Westerly, RI, 10/25/09

Very cool show. Very loose, and very audience friendly show. There was a great rapport here, a real give and take, and some very funny, unplanned, moments that really brought the artists and the audience closer together.

As you probably know, the George Kent Performance Hall was formerly the Immaculate Conception Church, and built in 1886. The acoustics are outstanding and it's considered to be the finest small concert hall in New England. Wonderful acoustics notwithstanding, the lighting left a bit to be desired, so don't expect any great pictures from me and my small Canon :).

Small here is good, as in intimate.

First Set
It Doesn't Matter Anymore
Apache
Dirty Old Town
Take Out Some Insurance
September in the Rain
If I Had a Hummer
Before & After
All the Harvests
Rien Na Va Plus
Yesterday's Gone
Willow Weep For Me
Dog House Blues

Second Set
Homeward Bound
Everyone's Gone To The Moon
Avocado
Distant Shores
Progress
Memory Song
Tell You Something Else
You Are She
Purple Haze
Zanzibar Sunset
Summer Song
I'll Be Back
You Need Feet

25 songs; 6 from their first album and 12 still officially unreleased.

You'd expect the hits to go over well, and they did, but so did the Memory Song and Tell You Something Else solos. And Avocado. They got standing ovations at the end of both sets. And they were genuinely funny, friendly, and endearing. To be frank, this show hasn't changed it's format (or content, much) over the past few years, but it still is as fresh, and as entertaining, as it was the first time I saw it. How do they do that :)? They really are that good together. And I keep my hopes up for at least a snippet of Teenage Failure.

It was a great audience, but it was a greater still performance.

I'll try to have some video up soon. Next show is NYC at BB King's Blues Bar. I wish we could do that one too, but we can't.

Gotta go. After the show, we went back to the motel to watch the Yankees win, so I didn't get much sleep. Whoever said that the older you get, the less sleep you need, was pulling your leg. Now there's an expression you don't hear all that much. Anyway, hello to Lenny, Nancy, Bonnie, David, Caswell and Tim, good to see you all again.