THANK YOU NOTES
Lucy and
Sometime to Return, thank you for nudging Rusty (Twiddly Dee) and me to travel together to the show. I couldn't have gone alone this time and I would have really regretted missing such a great show.
Rusty: For providing transportation and companionship. Thanks for making our adventure possible.
Andrew, Meg (Crawl), & Scott: It was great fun meeting you and sharing the show and aftermath with you.
Meg: Thanks for getting me a copy of the set list, complete with dirty shoe prints and the black tape still attached.
Andrew: A special thanks for your kindness in including us.
THE SET LIST
Bittersweetheart
All is Well
Missouri* (Misery/Silly Love Songs)
See You Later
Lately
Black Gold
Without a Trace
New World
Easy Street
Just Like Anyone
Oxygen
Gone Til November
Whatcha Need
To My Own Devices
Last Train to Clarksville
Never Really Been
Runaway Train
Somebody to Shove
Encore: Stand Up and Be Strong
*It's actually printed this way on their set list.
The list above is from my notes of what they actually played, which is slightly different from the printed set list. Gone Til November and Last Train to Clarksville are not on the printed list. They dropped Closer to the Stars and Summer of Drugs; the latter was listed as the first of two encore songs. Scott (Crawl's husband) asked Dave later why they cut Summer of Drugs. Dave said they dropped it because they were running long.
THE SACRED RELIC
You know you want to know, so let's just get this over with.
Yes,
Sometime to Return, the pants were indeed in play! This pair was truly a thing of beauty. And, as Keats said, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." If holey jeans were relics, this pair would be as sacred as the Shroud of Turin.
The knees were ripped out, there were huge holes and stringy patches in the thighs, and the crucial area -- shredded to threads.
Not only that, but because I was standing at center stage, Dave was right in front of me most of the night. No need to sneak peeks. No need for Dave to swing his guitar. The display was unavoidably right in front of my face, especially when he was playing the acoustic guitar.
Early on, between songs, Andrew leaned over to me and said, "He really needs to get a new pair of pants." I laughed and said, "I know. The crotch of those jeans is being held together by ONE thread."
Maybe he heard us (although his back was turned and he had walked back toward Michael when we said it) because after that, Dave crossed his legs whenever he played the acoustic guitar. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't noticed him doing that before, so it seemed like a belated attempt at modesty.
If so, it was too little, too late. The front row had been getting an eyeful for at least a half-hour by then. And he would forget about it when he played electric guitar or started dancing and spinning. And he moved around like that A LOT.
THE SHOW
What great fun. The band was clearly having a good time and they played so aggressively and energetically. They remained in high spirits despite some ongoing equipment problems.
The crowd was the largest one at any of the shows I've attended this year. Even better, most of the audience seemed to be Soul Asylum fans. They sang along so loudly that I sometime had trouble hearing the guys.
It was the perfect night for an outdoor show. The weather was warm and clear.
Rusty and I met up with Andrew about two hours before Soul Asylum went on. We hung out and Andrew regaled us with great stories about his travels and the recent shows he's seen.
Once we got into viewing position, Meg (Crawl) and Scott found us. The five of us hung out together during the show. That was a blast. Soul Asylum fans are friendly and fun! And seeing the show with other people who were actually excited about it just made it that much better.
We really did get our places at dead center right on the rail.
When the band came out to set up, Dan noticed and commented on Scott's Golden Smog T-shirt.
Van Halen was playing on the PA during set up. Tommy went over to Dan's mic and sang, "Can I get an off switch?" Then he said, "I hate Van Halen." A little later, he moved over to Dave's mic and said, "I'm only playing. I didn't mean it." He looked out at the audience and said, "I'm making the crew sad."
They started out with Bittersweetheart, full of energy and fun and plenty of hip-wiggling in the most spectacularly holey jeans yet.
Dave's hair is quite a bit longer and he was flinging and swinging and swirling it around. I told Rusty, "Dave seems to be really enjoying his longer hair." Rusty nodded and then we both said in unison, "I am, too." Giggle giggle.
After they finished All is Well, Dave said, "Next we're going to play a song called 'Missouri.'" Yeah, every native has been making that joke since junior high school, "I live in the state of Misery."
Dan was a lot more aggressive on guitar than usual and a lot more physical in general. During Lately, he was bouncing up and down with Dave. Later he jumped up on an amp to play a solo and several time he came right out on the edge of the stage and just blistered his guitar.
Tommy seemed to be in high spirits and was cutting up a lot.
After Lately, there was so much smoke pouring out of the smoke machine that Michael was barely visible and Tommy was coughing. The band started playing "Fire" and Dave asked if an amp was blowing up.
After Just Like Anyone, they seemed to be having more trouble with the amps. Dan moved back toward Michael for a while. When he came back up front, his hair was spiked out all over his head like a porcupine -- or someone who had just stuck his finger in the light socket. Then they played Oxygen. Shock treatment for Dan!
After Gone Til November, Dave went on a joke marathon. He started with the brown chicken, brown cow joke. Then they played the riff after each joke, which made them seem funnier.
They played most of Last Train to Clarksville, but then Tommy and Dave just started singing, "Do-do-do-do" to the tune. Dan and Tommy looked expectantly at Dave, who had clearly forgotten the words. Dave finally just laughed and said, "We're a band that's not afraid to try anything once."
I'd never seen them play Never Really Been live before, so Tommy both enhanced and detracted from the experience by cutting up and doing the chicken dance during the song.
They closed with Shove. Our new friends and I were literally shoving each other and even some strangers on my other side started pushing into me, so I just pushed right back. Fun times.
They left on a wave of high energy. The crowd screamed and clapped until they came back and actually rocked out Stand Up and Be Strong.
The guys rocked and jammed out. Dave kicked over his mic stand at the start of his solo after Whatcha Need. Then, he actually lay all the way back on the floor during his guitar solo (and then had a little trouble getting back up!). Dave, Tommy, and even Dan were dancing and headbanging. They jammed on the end of several songs. This was definitely one of the intense shows.
That Meg is a great influence.
She just egged Rusty and me on. During one song, Dave would sing a line and then jump back from the mic several times during the chorus. Meg instructed us to scream, "Oww!" every time Dave jumped back from the mic. So we did! We won't even talk about the silliness inspired by Bittersweetheart and Dave's incredibly holey jeans. Our behavior must have been noteworthy, though, because one of the security guys actually took pictures of us -- all five of us. Not sure why.
On Sunday, I was so hoarse from screaming and yelling so much that my voice was cracking all day long.
Best of all, I finally got to hear Easy Street and Never Really Been live. They also played To My Own Devices, a song after my own heart. What a treat!
There's more, but I'll let the others have a chance to tell it.
As for me, I'll be floating on a cloud of joy right up until the withdrawal sets in.
And you'd think we'd be satisfied, right? Not this greedy Sisterhood. On the drive back, Rusty said, "I hope they play another show in Kansas City soon." Me, too, sister!