a drunk guitar strap
As regular blog readers know, one of my favorite live performers is Rhett Miller. I’m lucky that he is based in the area and performs laid-back solo shows around here (usually in lovely, tiny venues) quite often.
The most recent show was March 23 at City Winery. Before that, my previous two outings to see him had been failures: Last September, it was a back injury two days before the show that kept me from going. (And that was a great show, based on the recording that my friend kindly provided.) In January, it was the inconsiderate yappers behind me who drowned out the music.
[caption id=”attachment_4115220273" align=”alignleft” width=”300" caption=”I even took some terrible photos for you. No flash in a dark room does not yield good results for us non-experts.”]
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This show, however, was free of both back pain and blabbermouths, so I got to enjoy it for what it was: a loose, boozy, all-acoustic, extra-long set of his own songs, Old 97’s songs, and a few covers, with plenty of the patented windmill-arm motion on the guitar and comedic bits between songs. Perfect. Exactly what I’d been hoping to see again.
The performance began with a momentarily frightening entrance, as his guitar somehow came loose and started to tumble off the front of the stage. (Fortunately, this was City Winery, not some amphitheater, which meant the fall would have been stopped by a table within about five feet.) “My guitar strap is drunk — not me,” he explained. Ah.
The setlist included a bunch of new songs from his forthcoming album The Dreamer (which is being financed through the very cool PledgeMusic crowdfunding model). I’ve only heard each one, at most, a couple times now at recent shows, but they seem, as a whole, to be… earnest? Simple? These are not bad things. Of course, they may sound completely different on the album, anyway.
Even though much of the between-songs banter wound up being pretty funny, we were promised a plain ol’ joke in the event of guitar string breakage. A string broke on “Barrier Reef” (crowd favorite, with a surprisingly energetic singalong!), so we were treated to a classic, non-family-friendly joke just before the next song, which was one of the new ones. (It included whistling.)
[caption id=”attachment_4115220272" align=”alignleft” width=”225" caption=”Another photo attempt.”]
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An audience member named Misty offered to climb on stage and sing the female vocals on the duet “Fireflies” (sung by Rachael Yamagata on the album). I was, admittedly, nervous about how this would turn out, but she clearly knew the song and had a great voice. Slightly Rachael Yamagata-like, in fact. Success!
As for the covers, I would’ve loved to hear “California Stars” again, but we did get “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” and “Free Fallin.’” Here’s the full setlist:
A State Of Texas
My Valentine
The El
Buick City Complex
[New song 1 — title not mentioned]
No Baby I
Champaign, Illinois
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
[New song 2 — just acoustic guitar on album]
Big Brown Eyes
Nobody Says I Love You Anymore
Melt Show
Let The Whiskey Take The Reins
Fireflies
[New song 3]
Nineteen
Barrier Reef
[New song 4 — whistling]
Cryin’ Drunk
No Simple Machine
Every Night Is Friday Night (Without You)
Our Love
Encore:
Free Fallin’
Come Around
Time Bomb
