Friday night kicked off a busy month of July of music for me: The Jayhawks, Adele, and Peter Gabriel and Sting. I do have very high expectations and I was not disappointed with the way it started. You may recall from previous entries that I have seen The Jayhawks a
couple of times over the past couple of years, most recently at The Arcada in St. Charles, Illinois. That was probably one of my least favorite concert experiences, the venue's sound was less than stellar and the audience was remarkably obnoxious. The Minnesota Zoo's Weesner Family Amphitheater is a fabulously intimate location, conveniently located near my house, and I had the best seats I have ever had, right up front with an unobstructed view of the whole stage. The show was sold out and I went by myself as I usually do, but two seats away was a friend I didn't know was going to be there, and behind me, two other friends. Hugs for everybody.
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| Folk Uke with Marc Perlman |
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| Folk Uke with Karen Grotberg |
You never know what you're going to get with an opening act, I've seen my share hits (Mouths of Babes, Marlee MacLeod, Roisin O) and misses - I can't remember their names to be honest, so I was not sure how it was going to go with Folk Uke. Folk Uke is Cathy Guthrie and Amy Nelson (I found out after they are the daughters of Arlo Guthrie and Willie Nelson); Cathy plays the ukulele and Amy plays the guitar. Vocally they reminded me of Nancy Griffith. Do NOT be fooled by their diminutive stature and their sweet voices; these women have a fondness for the F-word and bawdy lyrics with double entendres (or no hidden meanings whatsoever). They were able to engage the audience with their humor and great vocal work. They played several songs, including "Shit Makes the Flowers Grow", an optimistic turn on a crappy boyfriend/girlfriend; "Knock Me Up"; "BJ to a DJ" which featured Jayhawk Marc Perlman on bass;"Motherf*ker got F*cked Up" which was recently featured on
Orange is the New Black and they were joined by Karen Grotberg for this song. They may have upset some people with their language, although they did give fair warning that parents might not like their kids hearing the songs, but as Amy mentioned, they have to learn the words at some point. I loved them, and my friend next to me, loved them as well. Put them in the "hit"column. They also joined the band, and Gary, during the show as well.
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| The Jayhawks, Waiting for the Sun |
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I was so excited for this show, a beautiful July night seeing one of my favorite bands (to be fair, two of my top favorite bands don't play anymore). I love The Jayhawks' new album,
Paging Mr. Proust, it has such a great collection of songs. It was a pretty good mix of old and new, and it seemed like the audience was familiar with the new stuff, which is a good sign. You can find the whole set list
HERE because I am terrible with remembering all of the songs and the order they were played. The band opened with "Waiting for the Sun" from
Hollywood Town Hall and moved right into "Leaving the Monsters Behind" from the new release (this and "Quiet Corners and Empty Spaces" are often on 'repeat' for me when I listen to the CD). They pretty much played all the songs I wanted to hear (of course they couldn't play everything :( ), but they did include "Save It for a Rainy Day", "Blue", "Tampa to Tulsa" with Folk Uke on backing vocals, and they ended the set with "I'd Run Away". Of course, they came back on for an encore, except it was just Gary and guitar doing "Settled Down Like Rain" (I really liked this arrangement, it gave the song a fresh sound) and then Folk Uke came out to join Gary on "Angelyne". The rest of the band came out and did a couple more songs, ending with "Tailspin" and the audience was on their feet (and had been for the last few songs). This seems to be where most concerts ended, but this was the last show for a hometown crowd who clearly wanted more. And we were not disappointed (you'd kind of have to be a total Eeyore to be disappointed at this point), they came back and did "Tomorrow the Green Grass" which I do not recall hearing live before and THEN they did "Bad Time" which is a Grand Funk Railroad cover. Marc Perlman switched from bass to guitar and Chet Lyster moved to bass. Marc usually hangs in the background playing a thumping bass, so it was fun to see him move up front and actually shred it on electric guitar, and my phone had died so I couldn't snap a photo, so I just enjoyed it. I love Grand Funk's version (have it on cassette), but The Jayhawks do a fabulous version. The band is great, made up of great musicians and they are great vocalists. Gary Louris is the leader of the band on guitars and lead vocals; he wasn't as chatty as he was at the First Avenue show I went to a couple years ago, but maybe he was just saving room for more songs. Tim O'Reagan on drums and vocals got the spotlight on "Tampa to Tulsa" and "Bottomless Cup" (on the latter I could not hear his vocals very well); he doesn't sit behind a large drumkit and he isn't overly flashy, but he plays what the songs require and he sounds great when singing with Gary and Karen Grotberg. Karen made an early appearance with Folk Uke which I was really happy to see; I love Karen's voice and keyboard playing, and she seems to have a strong following of fans. The band did a jam when they played "Ace" from
Mr. Proust and Karen got in a nice little solo. The one song that I really wanted to hear was "Last Cigarette" which they band has done live before, but none of the shows I have been to and it features Karen on lead vocals. Chet Lyster is the newest addition to the band, playing guitars and pedal steel. He had a good energy and was interacting with Marc; they kind of had a duet going when Marc was on guitar for "Bad Time" and Chet was helping with the guitar pedals. I had a problem with the vocal mix for both Folk Uke and The Jayhawks, it just didn't seem to be as strong and clear as I would have liked. Sometimes I couldn't hear Gary, Karen or Tim, especially on softer songs. But, other than that, the band played great, they played what I really wanted to hear, the crowd was really into it and I didn't get one mosquito bite. I hope to see them on the promised concert in the fall. I probably won't have as great of a seat, but I don't care. They are going to be heading west at the end of July, and you should see them. And check out
Folk Uke (if you don't have a sense of humor, then nevermind).
