From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V12 #68 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Thursday, November 24 2011 Volume 12 : Number 068 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Concert Review, Green Note, London, Nov. 20, early show [Johannes Sc] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:13:15 +0100 From: Johannes Schult Subject: [RS] Concert Review, Green Note, London, Nov. 20, early show Here's my report from the early show last Sunday at the Green Note in London - long, verbose, whatever I remember. First off, the setlist: Fishing Your Guitar Deer on the Parkway Are You Happy Now? Abuelita Transit The Last Fare of the Day Get Up Clara Satellites Stray Cow Blues CanciC3n Sencilla Arrowhead Reunion Hill There Goes Mavis Encore: Mariana's Table The Green Note is a wonderful pub in Camden/London. Unfortunately, the didn't serve any food this early, but the menu looked delicious. There was plenty of time to study it as the doors opened at 2 pm. The staff was very friendly and made the stay even more enjoyable. There were maybe 50 people and the place was rather packed. (The evening show was sold out; this one possibly, too.) There was a window in the roof, so the stage actually faced towards daylight. Richard pretended to be annoyed when he came on stage and remarked that he was practically a vampire. The light didn't affect the show, eventually. FISHING isn't the happiest song in the universe, so the lack of visual gloom didn't really matter. Richard talked a lot between songs. He told the story behind the guitar (from 1931, which he had bought from Stephen Bruton) in YOUR GUITAR, a new song that has a somber feeling, sort of the atmosphere of Abuelita mixed with the rhythm of State of the Union. Some of the harmonies are pure gold; however, I'm not too big a fan of self-referential songs. DEER ON THE PARKWAY, another new song, followed. He elaborated on the story of the original title (Deer on the Saw Mill - has been discussed on the list previously) and that he didn't like the implication: "Just... gore." It sounds a bit like atmosphere of Calling the Moon mixed with the rhythm of Parasol Ants. I'm looking forward to hear a fully produced version. Unfortunately, I didn't really understand the story of the song. (I'm not a native speaker, after all.) ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? was prefaced with a long conversation about what the English and the American do on Halloween. ABUELITA was the first real surprise. I really like how (so far) every concert I attended featured a couple of songs I haven't heard live before. I'm also fascinated that there appears to be a healthy mix of all studio albums in Richard's setlists. In TRANSIT he sang something like "Democrats and Republicans; but mainly Republicans", which draw some laughter. The audience was "civil", yet the closeness kept everybody attentive. THE LAST FARE OF THE DAY was moving (as always); before the song, he told a long story about the taxi ride he had the night before, which was rather bizare (hence I don't remember the exact details - something about monkey hangers). GET UP CLARA was groovy with its intricate finger picking and the dark atmosphere. In the middle part he inserted a talking bit that went like: Here should be a bridge; but it would have to be an aqueduct. He then promoted his "new" album, Thirteen Songs You, Or May Not Have Heard Before. He went on a detour about how it is not (yet) available in the U.S. - and how in the 80s people had always "gone to the U.K." and then reappeared as rock stars. He translated this situation to his career in a hilarious way, saying that he's hoping to raise his hipness factor by having a U.K.-only album - at least for another week before the U.S. release. SATELLITE sounded better than last year, probably because I was more familiar with the lyrics, because the music is a bit monotonous. He also remarked that he is about to take a year off in order to write and record. He was trying to come up with "songy songs" - something that shines through in some of the new songs, I guess. Personally, I'm a big fan of story-telling songs and the character studies Richard does so well. I do hope he doesn't (completely) lose this edge when he explores new territories. There was another unexpected song: CANCICN SENCILLA. Once again, Richard spent almost as much time telling the story behind the lyrics as he spent playing the actual song. Did I mention that Richard was singing and playing fantastically? He took his time tuning and re-tuning his guitar, but apart from it was a great performance, technically flawless and still really intense. Between ARROWHEAD and REUNION HILL he recounted his encounters with civil war reenactors (that are attracted by his war songs) and how they asked him what kind of underwear the characters in his songs would have worn. Unlike the humorous chatter between songs, the actual song (Reunion Hill) was just sublime - so hauntingly beautiful! The encore was yet another surprise: MARIANA'S TABLE, his favourite song off "Not Far Now". He described his new home in Argentina at great length, suggesting that the seemingly endless pampa there would cause "horizontal vertigo". After the gig, Richard sold his CD and was, just like during the concert, very nice and talkative. I even gave him a CD with a sequel to "Before You Go" which I had the audacity to create. I hadn't planned to do so, because I was afraid it would feel forced - but the atmosphere was so relaxed and nice that I just did it. Finally, I headed back to the airport as I had to be at work (in Germany) the next day. All in all it had been a wonderful concert with many new songs, quite a few unexpected rarities, and some of the classical Shindell "hits". Johannes ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V12 #68 ***********************************