JOHN PRINE IN MAINE CONCERT REVIEWS

Merrill Auditorium, Portland Maine
April 22, 2005

By: tjb
A great show and a gutty performance by Prine, who was clearly hobbled by a massive head cold and the effects of the medication that it sounded like he was taking. He had a heavy, wet cough that you sometimes heard rattle when he breathed in and that he tried to shake loose when he stepped away fro the mic. There ought to be a song some day about it, because at times I wondered whether he was going to just start swaying and topple over. But he did the professional act, smiling that goofy smile and still managing to strut around the stage when he really got banging. He took a swig out of something like a Robitussin bottle, but explained that it was something Dr. Redbone prescribed - which drew a good laugh. Leon Redbone had implied several times during his great opening set (accompanied by Cindy Cashdollar) that he was drawing from corn squeezins (or something similar). A sellout crowd at Merrill (about 1,900, and Prine usually draws a healthy crowd here) was appreciative and did a lot of singing along. We got a couple of good stories, including variations on old themes - Happy Enchiladas and Only Three Chords - and some explanations around new songs. Illegal Smile (which the crowd did a really beautiful job with on its sing-along portion) ended with a new variation - "My sister-in-law is an Irish nun" - that led me to gather that Fiona really does have a sibling her heard the call. John's cold (and some muddied sound that I think was due to my location, just under the balcony roof, stage right) took a little bit of the edge off the experience for me. Oddly, I thought the mix and the cold took the most out of "All The Best," which sounded a little flat - making it a different song. (Maybe he has changed keys to accommodate the change in his voice since the throat cancer treatments - I am not musical enough to know.) My wife and I have seen him many, many times, and I think we found ourselves just rooting for him to be able to finish. The electric parts of the show where he can really get the joint jumping just sort of shrieked in our seats; I'd be interested to know how it sounded in other parts of the auditorium (which has fantastic acoustics and sight lines). He played so long that we didn't spend a lot of time milling around afterward to find out. A very balanced setlist that hit all the obvious highs. I always root for some of the lesser-played numbers, like "Bad Boy," and "Day Is Done," but they would be hard to work in at this point while keeping the momentum, and there is so much at this point that I think Prine believes he just owes to an audience. Lake Marie was set up as the dramatic close and the band nailed it, but I was obsessed with John's health at that point and unable to really let go and enjoy it. For me the highlight was "Your Flag Decal," which has shocking application to today's political scene. Jesus don't like killin', no matter what the reasons for. Thanks to John Prine for gutting it out and come back soon!

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