alejandro escovedo @ headliner's/louisville (06.11.2008)

one of these days i have to play catch up, it's been too long.

but on to "now"...




my god, what an incredible show. hands down the best live performance that i have seen this year. alejandro's band consisting of: alejandro escovedo - guitar & vocals, david pulkingham - guitar, hector munoz -drums (his drummer of 23 years), brian standefer - cello, josh gravelin - bass and carrie rodriguez - violin & backing vocals generates a power that must be heard to be believed. remember the phrase "wall of sound" that was associated w/phil spector in the 60's...well, this is an updated, unabashed, incredible loud and live "wall of sound." all of the basics of hardcore rock and roll, two guitars, bass & drums, supplemented by an amazing cello player and the incomparable "special guest," carrie rodriguez on violin.

tonight was the first night of his tour w/james mcmurtry (who performed a painfully long hour & thirty minute opening set) after opening 3 shows for dave matthews (and as alejandro said, "having the honor of being ignored by 17,000 people per night"). he fully took advantage and enjoyed playing for his audience, a crowd there to see him. and carrie, dove in head first and rocked her fine little ass off, she was a great compliment/addition to this group of players.

most of the songs played tonight were from his new record, "real animal" (due out june 24th & recorded in lexington, ky) which he sold (and i bought) early tonight for the first time tonight + a several of his standards thrown in. one of the highlights was the title song "real animal" which he wrote about iggy pop and who he damn near channeled during the performance of the song. an amazing perfomance. he opened with "put you down" to set the pace and closed out the show with a rocking cover of the stones "beast of burden," during the "pretty, pretty, pretty girls" chant he invited two girls out of the audience that were dancing in front of the stage to join him on stage for the duration. and he enjoyed having them up there. a lot, it seemed.

what a show. go see this man play live. you will not be disappointed.

ben sollee opened the evening and played a beautiful 30 minute solo set. i was standing next to carrie rodriguez who came out to watch ben play and she replied "WOW!" and hooted, whistled, screamed and applauded loudly after each song ben played. pretty high praise from an amazing talent in her own right.

mcmurtry wasn't "bad," just your basic alt-country power trio, after about the third 6-7 minute song that was virtually indistinguishable from the one before or after it, i was ready to move on, unfortunately james wasn't. it would have been a perfect night if it had just been ben followed by alejandro.

but even he and his "set that wouldn't end" couldn't dim the light that was alejandro tonight...

some pics from ben's opening set.

kathleen edwards - headliner's/louisville (04.17.2008)

first, kathleen edwards rocks. absolutely no debate or question about it. she rocks. for those not familiar with her, she's one of those little girls (maybe 5'-5'2" & 100-110 lbs) with a big voice and she can drink and cuss (and rock) harder than any man (or woman) twice her size. she is currently touring in support of her (excellent) new record, "asking for flowers" and played headliner's on thursday night, which was a perfect (yet unfortunately, underattended) venue for her and her band, led by husband colin cripps.

this was the third time that i had seen her and while she was excellent everytime, each show has been better than the one before and last night was no exception. about 5:30am (after her show ended about 12:30 am), louisville experienced a very rare event, a 5.4 scale earthquake, followed by a 4.7 aftershock @ about 11:40am, i joked to a co-worker that kathleen rocked the city so hard that it was still shakin' the next morning.

her set was well balanced from her two previous records, "failer" and "back to me" (still my favorite) and leaning heavily towards stuff from "asking for flowers." while her first two nailed me from the first listen, i was a little disapponted with "asking..." on the first pass, but it has grown on me with each additional listen and now holds up very well to her other work.

she opened the show by telling us..."you’ve got to warm up a little bit before you bust a nut” and moved into the beautiful "mercury" (from "failer"), playing an old and well-worn gibson acoustic. we were also treated to her on electric and fiddle/violin, her band was tight and had a great time playing with her/for us. we also got the back story behind "i make the dough, you get the glory" (great one/marty mcsorley) and the live debut of "oh canada."

one of the funniest moments of the night was her telling us after the first couple of songs, "i love playing louisville, this is my beverage mecca" then she bent over, picked up her glass, which we later found out contained woodford reserve and held it up to the audience and said "i'm no diva, but it's great that you don't have to explain what 'bourbon is' in your rider when you play here" to huge applause. then she asked "which way is woodford county?" someone pointed towards the back of the stage and she turned around, took a sip, bowed and blew a kiss in that direction. later in the show, while playing very hard and pacing the stage, she accidentially kicked over her glass of woodford and told us, "oh no! i spilled my bourbon...GOOD NIGHT!" (it was quickly replaced with a smile from a fan up front).

kathleen, like most music that i seem to enjoy, doesn't really fit neatly into any "genre"... not pop, not rock, not alt-country, she's like if you threw them all into a bag, shook it up hard and let it go. and it works. beautifully.

i was able to snag a setlist and she signed it and a couple of pics for me after the show. as she was previously, she was very sweet and personable, thanking me (and everyone else) for coming out and supporting her and her music, such a sweetheart.

i've said often, if you get a chance to see this girl play live. GO! trust me, you will not regret it.