It's been a long Summer of great outdoor concerts, and the capper was the Outlaw Music Festival stopping by the amphitheater in Mansfield MA on one more Saturday night, September 16. The big attraction for us was that the tour this year included Bob Weir & Wolf Bros, as well as Los Lobos, String Cheese Incident, and of course that 90-year old legend, Willie Nelson.
We had great seats, just to the right of center and about 15 rows back, and the weather was fantastic. We were determined to not spend hours fuming in traffic, though that's hard to avoid at that place. After a morning at Wakefield Subaru we packed sandwiches and concert stuff and headed down there, getting off the highway with no backup but then getting waved *past* the entrance by a mean-faced parking attendant, having to do a U-turn to get back to the venue, and then waiting in a long line to get waved into a crowded spot. They are remarkably inefficient at parking there, and helpful signs are apparently forbidden.
Anyway, had a nice time eating sandwiches and drinking beer in lawn chairs while the Shakedown Street scene exploded around us. Weir wasn't the headliner, but the Dead shirts outnumbered anything else 99 to 1, and people were selling everything from Jerry idols to beer from coolers. Folded up the lawn chairs and went on in in plenty of time for the opening act, which was scheduled to come on at 4:30. The good thing about Mansfield is that once you get in there it's a nice place, with a good array of vendors around an amphitheater with good sight lines and sound. They also had a nest of weird port-a-potties which were vacuum powered and seemed like Dr. Who monsters. I can imagine someone getting stuck in one and/or vacuumed away.
The opener was Waylon Payne in a not-quite-a-tenth full arena, and he hadn't been on the bill but was a great start to the evening. He opened with Desperados Waiting For a Train and I commented to Dave that anyone who opened with a Guy Clark song was ok with me. Waylon did a couple of originals and mixed in the classic Ring of Fire and Sunday, which he apparently wrote with Lee Ann Womack. I'd never heard of him but thoroughly enjoyed his set, and he then dropped the fact that he'd be playing guitar with Willie later on. Here's the short setlist:
- Desperados Waiting for a Train
- All the Trouble
- Ring of Fire
- Born to Lose
- Sins of the Father
- Nobody's Home On A Sunday
Up next was Los Lobos while the crowd really filled in, and they were just fantastic. I've seen them a good number of times and they've often exceeded my expectations, but this set was amazing. They're a good band to get up front for and they all turned in exceptional performances. Perhaps the best that night was Steve Berlin on sax and keyboards, but they all shone, most of all Cesar Rosas on vocals, new drummer Alfredo Ortiz, and of course David Hidalgo on rocking lead guitar. They were joined for a few tunes by Mickey Raphael, Willie's long time harmonica player, and he shone too. They were perhaps the best band of the day, and we were just starting! Here's their setlist:
- Dream in Blue
- One Time One Night
- Love Special Delivery
- Evangeline
- Chuco's Cumbia
- Is This All There Is?
- Three Hundred Pounds of Joy (Howling Wolf)
OK, next up was The String Cheese Incident, whom I'd never seen live in person and was really looking forward to. Unfortunately, I found their set a bit of a let down. I'd seen them live on video from Lockn' and other big festivals, and had been way impressed with Michael Kang and Bill Nershi. But for this set at least I found them too driven by the loud and simplistic bass lines of Keith Mosely and an over-amplified kick drum. I also had my first experience of rudeness from our neighbors, who were apparently upset with people standing up at a rock concert and decided to take it out on Dave and me. Oh well.
Anyway, screwed out of there early to be sure to have time to hit the weird bathrooms and get a beer for the Wolf Bros set. We'd seen them once a few years ago when they were just the trio of Weir, Was, and Lane. But this was the whole enchilada, including Jeff Chimenti, Barry Sless on pedal steel, and the entire Wolfpack, their horns and strings section. Here's their setlist:
- Hell in a Bucket
- Mama Tried
- Big Boss Man
- Peggy-O
- Althea
- Playing in the Band
- Dark Star
- Cassidy
- Stella Blue
- One More Saturday Night
Great jam to start into a totally unexpected but great Bucket. Don Was is solid but kind of a liability to good psychedelic music IMO, and it was strange that their setup had Sless right in the middle, where he played solidly too but did not contribute anything smoking. I've seen him play some great stuff with Phil Lesh and think he might be better on guitar than on steel. And Bobby could use a smoking lead guitar, though even so the band was miles better than when we saw them as just a trio.
And they had very plus contributions from Chimenti of course, from Mickey Raphael sitting in on Big Boss Man, and from Mads Tolling on fiddle. And what a setlist! Weir was in fine voice and they meandered from PITB into Dark Star, which we had anticipated as a reprise since they had done the first verse the night before. But they were a little confused and did the entire song, while exchanging some quizzical looks. In the middle of it we were interrupted by rude neighbors again. Jeez, stand up and listen to Dark Star or go get stuck in a port-a-pottie until Willie comes on! The set-closer was of course a rocking Saturday Night, and the whole stadium, except for a few rude people, danced and roared.
OK, time for Willie, and they didn't take long to set up for his act. The stage hands did some crack work all night long, and though it was strange that Los Lobos played earlier than we had expected, I think that was because it was most efficient to go from Waylon to them, the SCI, to WolfBros, to Willie. He was sitting down and had Waylon on another stool at his right, a doghouse bass player, a snare, and Mickey (who's a big guy) off to his left. It was sad that his sister Bobbie had passed away and was not there, he'd been playing with her for probably most of his 90 years.
And he looked at least 90 years old, but was as magical on stage as ever. Waylon was a fantastic back-up player and filled in excellently when Willie wandered, but his old guitar was as ringing as ever when he focused on it (which was often) and his voice rose above everything else. He gave us that Willie smile a few times too, though you could tell this was a bit of a struggle for an old guy like him. And this was another classic setlist, with songs from Kristofferson, Shaver, Haggard (Payne did an excellent vocal on Workin' Man Blues), Waylon, Bob Wills, and of course, Willie Nelson.
- Whiskey River
- Stay All Night
- Still Is Still Moving to Me
- Bloody Mary Morning
- I Never Cared for You
- Workin' Man Blues
- Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys
- Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground
- On the Road Again
- You Were Always on My Mind
- Good Hearted Woman
- Help Me Make It Through the Night
- Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die / Still Not Dead
- Georgia (On My Mind)
- I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train
- Write Your Own Songs
- Move It on Over
- Me and Bobby McGee
- Will the Circle Be Unbroken / I'll Fly Away
- It's Hard to Be Humble
Willie had to wipe his face often between songs and seemed tired all through it, though as I say he played excellently and kept up a furious pace. Some of the songs were a bit truncated but he got them all in. And this was fantastic, I loved every second. He was just magical on the tear-jerkers, like Too Close To the Ground, Help Me Make It Through the Night, and of course Georgia. He rocked on the Billie Joe Shaver song, led sing-alongs on Cowboys, Good Hearted Woman, and Roll Me Up and Smoke Me, and his voice got more and more golden as the set went on.
The player of the evening may have been Raphael, who after his excellent sit-ins with Los Lobos and Weir continued his wonderful playing with Willie. Weir came out to join in on guitar on Will the Circle, and then most of SCI came out for the last song, It's Hard To Be Humble. Willie put down his guitar and threw some bandannas to the crowd on this, and then walked slowly off stage as the others wrapped up the song, secure in his status as a living legend.
Back at the car we set up the lawn chairs again and waited for the traffic to die down, which it did in about half an hour. There were plenty of remnants of Shakedown Street still there though, including a couple who'd set up their wares in front of our car and told us they just had to sell a few more things before they followed the tour to Queens. Long drive home, but we made it and got right to bed at about 2:00.
