Terrific Three Days
Ein Bericht von Mark Moerman und Steve Vanhaverbeke
Hillsboro Concert, 4-Feb-2010
Just back from the concert. Sounded good, nice venue - an old church that has been converted to a cultural center. Dave is looking great, lost a lot of weight. My wife and I think that he looks older, maybe from the facial hair.
Set list
Dave & Mike Lindaur (bass):
Midnight Sea
Lucky
A Certain Distance
Al & Dave:
Angry Bird
Warren G Harding
Palace of Versaille
Flying Sorcery
On the Border
Gina in the King's Road
Trains - after claiming he couldn't do it because he didn't remember all of the words, Ron Scott brought out a scroll that he held up for Al to refer to during the song. Al only needed a few reminders in the later verses.
Intermission
Dave & Mike:
Candy Showers
Thing of Beauty
Grateful
Al joins them
Apple Cider Reconstitution
Katherine of Oregon
Night Train to Munich
Midas Shadow
SOHO (NtS)
Child's View
Year of the Cat
Encore - Al & Dave:
End of the Day
Al said again that his favorite two ALbums are PPF and Beachful of Shells. Although YotC pays the bills.
The venue only held 200, but it was virtually sold out, and both of them appreciated the ambiance (and the sound system). They expected to play there again.
Beke
Danke an Beke (Steve) für den Bericht!
Untenstehend nun die Anmerkungen von Mark dazu:
Barb and I are just back from a great weekend in Seattle. What a terrific three dyas: friday, Al & Dave in Hillsboro; Friday, Dave's private gig in Seattle; and last night, Al & Dave In Bremerton. Three wonderful shows in three days!
>Trains - after claiming he couldn't do it because he didn't remember all of >the words, Ron Scott brought out a scroll >that he held up for Al to refer >to during the song. Al only needed a few reminders in the later verses.
I think it is safe to reveal that this bit of business was planned. Ron has been lobbying Al to play "Trains" at a Pacific
Northwest gig, and it was his idea to do the scroll as a humorous way to have the lyrics at hand. Of course, Al agreed to this. They did Trains again in Bremerton, and by then Al had all the lyrics down and though the scroll was present, it did not appear on stage.
>Al joins them
>Apple Cider Reconstitution
>Katherine of Oregon
>Night Train to Munich
>Midas Shadow
A Child's View of the Eisenhower Years came at this point, followed by a verse of "Ana Ng" by They Might Be Giants along with Al's declaration that they're the only ones who write as many lyrics as he does.
>SOHO (NtS)
>Child's View
YOTC was preceded by a bit of "Wild Thing".
>Year of the Cat
>Encore - Al & Dave
>End of the Day
>Al said again that his favorite two ALbums are PPF and Beachful of Shells. >Although YotC pays the bills.
>The venue only held 200, but it was virtually sold out, and both of them >appreciated the ambiance (and the sound >system). They expected to >play there again.
This was the second time Al & Dave played at this venue, and it is a very nice theater which used to be a church. As Steve noted, the ambience and sound were great, after a slightly rocky start where Mike Lindauer's bass was a bit too loud and Dave's guitar too quiet. Al was in great spirits and very animated, and for a small audience the crowd was most energetic and enthusiastic. We sold as many copies of "Unplugged" at this show as we had in Centralia with
an audience twice the size.
One of the things which I find telling in the various venuesis how the staff reacts. If the people who work there are impressed by the turnout and the nehtusiasm of the crowd, I think that tells you something.
Und jetzt lassen wir Mark alleine berichten:
Dave in Seattle, 5-Feb-2010
Hillsboro Concert, 4-Feb-2010
Just back from the concert. Sounded good, nice venue - an old church that has been converted to a cultural center. Dave is looking great, lost a lot of weight. My wife and I think that he looks older, maybe from the facial hair.
Set list
Dave & Mike Lindaur (bass):
Midnight Sea
Lucky
A Certain Distance
Al & Dave:
Angry Bird
Warren G Harding
Palace of Versaille
Flying Sorcery
On the Border
Gina in the King's Road
Trains - after claiming he couldn't do it because he didn't remember all of the words, Ron Scott brought out a scroll that he held up for Al to refer to during the song. Al only needed a few reminders in the later verses.
Intermission
Dave & Mike:
Candy Showers
Thing of Beauty
Grateful
Al joins them
Apple Cider Reconstitution
Katherine of Oregon
Night Train to Munich
Midas Shadow
SOHO (NtS)
Child's View
Year of the Cat
Encore - Al & Dave:
End of the Day
Al said again that his favorite two ALbums are PPF and Beachful of Shells. Although YotC pays the bills.
The venue only held 200, but it was virtually sold out, and both of them appreciated the ambiance (and the sound system). They expected to play there again.
Beke
Danke an Beke (Steve) für den Bericht!
Untenstehend nun die Anmerkungen von Mark dazu:
Barb and I are just back from a great weekend in Seattle. What a terrific three dyas: friday, Al & Dave in Hillsboro; Friday, Dave's private gig in Seattle; and last night, Al & Dave In Bremerton. Three wonderful shows in three days!
>Trains - after claiming he couldn't do it because he didn't remember all of >the words, Ron Scott brought out a scroll >that he held up for Al to refer >to during the song. Al only needed a few reminders in the later verses.
I think it is safe to reveal that this bit of business was planned. Ron has been lobbying Al to play "Trains" at a Pacific
Northwest gig, and it was his idea to do the scroll as a humorous way to have the lyrics at hand. Of course, Al agreed to this. They did Trains again in Bremerton, and by then Al had all the lyrics down and though the scroll was present, it did not appear on stage.
>Al joins them
>Apple Cider Reconstitution
>Katherine of Oregon
>Night Train to Munich
>Midas Shadow
A Child's View of the Eisenhower Years came at this point, followed by a verse of "Ana Ng" by They Might Be Giants along with Al's declaration that they're the only ones who write as many lyrics as he does.
>SOHO (NtS)
>Child's View
YOTC was preceded by a bit of "Wild Thing".
>Year of the Cat
>Encore - Al & Dave
>End of the Day
>Al said again that his favorite two ALbums are PPF and Beachful of Shells. >Although YotC pays the bills.
>The venue only held 200, but it was virtually sold out, and both of them >appreciated the ambiance (and the sound >system). They expected to >play there again.
This was the second time Al & Dave played at this venue, and it is a very nice theater which used to be a church. As Steve noted, the ambience and sound were great, after a slightly rocky start where Mike Lindauer's bass was a bit too loud and Dave's guitar too quiet. Al was in great spirits and very animated, and for a small audience the crowd was most energetic and enthusiastic. We sold as many copies of "Unplugged" at this show as we had in Centralia with
an audience twice the size.
One of the things which I find telling in the various venuesis how the staff reacts. If the people who work there are impressed by the turnout and the nehtusiasm of the crowd, I think that tells you something.
Und jetzt lassen wir Mark alleine berichten:
Dave in Seattle, 5-Feb-2010
After the Al Stewart concert in Hillsboro, Oregon on February 4, Dave came to stay with us overnight, and bright and early on Friday we were off to Seattle. Dave's private gig on Friday was for the United Way in Seattle. One of the executives there is a big fan of Dave's music, and brought him in to perform a concert in their office as a thank-you to the employees for their hard work on a successful fund-raising project.
After bringing Dave to this gentleman's home (a grand old home built in 1928 with lots of nooks & crannies), he drove us all to the United Way office, where we were joined by bass player Mike Lindauer, who had made his own way up from Oregon.
1st Set
Square Peg Blues
Kindred Spirits
Real Good Thing
Threads of Time
All Too Human
Keno's In Love (first time I've ever heard this one performed)
Flying A Sign (appropriate song to do for a charitable organization!)
Going to Grandma's
Candy Shower
Glorious
2nd set
Midnight Sea
Not What I Expected
In My Green Valley
RL
Descartes In Amsterdam
A Certain Distance
Lucky
Thing of Beauty
Grateful
It is always a pleasure to hear so many different songs from Dave's archives on those all-too-infrequent occasions where you get to hear him do a full-length set, and having Mike Lindauer's bass was an added bonus. He and Dave are good friends and he has a great feel for Dave's songs.
It's a very different experience to hear Dave play for a crowd who not only don't know who he is, but who also aren't people who have come to see Al. For these people, it was an afternoon away from their desks with free snacks and drinks. It was clear from the start that some of them were getting into it and others were just enjoying a break from work. A number of people left at the interval, but those who stayed were really enjoying themselves. For such a small crowd (no more than 50 at its peak), CD sales weren't bad, and one woman just couldn't wait to buy a copy of "Another Big Day" (Dave's children's album) for her grandsons. And, for this audience, only one copy of "Uncorked" sold and none of "Wordless Rhymes," a real switch from Al shows! it just shows the appeal of Dave's music; when people hear him, they like him!
Bremerton concert, 6-Feb-2010
On Saturday evening, we enjoyed a tremendous concert at the beautiful Admiral Theater in Bremerton, Washington. We'd been staying in Seattle, and we got to Bremerton on a ferry boat! Bremerton is on the other side of Puget Sound from Seattle, and you either take a hour-long ferry ride or you drive for about an hour and 20 minutes around the Sound.
Once again, Mike Lindauer joined in on fretless electric bass for both of Dave's sets and for Al's second set.
1st Set
=====
Dave & Mike Lindaur:
Midnight Sea
Real Good Thing
The Loyalist
Al & Dave:
Angry Bird
Warren Harding
Flying Sorcery
Carol
On the Border
The Elf / Silver Kettle (my request!)
Trains
2nd Set
======
Dave & Mike:
A Certain Distance
Candy Shower
Grateful
Al, Dave & Mike:
Gina in the Kings Road
Midas Shadow
A Child's View of the Eisenhower Years
Katherine of Oregon
Night Train to Munich
Soho (Needless to Say)
...then, the first verse of "Wild Thing", ending with Al singing something like "that's enough of this silly song" to its melody just before hitting the opening chords to....
Year of the Cat
Paint By Numbers (a pleasant surprise!)
End of the Day
The Admiral Theater is an old movie theater which went out of business more than once as downtown Bremerton suffered the fate of many downtown areas and lost businesses to suburban malls. In recent years it was refurbished as a performance space as part of an effort to revitalize downtown Bremerton which involves ponsorship by local
businesses to help keep ticket prices down. They've done a marvelous job of it; the space is very pleasant and has terrific sound. This was one of the best-sounding shows I've ever attended, with vocals and instruments all just crystal clear.
Attendance was over 600, and it was an energetic and very enthusiastic audience. Perhaps this was a factor in this being such a great show; whatever the reason, Dave was just on fire for this show, playing as well as I've ever heard him play. Barb & I thought this was the best performance of "The Loyalist" we've ever heard. His playing was simply a joy to hear, even more so than usual given the outstanding quality of the sound in the theater. Al was also in top
form, and Mike's melodic bass was icing on the cake.
At both this show an the Hillsboro show, Al kept playing bits of things like "Hall of the Mountain King", "Peter Gunn," and "Pipeline" while talking about how he can play all of those classic guitar instrumentals and recounting how seeing Duane Eddy in concert at a young age made him want to be a guitar player.
After the Hillsboro show, I asked Al if he might do "Silver Kettle," one of my favorites from SoAL which I happen to know he really likes. He agreed to that, and I mentioned it again before this show. What I didn't realize is that Al & Dave have recently done it in a medley with "The Elf", which is in the same tuning. Despite the usual humorous claims of not knowing either song, they did a beautiful job of performing the medley, which concludes with a return to the chorus
of "The Elf" after "Silver Kettle." Add to this the infrequently performed "Paint By Numbers" plus a fine take on "Trains," and this was one of Al's more adventurous set lists.
All in all, one of the very best Al shows I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing.
Mark
www.charismalabel.com