Cheap Seats, Penultimate Chapter

So many shows, such a limited memory...thanks to all who have entertained me over the years: Neil Finn, Bonnie Raitt (early days with Freebo on bass), Yes & Donovan (both as opening acts, one waxing, one waning), the Kinks (late model), Carlos Santana & John McLaughlin, Richard Thompson with Danny Thompson at the Lincoln in Mount Vernon, Ella Fitzgerald, Trevor Pinnock & the English Concert at St. Mark's in Seattle (they trashed the altar), the Jam, Alice Cooper (pre-arena), the South End String Band, Leon Redbone & Leo Kottke, and who can forget the unknown opening acts for James Taylor (who is Carole King?) or Bette Midler (who's that guy with the huge honker on piano -- someone named Barry Manilow??) And thanks to all the bands I've forgotten, big names and no names, music performed inside and outdoors...
Even though this little series has been about the big names, hearing live music transcends categories like that. The last live performance I saw was 3 weeks ago, three 8th-grade kids who knew a total of 4 songs - and I was captivated. There's plenty of fine music to discover.







The Backstage featuring John Martyn
1993, just a few days shy of my birthday, my wife and I see live in concert a man that I consider to be our marriage counselor. John himself would probably be the last to suggest he was qualified to give advice, and I just mean that his records accompanied our early dating, our serious dating, our wedding, our eternal honeymoon -- poor guy was dragged every step of the way. The Backstage was tiny, so you either saw bands there on their way up (see Alison Krauss following) or... well, not on their way down, exactly, but maybe with a little loss of cachet. Especially if they could perform solo (easier to divide the check.) John Martyn had some rough years behind him (musically), but with his late-in-life artistic resurgence, his body finally started to break down after too many years of over-indulgence. The John we see that night had matured, his humor and stage banter no longer at odds with the emotional impact of his songs. But Johnny had grown into a big boy: the tent he wore would have made Mama Cass blanche, and by then he was using a cane.
He's gently good-humored, he plays all the old favorites that in a better world would have made him a fortune, and he drinks only enough to be charmingly lubricated.
You'd think this evening would be burned into my brain, but my wife and I both recall only the certainty that we had been part of a perfect evening. I did hear that there's a bootleg around of this performance... that would be a treat. Always nice to see our John.







Meanwhile, Back at the Backstage...
I've said this to a few people, but I'd swear that everyone in the room the night Alison Krauss and Union Station performed at The Backstage knew that we'd never see her play a space that small again. You don't really expect a bluegrass artist to break big, but we saw big talent on the stage that night. She was funny with a dry wit (with the occassional pinch of goofy), she was articulate, the boys in the band all treated her like their kid sister --- and we all heard the debut of "Oh, Atlanta" a song that allowed her voice to belt one way beyond the bluegrass fence.








One of Our Top Three
...would have to be...David Lindley and band (El Rayo-X) at the 3B (or maybe it was the bar before it was the 3B) in Bellingham. David's mix of surf/James Bond/Eastern exotica/50's rock & blues slide guitar and dub & reggae sounds like it'd be a world music disaster, but that night, the stars aligned, the 'hamsters danced their Grateful Dead twirly dance, and the house was seriously rocked, all by a man with a serious polyester problem.