Last week I got back to going to concerts. Last year I don’t think I saw a single new band (geezer rock doesn’t count).  So in a week where I didn’t get Radiohead tickets - I think the concert gods are smiling on me.
Spoon & The Walkmen - Electric Factory - 4/10/2008
I was surprised by the Walkmen - their albums have been interesting, but I haven’t found them all that compelling. I definitely wasn’t psyched to see them - to the extent that we got to the Electric Factory late - expecting to miss most of the opening act. They’re great live. The lead singer has kind of an odd, nasally voice, but that’s never bothered me - and I really like their arrangements. It was nice to finally see a band as opposed to singer/songwriter rocking the guitar and nothing else, but in addition to the guitar they brought with them a horn section. Good times, good times.

I was fading fast for Spoon, so that kind of affected my opinion of the show. I enjoyed myself - thought it was a really, really good show, just not great. Brit Daniels does a lot of tooling around and experimentation - and I wasn’t a big lover of the song choices, but like I said it was a really, really good show.

One thing I found interesting is that the show was sponsored by Camel cigarettes and as such was an over 21 show. Free cigarettes for everyone! Fucking marketers ;)

Kathleen Edwards & Dan Wilson
Dan Wilson started strong, closed strong and everything in the middle was excellent. He started with an acoustic version of the Dixie Chicks song “Easy Silence” which it turns out her wrote with the Chicks along with a great portion of their songs (including “Lullaby” (iTunes) which was the song Kristen walked into at our wedding). He closed with a song he wrote with his band Semisonic called “Closing Time”. I had no idea who Dan Wilson was until this point. He introduced the song be telling the audience that it was the most well hidden song about the birth of a child. As Kristen said, “I always thought it was about hooking up.”

I truly think Kathleen Edwards is going to have one of those careers. She sings about bad men, band times, and bad places. She’s only released three albums - and you probably have no idea who she is. She’s often compared to Lucinda Williams, and I hear it - but I think it’s the career that will be similar. 15 years from now, and some 7 albums later, you’ll know here name, she’ll be one of the most respected singer/songwriters of her generation, and I’ll be saying I told you so or I saw her when. A lot of people are getting that message - the TLA was as packed as I’d ever seen it.

I’m glad Edwards showed up with a full band. Too many singer/songwriters show with just their guitar - and I think that’s great, but it’s not what I want all the time. Aside from all the people who showed up who were there just for background music, it was still a great show.