Neil Young w/ Bert Jansch, Palace Theater, Louisville, KY - 5/26/2010

I'll save folks some suspense and say that this was a bit of a letdown. I love - love - Neil Young, and the last time I saw him, it was pretty spectacular. I had great seats (10th row, dead center) and was very, very excited to see him solo acoustic so up close.

I rolled into Louisville and met up with a guy at Ear X-tacy to sell my extra ticket, which went off without a hitch (thanks, craigslist). Afterward, I parked downtown, grabbed some sushi, and then had a couple beers near the Palace Theater (where I'd been once before to see Wilco with My Morning Jacket opening - a great show) at Bluegrass Brewing Company ... good stuff.

I was in the venue right after the doors opened as I was pretty pumped to see Bert Jansch, a celebrated guitarist and English folk player, probably best known for his classic "Black Waterside."

He came out, sat down with his acoustic guitar, and just played a low key, technically bewildering set. His feel is just superb. (And yes, "Black Waterside" was the third song in the set.) This was a real thrill for me, I'll be honest.

So we waited (I was definitely one of the younger folks at a show for a change, thank you very much), and then Neil came out and launched into a killer 3-opener on acoustic guitar (see below). This was probably worth the price of admission alone, I'll be honest. Hearing him play "Tell Me Why" was beyond words.

He then played 3 new songs, and just as the last time I saw him with a full band, his new songs are just terrible. I'd even say they were somewhat trite. It's such a shame, and it's underscored by how powerful his old songs remain. He then blasted into "Down By the River" with electric guitar (full distortion and everything) but obviously solo. It was weird but worked. "Ohio" was also played the same way, and it killed, especially in light of the recent 40-year anniversary of the Kent State killings.

Things went quite stale after "Ohio" for me ... the new songs were terrible, "After the Gold Rush" was great, "I Believe In You" didn't work that well, and the end with Neil playing full bore electric by himself for "Cortez" and "Cinnamon Girl" just seemed bizarre to me. The encore was another not so great new song, and that was it ... 90 minutes, done.

He's still a great performer (not on the level of Tom Waits in terms of players from his generation, but probably better than most anyone else ... Dylan comes to mind directly as an icon who has simply fallen from grace in terms of performing), but the new songs were just unspeakably bad to me. Ah well ...

Also ... Louisville is such a pretty town with some of the coolest bike racks this side of New York City ...

1. My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
2. Tell Me Why
3. Helpless
4. You Never Call (new)
5. Peaceful Valley (new)
6. Love And War (new)
7. Down By The River
8. Hitchhiker (new)
9. Ohio
10. Sign Of Love (new)
11. Leia (new) (piano)
12. After The Gold Rush (organ)
13. I Believe In You (piano)
14. Rumblin' (new)
15. Cortez The Killer
16. Cinnamon Girl
---
17. Walk With Me (new)

Tribute to Alex Chilton for Nashville Flood Relief, Mercy Lounge, Nashville, TN - 2/21/2010

I was heading down to Nashville for other reasons this past weekend and, lo and behold, Mercy Lounge announces a benefit for Nashville flood victims that is at the same time a tribute to the late, great Alex Chilton (one of my all time musical heroes) featuring Jody Stephens (the original drummer of Big Star) as well as multiple other local and Southern musicians whom I'd be pretty stoked to see in general.

My buddy Aaron and I headed up around 10 just as David Vandervelde was finishing up a nice solo take on "Take Care."  This was followed by nice solo versions of "I'm in Love With a Girl" and "Thirteen" by Carl Broemmel from My Morning Jacket (see photo).

Next up was the de facto "house band," featuring Jody Stephens on drums, Chris Stamey of the dB's on guitar and vocals and Mitch Easter on guitar and vocals.  They sounded amazing together, obviously seasoned musicians to a tee.  They also played a great selection of classic Big Star:

"I Am The Cosmos" (Chris on vocals)
"When My Baby's Beside Me" (Chris on vocals)
"Way Out West" (Jody on vocals)
"Kizza Me" (Mitch on vocals)

Then came a local Nashville power pop band called Joe, Marc's Brother, who also sounded insanely tight and did a great job with "Jesus Christ" and "Thank You Friends," followed by the house band (without Jody on drums now) doing "Life is White," "In The Street," "Don't Lie to Me," and "The Letter" (with a couple of the original Box Tops coming up to play, too).  It was very celebratory and just sounded great.  These tunes are so good, though, that one could argue that they are hard to mess up.

The end came with Brendan Benson (of the Raconteurs, etc.) getting up to lead the band through a shambling but charming "O My Soul" and, to close, of course, "September Gurls."  This was a great night of music, and if there's any problem I had, it was that a serious segment of the crowd didn't seem all that familiar with the Big Star catalog.  But this was, at the end of the day, simply fantastic.

My Morning Jacket, LC Pavilion, Columbus, OH - 5/2/2010

It was looking like it would be a wet, heavy storms kind of night, and I'd been excited about this show for months.  Anyone who reads this knows I've been a pretty big fan of MMJ since 2003-2004, but they are a very different band than they were then - not worse per se, just different.  I fell in love with the high lonesome Neil Young folky Southern rock that they put out back in the At Dawn and It Still Moves era, and this is still my favorite stuff of theirs, but I can (and, to some extent, have learned to) appreciate their later output on its own merits.  I'd even say that Evil Urges has, shockingly, aged quite well for me.

The weather held out, thankfully, and it turned into an overcast, cool evening - kind of perfect, really.  We got in just as the Preservation Hall Jazz Band was ending their set.  It sounded fine and like a nice intro (and typically kooky one) to MMJ.

They came out a little after 8 PM with both guns blazing (see toy guns on Jim James' hips above) and, as is typical of them, sounded great.  The shaggy dog awesome-ness that they once projected has been replaced by a bit more professional sheen than I care for, but like I said, I've come to appreciate their current sound on its own.  A couple of new songs/covers were thrown in, but this was very similar to the last time I saw them (at this same venue, in fact).  The encore with the horn section was awesome, and some of these songs will always give me goosebumps ("Golden," "The Way That He Sings," "Lay Low").

And that was a pretty awesome 5-song opening run ... I mean, damn ...

On - 8:15

One Big Holiday
Off The Record
Gideon
I'm Amazed
Mahgeetah
Tonight I Want to Celebrate with You
Golden
Where to Begin
Lay Low
The Way That He Sings
Wonderful (The Way That I Feel)
Carried Away (new song, Carl singing lead)
Don Dante
Smokin' from Shootin'-> end of Run Thru
Touch Me I'm Going to Scream
Anytime

Wordless
Evil Urges w PHJB
Highly Suspicious w PHJB
Carnival Time w PHJB
Dancefloors w PHJB (!!!!)
Move On Up w PHJB

Off - 10:35