|
|
| The Hellish Concert in KalamazooThe State Theatre had some great poster art for John's show, and there were a lot of excited people waiting to get inside. We wandered in and about then took our places in the entire second row, and chunks of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, with a pair in the balcony . We were set. The crowd was unusually noisy, it was the first time I had been to a concert where people were constantly chattering. When Greg Trooper hit the stage, I could hardly hear what he was saying. I guess I'm one of those cranky folks who intend to see and hear a concert when I go to one, it happens when you start attending concerts sober. I guess I'll never understand why people find it a perfect opportunity to visit, loudly, when they could do that during the break or better yet… totally outside the venue. We were second row from the stage and still couldn't hear Greg Trooper as he began. All of 5 foot 2 inches tall, from New York City to Nashville and looking a whole lot like Joe Pesci he talked and sang songs from his new album "Straight Down Rain" - if I could read my notes I could pass this information along to you much better. His setlist included a song that might be called "I'm so French" and a fun sing along that had us all going "It's Real Like That" and a song of Ireland about a girl from Brooklyn. He left the stage to a standing ovation and returned to do another sing along "Saturday Night" which the younger kids had a blast singing to since they could cuss. He was a blast in his Frank Sinatra style straw hat, Havana attire and his funny no nonsense way. The lights brightened and the venue was a bit stuffy by now, it didn't feel like there was any air conditioning or air movement at all. I'd have sat in hell to see a Johnny Prine concert anyway… and this was pretty close. Ralph brought over two giggly women who wanted to meet Prine's webmistress... it was a moment I'll never forget, I sort of felt famous and silly. They were so excitable, that was when Ralph stepped away and I said 'He's a cutie, isn't he" and they chimed a harmonious "yessss". So now I understand the excitement. We talked about John, Ralph, the Prine Shrine, Ralph, the party and a little bit about Ralph. They promised to take good care of him… The lights came down, my heart began to thump and out strode smiling John
Prine flanked by Dave Jacques and Jason Wilber. They immediately started with: 2. Six O'clock News There was a big Street Rod show in Kalamazoo that weekend, John said he come to the see them, but had to go to Toys-R-Us to get a street rod for his boys. He picked on his guitar and grinned, "I see we have a bunch of Shriner's with us tonight!" with that, our entire second row and many chunks of audience stood up and cheered. I can only think it was an impressive showing as Jason Wilber's eyes got as big as Silver Dollars … as they broke open the next song: 3. Souvenirs ~ "That's for Steve Goodman" John announced at the finish of the song. The chatter behind me rose as John said, "There are three parts to this
next song, the second part is about my first job. When I was 13 working at Skip's Fiesta
Drive Inn" and something about Unicorp of Maywood and not even the State Police could
patrol. "There was a quarter of a mile in front of the Drive Inn that became a
drag strip. Now I would work days with a real sweet manager and girls in hula
skirts. They would order custard so they could park there, and then throw the
custard out of the window. The next day the custard was stuck to the parking lot
and the bees would swarm around it. It was my job to clean it up. You don't need
to know the first part of the story." It was getting hotter in the State Theatre, people were fanning themselves, John would walk back to his table and wipe the sweat from his face after each song, take several swigs of water and go into the next song. He was standing under a bright spotlight, dressed in a black sweater, black jacket, pants (of course he was wearing pants) and boots. Both Dave and Jason were in their suits and ties, professional and appearing comfortable. I wanted to jump up on stage and remove their jackets… maybe take off their shoes too… I knew I was miserable, they had to be dying up there. They never let it show. One guy yelled "Take your coat off and stay awhile" while another kept yelling "Make us cry John" I don't know if any of us could have cried, we were too dehydrated to release any fluids. 8. Far From Me They just kept playing from one song to another, stopping only long enough to wipe the sweat and take a drink. No matter how professional and upbeat they remained, I have seen livelier concerts, I could tell that this heat was beating them up… I wondered if we were going to make it. 13. Dear Abby - John noted that "this is the only true verse" when he got to singing the last verse: Dear Abby, Dear Abby... Well I never thought that me and my girlfriend would ever get caught. We were sitting in the back seat just shooting the breeze with her hair up in curlers and her pants to her knees! Si-igned, Just Married 14. That's the Way that the World Goes 'Round "This story is for Kathy47" and he went to tell how he was in San Francisco doing a concert when a girl came up, who used to be married to a sax player, so he knew her. She said 'Play that Happy Enchilada song'" and I thought about it, "Maybe you got me mixed up with someone else" . "'No John, It goes like this: 'It's a happy enchilada and you thing you're gonna drown'" "This is a request" he said before singing : "You see there is this fella, who has this special ability to travel in
his mind, he doesn't have a lot of money so when his wife gets to nagging him,
he just goes there, not for very long…" "For those of you that have never heard me sing this before, Iris DeMent
sings the girl part:" During all of these songs, you could hear the roar of the audience, everyone was singing along… several behind us were harmonizing and it was pretty damn good, thank goodness, because often they were loud, probably in hopes that John could hear them too. It was getting really noisy… everyone was excited, standing O's after every song. 19. Bear Creek John turned to Jason and Dave, nodded something and started playing in
unfamiliar territory to us … my jaw dropped. I was kind of stunned…
Are we hearing
something new? I forgot my notes until Richard hit me on the shoulder and asked
if I was 'getting it'. This song is bouncy… I even like it better than the
"Other Side Of Town" probably because it isn't about a nagging wife and the
place that my husband often goes (in a house full of women, my husband is a
permanent resident in the other side of town) … ahem…. The song, dang, it was pretty… I wish he would
have sang it twice. We'll call it: Looks like Prine and the Oh Boys all have a softness for Dairy Queen, this time John said that Dave did the driving and stopped by all the DQ's as he did the introductions. 22. Sins of Memphisto With that they waved a long goodbye and left the stage… the crowd went wild, stomping in unison, clapping, cheering, making more noise than anything I had heard in a long, long time. John looked like he was really surprised, honored, to be called back in such a boisterous begging manner. I must say, this was a small venue, but the cheers were as loud as one twice the size… this crowd wanted more and weren't going home without it. 24. Hello In There ~ John invited Greg Trooper back out on stage handing him his Martin. I wonder how an artist feels to play John's 'old faithful'. I wonder if they are star struck at all, or honored or even just scared that they might bust it. "This is for all those Pork Chops and Beaujolais people!" Again, up jumped our second row and chunks of other rows… we knew that this time, just maybe, we would have a great party with no acts of God to contend with... 25. Paradise As hard as we tried, we couldn't get him to come back for another encore. What a great concert, what an effort it must have been to stand on the stage that night. It was hot, humid, and the air was stale. I think any other artist may have complained all night, or simply walked off stage. Not our guys, they came to put on a show, come hell or high water… so hell it was. |
