Background on Dock Boggs and the original "Lonesome Ace"

Talkin' Bob Zimmerman Blues

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Older posts:

4/7/08: Review: Suze Rotolo's "A Freewheelin' Time
3/27/08: Meeting an Idol - Mike Seeger
3/26/08: Raconteurs - Salute Your Solution
3/26/08: Mission Statement

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1-6-2010:

If anyone stumbles across this site, I'm now updating it (in a fashion), here: http://lonesomeace.blogspot.com/

Lou Reed @ 9:30 Club - What's good? Life's good, but not always fair

So he steps on stage, blue jeans, leather (?) short sleeved shirt, and it's electrifying. You can feel it in the air. He steps to the microphone and there's the voice - unmistakable, breathtaking. The 9:30 club is, for my money, the best venue in the country - and 15 feet away, I could feel every note, see every movement, and it just took me on a ride. The transportational power of good music. It's a special thing.

He did "Sweet Jane" early in the set, and then mostly focused on more obscure songs (including a great version of a song from his album based on Poe's "The Raven"). A few Velvet Underground nuggets thrown in - "I'm Sticking With You" ("We're playing this," Lou said, "Because it was in Juno"). There were, of course, a whole laundry list of songs I wished he'd played: Coney Island Baby, What's Good, The Last Great American Whale, Satellite of Love - but you can't have everything.

What I love about Lou is that he, like Patti, like Leonard Cohen, and like Dylan to a certain extent, is an outsider - an observer - and he writes so eloquently, with striking poetic images. It was a real honor to see him in person. I began to think that the coolness, the detachment, are just a pose (albeit a useful one), deflecting from true passion and energy, lurking just under the surface.

Here's a great video for "What's Good":

Shortstack @ Comet Ping Pong - A Blue Million Miles

Comet Ping Pong is an odd place. A bar / pizza place with ping pong tables for a draw in a yuppie neighborhood strangely quiet, even on a Saturday night. It had exposed brick walls and an exposed ceiling, making it feel vaguely loft-like, despite the 10 year-olds running around with ping pong paddles.

Waiting at the bar for the band to start, we fell into conversation with a realtor who'd just moved back to DC from California and was already well juiced.. he was fun to talk to, full of some real energy and personality (nice to see in this town, always).

Despite the small space, and the oddness of the venue, the back room where the show was set up was nicely packed. Shortstack sounded great. It's been six years since I last saw them play the Knitting Factory (Tap Room) with the cajun/country band the Doc Marshalls. They sound different - better, tighter. It's a hard sound to pin down. I want to say something along the lines of gothic alt-country (conjuring up something like Trailer Bride), but it's more than that. Their new Covers EP is tremendous and they played my favorite song from it, a cover of Captain Beefheart's "Her Eyes are a Blue Million Miles" which, as I told the bass player before the show, I'm slightly embarrassed to say I know from an early Joan Osborne recording. They played a short set, I didn't stick around for Child Ballads, but have heard good things. Can't wait for the next show - I just hope it's a little closer to home next time (Black Cat?).

And now, for fun, a short cellphone video of Shortstack:

And Beefheart, doing Blue Million Miles (with a crazy video..):