Great concert tonight (wait, this is becoming concertblog, I’ll have to stop that). Mare and I bought last-minute tix to see Lucinda Williams come to the Malkin Bowl and put on a show. Kelly Joe Phelps opened, playing some great acoustic guitar with solid blues vocals. The rain started to spray a bit, which didn’t help the outdoor venue, but by the time Lucinda came out it was pretty decent.
For the first couple of songs it looked like she might have maybe had a bit too much pre-concert juice, but she settled in pretty quick and started to get things going with Pineola and Drunken Angel back to back, two of my favourites. After that she invited people to come to the stage to dance which of course made things packed instantly. That got the crowd going even more, though, and Unsuffer Me really set things to a new level. She was definitely feeling more Texas Rock than Blues for most of the night and belted out some great gravelly vocals. Towards the end, though, she got back to Blues and played Joy, inviting Colin Linden on stage with Kelly Joe coming back to join the band as well. Great guitar-off between 3 solid players with an extended set of solos to close off the regular set.
One spectator that had an especially good blues-head going on was Colin James. He was sitting about 4 rows up, close to the aisle. Pretty discreet all around, definitely enjoying the show. I think it’s only fair that we include a picture of him enjoying Lucinda:
Try to imagine the head rocking back and forth, yup that’s Colin ;).
Lucinda came back for an encore and began to play a couple of standards, but that’s when the rain finally hit and her crew pulled the plug. Wish I had my Nikon with me for that as the shot of the band playing with the rain coming down was amazing. Oh well, had Mare’s little Pentax and at least got some memory pics. Not much to look at but this one does give a feel for the evening:
Another great show, hope this continues on into Rogers Waters next week!
But hey, by about halfway through the show it didn’t matter. Forget that, two songs into the show and it was worth it. Message In A Bottle to open, closing with Next To You (in the second encore). Here’s what they played:
