track of every concert that I attended in 2004. Here’s the list by venue with comments on the show and anything else that strikes my fancy. (Concerts that made my personal top 10 list for the year are in bold). I’ll post this over two days. First, the shows on the Kansas side of the border.

Granada (Lawrence, KS)
1) Howie Day (Opening Act: Stereophonics): It’s always weird when people leave after the opening act, which was the case with this show. I wasn’t complaining since I ended up with a much better view. First time seeing Howie with a full band as his record label tried to convince him that “You’re the next John Mayer. Start acting like it. Here’s your band. Now go out there and try not to suck.”
2) The Get Up Kids (Opening Acts: Superargo, The Minus Store): Wow, where to begin. Superargo was more performance art than band but come on, they had a guy in a skullface mask dancing on stage and playing a tambourine! You really don’t expect that deep in red state country. The Minus Store had the beginning of the film 2001 playing behind them, which is a mistake because you really shouldn’t have something cooler than you on behind you. I’ll talk more about The Get Up Kids next week since I’m seeing them again on Friday but they put on a heck of a set.
3) Cowboy Junkies: Languid pop on a summer Sunday evening. Margo Timmins has just an unbelievable voice and this laid back sense of humor about everything. The show also provided me with one of my moments of the year, standing next to the stage before the show next to a security guard who I have to tell, “Dude, it’s a Cowboy Junkies show. Nothing is going to happen. At worst we’re going to tell someone to be quiet.”
4) Mindy Smith (Opening Acts: Tift Merritt, Garrison Starr): For someone who is as stuck in the alt-country gutter as I am, this was pretty much a dream bill. Everyone should own Tift and Mindy’s new records; there really is no excuse here. And yes, this is the only show in my life where I’ve ever taken a set list from the stage. That’s how cool it was.

Liberty Hall (Lawrence, KS)
1) Ani Difranco (Opening Act: Noe Venerable): There was a reason I went to this show that I won’t bother writing about here. The fact that I have tickets to see her again this year gives a pretty good indication that it was a fun show. I’ll have to post my review of this one at some point. Here’s one of my best lines from it, “It’s always fun to be at a show where you feel that to about 75% of the audience you are, in fact, the enemy.”
2) Rufus Wainwright (Opening Act: Jane Wasser): I think this show wins my award for exceeding expectations. Really didn’t think it was going to be much of anything and then Rufus with a full band puts on one of the most amazing sounding two hours that I’ve ever seen, bouncing from just him at a piano to this full orchestral sound. If you pick up his “Want Two” CD, you’ll get a DVD of this tour, which is worth checking out. Bonus points for covering Halleluiah and personal bonus points to me for spending an hour waiting in line talking to the wife of one of the KC sports radio talk show hosts.
3) Henry Rollins (spoken word show): Funny as hell. The aging alternative icon with tattoos that are fading with age at his best. Props to the parents who brought their ten-year-old daughter to the show because “She likes his voice.”
4) Damien Rice (Opening Act: The Frames): Ties for concert of the year. I swear that I’ve seen The Frames before but I can’t place the time or place. They’re a band out of Dublin that just had more fun on stage than I’ve seen in years. This was probably the only time I’ve ever seen a band break into a song from “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and it worked. Damien Rice was just absurdly good. Sometimes it would be soft acoustic moments, other times blaring feedback. The show was just transfixing. During “Woman Like a Man” you had Lisa Hannigan sitting on the stage, rocking back and forth with the music. “Amie” ended with all of the lights fading to the ceiling with Damien looping the music into this incredible whirl, staring at the sky as if the spaceships were about to land. They covered the White Stripes “Seven Nation Army” with a cello. And The Frames came back on stage for the encore where they sang Jeff Buckley’s “Last Goodbye”. Check out everything and anything you can from either band.
5) Patty Griffin (Opening Act: the guy who produced her last album): Honestly, all I can remember about this show right now is that the opening act wore these horrendous purple shoes and that there were these bird-like kites above the stage. Music was fine, just not mind-blowing like the other shows.
6) Bela Fleck and the Flecktones: Props for being the first band ever to take the stage with a theremin (the only musical instrument that you play without touching anything). In a sign that I’m not as much of a musical geek as I could be, I can appreciate the technical mastery of the band but you know, after the fourth bass solo it’s pretty much time for me to leave.
7) Robert Earl Keen (Opening Act: Kevin Montgomery): Best interaction with the crowd. “This song is going to be on my next album. Haven’t figured out a name for it yet.” “Hell yeah.” “Actually, that would be a good name for the album. ‘Have you heard the new Robert Earl Keen album? ‘Hell yeah!’”
8) Gillian Welch (Opening Act: Old Crow Medicine Show): This show really should be in my top ten. Old Crow can only be called a punk bluegrass band and were just a blast to watch. Gillian (with her partner David Rawlings) just stuns you with the simplicity of her music. What you have are two people playing guitar and singing with just two guitar pick-up mikes and two vocal mikes. The show was great except for the following: 1) an entire bank of speakers was going in and out for the entire set. So, you’ll be listening to this subdued song and suddenly it was like you went deaf in your right ear. And then someone shouted in it. 2) In what should have been the greatest concert moment of the year, Gillian and David stepped in front of the mikes (so they were truly unplugged) and sang ‘Long Black Veil’. Until the idiot in front decided to take a picture, which since the rest of the crowd was silent meant that everyone could hear the click and the film winding, causing David to almost beat the guy to death with his guitar.
9) Richard Thompson: Easily the most ambitious show of the year as he covered ‘1,000 years of popular music.’ I mean, he started with some Gregorian music, covered some Shakespeare lyrics, a few operas, a Squeeze tune, Brittney Spears ‘Oops I did it again’ and finished with Bowling for Soup’s ‘1985’. All with just two other musicians and it worked. That’s genius.

Bottleneck (Lawrence, KS)
1) Hank Williams III (Opening Act: Scott Biram): A crowd that consisted of hardcore country fans, hardcore punk fans, and a few aging hipsters like myself. Hank III grew up listening to the Sex Pistols and looks and sings like his grandfather. It is a dangerous combination.
2) Cowboy Mouth (Opening Act: some no name rock band): Maybe I just expected more but this show didn’t match my expectations. I guess when you’ve heard for years that the band will save your soul it’s got some pretty high standards to live up to. Or maybe that I’m now too old to be ordered by the drummer on a Saturday night in February to jump around and have a good time, using the same spiel as on the live album. I don’t know, I think I caught the band on a cynical night for myself.
3) Richard Buckner (Opening Act: the worst guy I’ve ever seen): Words really can’t describe how bad the opening act was. Along with a couple other people, we were trying to convince the guy working the soundboard to just kill the microphone and put the Husker Du CD back on. Richard is still the most intense guy I’ve ever seen on stage. He’ll link his songs so he can play thirty minutes non-stop and then as he switches guitars he’ll glance up at the crowd and says ‘thanks’ and then proceeds to play for another thirty minutes. Incredibly, I’ve talked to him a few times and he is always this upbeat guy, as opposed to his music, which seems to have the word “death” in every other line. I still don’t know how Volkswagen used one of his songs for a commercial.
4) Jay Farrar (Opening Act: Anders Parker): My other winner for concert of the year. I set it up as a tie because if you asked me what show I thought that anyone else would like best I would say Damien Rice but for me personally Jay Farrar topped it. It’s tough to explain without knowing my whole story. I’ve listened to Jay Farrar solo and with his bands Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo for ten years. There probably has not been a week in that time where I didn’t listen to something this guy wrote and this was the first time I ever got to see him in concert. And I got to stand right in front of the stage for the show. First incredibly cool moment: nearing the end of his set he broke out an old Son Volt song, “Tear Stained Eye” and the entire audience started singing with him. It wasn’t a, “Hey everybody, let’s do a sing along” rock star moment. The entire crowd organically joined in with him as he made his way through the song. Then the topper. Standing on stage alone, he looked at the crowd and went, “When I left home all those years ago I think that this is one of the first places that we played. And this was probably one of the songs that we played that night.” And then he started playing the Uncle Tupelo song, “Still Be Around”, which I never expected to hear performed live again. As much as what I try to write in this blog is me as a small time music critic this moment was entirely me as a fan. Getting to listen to one of those songs that has been part of the soundtrack of your life for so long it is a part of you. Just one of those transcendent moments one can achieve through music.

17 concerts down, 23 more to go. Come back tomorrow to see what I saw on the Missouri side of the border.

For those interested, the random CDs for the week.
1) Tanya Donnelly “Lovesongs for Underdogs”
2) They Might Be Giants “Flood”
3) Ryan Adams “Love is Hell Part 2”
4) The Be Good Tanyas “Chinatown”
5) Various Artists “Saturday Morning Cartoon Classics” (I’ll have to write a post about this CD)