Crowd is either stiff or mesmerized

On the road for Prine...
quick look in green bay just for the hell of it, okay we were a little bit lost		teaching Doug to roll my cigarettes the Mark Twain way...
Meeting Priners at Gipper's		tailgating before the party in the Town Motel parking lot
notice I was taking pictures and not part of the numbing... after all, this was a college campus, with campus cops and possibly security jerks... I wasn't taking any chances.

We arrived at Green Bay about 2 pm and loaded into our lovely accommodations of the A1 Tower Motel run by a guy named Anil. That's all we needed for an excuse to have a tailgate party. The cold forced  the sun away to some tropical place, and after a few cold one's in the parking lot - we headed toward this Gipper's Sports Bar to meet up with fellow Iowan Prine fans Patti and Tod. Gippers was actually a decent place, something we're not used to when we're all together. Bar trivia, laughter, wieners, and way too much food followed.

Arriving at the Weidner Center in Green Bay, we could see the storm clouds full of rain heading towards us. This place was a whole lot different than the night before, and lot of campus cops running around (I panicked a bit inside, but, I was still on the wagon of good behavior - except for that bit of birthday Cherry wine that Rich and Julie brought me from PawPaw Michigan... it tasted just like the water up on Bear Creek.

The Weidner is just like any other university venue, plenty of room, a bar, gift shop, places to stand, sit and wait. Many concert goers were dressed in evening wear, a whole slew of them arrived in formal attire - I suddenly felt severely underdressed - the feeling passed quickly. 

We were escorted in to our seats - the whole center row and readied ourselves for more of the previous night. The place was much bigger on the inside than the Coronado, not at all ornate - the third tier had a few rows of people in it, as did the second, and the main floor was full. It looked like an excellent turn out for Prine.

The lights dimmed, a hush of excitement passed over the crowd and the smattering began to grow into a welcoming round of applause for Todd Snider. He strummed his guitar - then it was quiet. Tonight's setlist consisted of:

1: Can't complain
2: Class of 85

Todd told the story of the brief blink of an eye moment of when you realize you are going to crash your car and when you actually do is when he wrote this song:
3: 45 miles
4: Long year
5: Statisticians song
6: Let's Get Out of Here
7: Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues
8: B-E-E-R-R-U-N

The crowd certainly enjoyed Todd, but were much more subdued than the night before. Not to say that they didn't love him just as much, it was obvious that they did, they just showed it differently. 

The lights went up, and I went mingling. It was nice seeing whatserface, Pickles, Redeye's, JimS and wife, and SSWriter.... of course, I recognized them.... next time I'll have to leave a note of what I will be wearing so I can meet those friends I haven't met yet.

Again, the lights darkened this place.... the applause began and we all rose to our feet as the other man in black Johnny Prine, vintage suited Dave Jacques, and Jason Wilber in an updated 80's kind of country western leisure suit strolled out to create another evening of pure Prine poetry.

1: Spanish Pipedream

"I called my mom today and told her that they have 'All the Walleye you can eat here" and she said "Oh Lord, all we got is catfish down here."

2: Six O'clock News

"I used to write songs as a hobby, and I got up on stage at a local club on a dare and did my songs, they liked me so much, they asked me back. It didn't take me long to decide to stay inside and sing instead of deliver snow.... Deliver snow? - that came much later.... I'd take my guitar into the bathroom and figure out a song, it was easy since they were the same 3 chords"
3: Souvenirs - "That's for Steve Goodman"

"In 1966 I was drafted and 5 of my High School buddies took the aptitude test - we decided to be all we could be. I didn't look at the questions, just filled in the answers ABBCDABB and so on. They ran it through and I came out a f*ckin' mechanical genius, and they made me the head of a construction crew. I didn't know what I was doing of course, and didn't learn much except how to drink beer..."
4: Fish and Whistle

5: Grandpa Was A Carpenter
I wrote this one for my first wife which was 2 wives ago or 30 years - whichever you prefer
6: Late John Garfield Blues

A lone voice requests 'Illegal Smile' for about the 3rd time from the balcony. John looks up and nods, yeah, he knows that one too.

7: Picture Show

In the quietness a female voice offers from the balcony "Johnny Prine, We Love You!" followed by a deep "Let's Get Naked" - John did a double take with the ohboys and walked up to his microphone: "Probably best if not" - they sure were having a good time up there.

8: Storm Windows

"Here's a good song to sing at your Ex's wedding if they want you to sing a song and you get to come":
9: All the Best

"I was in Austin, Texas Thursday with Bonnie Raitt and we did a song for her T.V. show":
10: Angel From Montgomery
11: Jesus, The Missing Years

"This one is for Reeda, the webmistress," he grins looking out at the sea of faces. I tried to stand up,  blow a kiss, say thank you or at least grunt... instead I froze mid seat with beat red cheeks and all hot and bothered... Rich is nudging me, 'You ought to thank him Red' ... I thought that was what I was trying to do. So, Thanks John, you know how I feel...
12: That's The Way That The World Goes 'Round - complete with the Happy Enchilada story and extra verse. I'm still hot in the cheeks (yes, the ones on my face) can't move...choking up and feeling stupid. It was cool. (attention live music collectors: contact me if you have this show.....)

"I come from a family of 4 boys and the only girl was mom. My dad worked at the American Can Company and liked to get us out of the city once in awhile. So he would save for a couple of months for a weekend and come home with a couple of quarts of beer and a map. He'd draw a big circle on the map, so we wouldn't have to pass the same place twice. Now my father wasn't a particularly great driver, and he would pass a car and a truck would be in the oncoming lane. My mother would yell, 'My God Bill, You're going to kill us all!' My brothers and I would just look at each other - this woman has never lied to us before' (lots of chuckles) "That particular trip was to Devil's Lake" (more chuckles)
13: Bottomless Lake "You know if your going to write a song and it doesn't have an ending, it better have a good moral": and he finished the song.

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