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08 June 2008

The Bottle Rockets were friggin' great. I am old. [More:] Unlike my companions pips and Hugh Janus, I did a full work shift before the show (in stifling heat). So, I am sore all over and at the Odessa diner afterward, I nearly pitched forward into my eggs.

Anyway, having a smoke before the show, I noticed a wiry guy with a porkpie hat and goatee standing on the sidewalk watching people go by. I walked over. "Are you who I think you are?" "Well, who do you think I am?" "Brian Henneman. [the Rockets lead singer]" "Yup, that's me." and he shook my hand and chatted for a few minutes. He was very cool and I told him that I'd been waiting to see them live for 15 years and was really stoked. One of the perks of being a fan of a band with a small cult audience.

Openers the Apple Brothers and Eric Amble & the Roscoe Trio* did excellent sets. At 11, they took the stage, and when they opened with 'Welfare Music,' I realized that I hadn't won the setlist contest. (the winner we found out was standing right next to us. His choices were great "Slo Toms," "Smokin' 100's Alone" "Radar Gun" and all the rest got played perfectly. His choice of a cover song ("Suffragette City") was inspired. During the encores we got to shout out for whatever we wanted and I yelled loud enough that Henneman said "Somebody really wants to hear Gotta Get Up, so here goes,' and they tore into and I pogo'd around like a madman. They closed with a cover of 'Come & Get Your Love' featuring several female audience members go-go dancing onstage. An excellent show, see them if you can.

*Ambel is also the Rockets producer, and was formerly in the Del-Lords, who were led by former Dictator Scott "Top Ten" Kempner. Six degrees of separation, baby!
Here's a cellphone pic of The 'Rockets and Eric Ambel in full flight:
≡ Click to see image ≡
posted by jonmc 08 June | 10:56
Sounds great! The album with "Welfare Music" and "Wave That Flag" on it (I can't remember the name- self-titled?) was my introduction to the Bottle Rockets. I bet they put on a hell of a show.
posted by BoringPostcards 08 June | 11:04
That would be The Brooklyn Side, BoPo. Great album. (also, at the nightclub next door, there was a prom party or something going on, since there were all these women dressed to the nines around, which was a weird contrast to the flannel & denim of the 'Rockets audience.)
posted by jonmc 08 June | 11:09
Also, there was a guy a few feet away from us who was a dead ringer for klangklangston. I mentioned this to Hugh and he said, 'yell his name out.' I did. No response except for a few weird looks.
posted by jonmc 08 June | 11:14
I went out to see James McMurtry last night at the 3 River's Arts Festival. He puts on a hell of a concert and doesn't care to censer his language or his politics for the mostly silver-haired festival audience. He's probably my second favorite country(ish) song writer currently working; Steve Earle would be my favorite. The song "We can't make it here anymore" brought a lot of the crowd to it's feet.
posted by octothorpe 08 June | 11:28
We saw McMurtry at the same venue as last nights show (Mercury Lounge) a few years back. He put on a killer show.
posted by jonmc 08 June | 11:29
Great that they delivered the goods as you wanted/expected. Was there much overlap between your dream setlist and the winners? I would love to hear their take on "Suffragette City" - I'm thinking that it kind of rocked.

Getting old and loving live music is a tough balance to maintain. Try as I'd like, I just don't get to see nearly as many live shows as I'd like. I just went through some old agenda books from the mid-90s and saw that for several years I was averaging 4 or 5 shows a week (between working for a major and loving indie rock there was a lot to see!), which seems unimaginable now. I think 4 or 5 nights of anything would kill me now.

I'm not quite at that old man stage yet where I have to preplan my sleep if I have a late show coming up, but I find myself yawning during even some of the best shows and starting to think about how nice it would be to be at home. I never in a million years I'd be saying that - the younger more energetic Slack would be disgusted.
posted by Slack-a-gogo 08 June | 12:15
Yeah, it was an amazing show, but my feet were killing me by the end, and I just had to sit down for a bit at the end.

Goodness, 4 or 5 shows a week and I'd be stone-cold deaf.

It was fun, though. Fun is, you know, fun.
posted by Pips 08 June | 12:51
I'm 44 (next month) and was probably younger than the median age at the McMurtry show last night. Yea, it was a 7:30 outdoor show and this is one of the oldest counties in the country but old folks still show up. I went to see Over The Rhine the night before with my buddy Bob who's 55 and didn't feel old there either.

Going out 4 - 5 nights a week would kill me though now (and probably get me fire since I'd suck at work). I walked over to the independent/vegan/fair-trade/etc coffee shop around the corner yesterday and the barista start pouring my coffee before I ordered it. I flashed back twenty years to walking into the Brickhouse Tavern (latest last call in town) on a Tuesday night and having a Yuengling porter ($1/bottle) sitting on the bar waiting for me before I took my jacket off.

Like slack, I'm sure that my 23 year old self would be horrified at my boring middle-aged self. On the other hand my middle-aged self thinks that my 23 year old self was aimless slacker who partied too much and was an idiot for defaulting on his student loans.
posted by octothorpe 08 June | 12:56
I would love to hear their take on "Suffragette City" - I'm thinking that it kind of rocked.

They pretty much played it straight, although Henneman's natural twang added a nice touch. This was a moment where the median age of the audience (late 30's) worked perfectly. Since we'd all heard the song a million times, everybody joined in on the "wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am.'
posted by jonmc 08 June | 13:22
Sounds like a perfect night. Gotta have those now & then. How big a venue was that?
posted by chewatadistance 08 June | 15:41
Maybe 250 people.
posted by jonmc 08 June | 15:43
Nice! Good & close.
posted by chewatadistance 08 June | 18:59
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