Guitar and Pen

Lucinda Williams & The Decemberists

Hi Mitch and Gini,

Just got back from a weekend in LA where I saw two killer concerts. Live music makes me feel alive, and I'm pretty happy after this slurge.

Lucinda Williams was amazing from the third row, but her opening act almost blew her away. She is an Aussie named Anne McCue who got a bunch of Texans to back up her alt country Lucinda-ish pop. Sexy and funny with catchy songs, she plays her own guitar leads. Some are slow like Kurt Cobain, and at the end she let it rip with Steely Dan like speed. Great stuff, and lots of us bought her CD. She even signed mine.

But Lucinda was of a greater magnitude. That woman dominates! She is a nice, mean, moody, powerful, sexy, foul mouthed, sweet little wailer. She charmed the audience, berated the sound guy, mixed up the band with set list changes, all in the same three seconds. Her voice was strong and booming. She played many songs from her new album that will be out in February. There's an amazing one called "Un Suffer Me", and a sweet ballad with more chords than she usually uses. Good stuff. She is such an unscripted, off the cuff, distracted speaker. Brilliant!


Saturday I saw the Decemberists about 10 rows back from the stage with 2 old college buddies. One made the comment "This is the nicest crowd I've ever seen; too nice." Unfortunately, the opening act was Lavender Diamond, easily the very worst band I have ever seen.



This Decemberists show was probably the closest I will ever get to the feeling at the raucus Kinks shows of the early 70s. People love those songs. We all knew all the words (even to the new album) and Colin encouraged singing along. The way he worked the front row and clowned around while singing and playing very well reminded me of Ray Davies back in the day. It was hilarious and uplifting, a dose of much needed positive energy.

They played most of their new album beneath a beautiful gigantic reproduction of the Japanese print inside The Crane Wife. The title songs are based on a Japanese folk tale, so they had giant red paper lanterns above their heads; it was beautiful and otherwordly, like their songs. 16 Military Wives closed the show with full on high energy, but a highlight for me was the slow and peaceful take on Myla Goldberg which had everyone frozen in a trance, just listening.

Brilliant!

aloha,

Jim
http://www.familysmart.blogspot.com/
http://myspace.com/jimsmartsongs