Well, Dark Star Orchestra's gotta get tired of this stuff sometime. We aren't tired of it, though we perhaps are spacing out the DSO shows more than we used to. But they were doing another Fall Tour stop at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium on Saturday, November 16th, and we were there as well as old friends Scott and Michelle and new friends Chris and Libby.
We parked in the nearby city lot and hurried over to Gary's Restaurant and Bar, for some great Caribbean dishes (though they didn't have draft beer). Got down to the Auditorium in plenty of time to check out the extensive Shakedown Street on a chilly and slightly damp Fall night.
They had serious security when entering, and they made Sarah discard her cigarettes!?! I mean, what the fuck? Cigarettes aren't illegal and there was nothing on the tickets about them not being allowed. Going to rock and roll concerts is sometimes very aggravating. They were probably over-reacting to it being such a smoke-filled place in previous years, but come on!
Anyway, got some beer and a good spot to stand over by the rail on the left. I went up front for the first few numbers, just a few rows from the stage (the venue was about 3/4 full), but the sound up there was not good so I moved back with Sarah. They came out right on time and started into that descending thunder that you know is going to wind up in Bucket.
The show was from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, 1991-08-18, and was quite an unusual setlist:
Hell In A Bucket
Jack-A-Roe
C C Rider->
It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry
Beat It On Down The Line
West L.A. Fadeaway
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Stagger Lee
Johnny B. Goode
Though I love DSO, I have to admit that I'd rank this concert way down on my list. The setlist was all over the place and not very focussed. And that seemed to extend to the performances. Barraco and Eaton were as good as ever, and for most of the time I was just concentrating on them. Dino was also having a good night. But the others were kind of mailing it in and there was of course no Lisa, being 1991.
But the Lowell Aud is a nice place, the crowd was having a blast on a Saturday night, and I was dancing and singing and enjoying myself with the best of them. Train To Cry and then BIODTL were very well done and I love Stagger Lee. And you can't complain about Johnny B. Goode, though this didn't really take off either.
They had beer from the Kona Brewing Company there, so of course I had to have one! We visited and chatted at the break and soon it was time for set 2, which was a bit less strange:
Deal
Samson And Delilah
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Feel Like A Stranger->
Drums-> Space->
China Doll->
Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad->
Throwing Stones->
Not Fade Away
Mattson was a little more involved in this set, and did turn in some great leads, though his contributions were spotty. There was no great singing all night (until the filler) ... maybe they were being authentic!
And I have to say that the Drums segment was particularly not taking off. We were hoping for Oteil to come out and slap some skins. But it was a really nice segue from Space into China Doll and a fun GDTRFB.
Before we knew it, it was time for the encore, and I have to say this was the most broken down Brokedown I've ever heard. Eaton had been having some trouble with the in-ear monitors earlier and I think they may have returned, but the band soldiered through it. Then they announced that it was the Shoreline show (most people in the audience knew it already ... the Internet is ubiquitous), and then Lisa came out to one of the biggest ovations of the night.
And this bit more than met expectations! It was filler time and they snapped right into Honkytonk Women, with Barraco doing some raunchy stuff and Lisa singing a sweet backup. And then they started that deep thrumming and it was another song we'd all heard in the cradle, White Rabbit. They brought it up to the vocals and Lisa let it all hang out. They jammed after the verses and then brought it back up for another chorus. How did she do this from a standing start? She had to have warmed up her voice backstage before this because she was belting it out at the top of her lungs, right on key. She waved in her Lisa way when she was done telling us to feed our heads and said, "That's it!"
Well, some things were not great about the night but we weren't there for great, we were there to have fun and it was entirely successful by that account. Still chilly outside, but made it back to the municipal lot with no problem over the mysterious Concord River, and then not too long a drive home. Good thing it was Saturday night though, because it was pretty late when we got to bed.
