I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: June 4, 2016] Richard Thompson

I was so excited for this double bill of Wilco and Richard Thompson.  I had never seen Wilco but for the last few years I have really gotten into them.  And of course, I’ve seen Richard Thompson a bunch of times–but not as an opening act–how would he truncate his set?  And then a whole bunch of things conspired to make me miss almost his entire set.  (Details after the set list).

So I got to the Mann Center–a lovely venue–just as Richard was finishing “Walking on a Wire.”  Since his set could be anything, I hoped it was the first or second song.  But it turned out to be the sixth!

So I was able to hear him play three songs.  “Persuasion” sounded fantastic.  “One Door Opens” is a really catchy song that he played back in February and it was fun to hear again.  And “I Misunderstood” is one of my favorite songs of his, so that was great to hear.  And just as I settled in for more, he thanked us and welcomed Wilco.

Someone that I walked past said they couldn’t believe they only gave him 40 minutes, and I rather agree–although I can’t believe he didn’t start twenty minutes late or something.

After seeing him a few months ago from row J, I was pretty excited to see him from Row H, until I realized that it was in the second section back.  Not Row H, but essentially Row HH.  Nevertheless, the view was great and the sound was really amazing.

Here’s a clip from Persuasion and here’s a clip from I Misunderstood.

I hate missing any part of a show, so that all put me in a pretty foul mood.  And now that I see he opened with “When the Spell is Broken,” a song I don’t think I’ve ever heard him play, and certainly not solo acoustic I’m even more bummed.

On the plus side, Wilco totally cheered me up.  Especially when they invited Richard out to play on “California Stars.”

The FUBAR situation:

• The weekend of June 4 later proved to be a weekend that Sarah was going to camping with the Girl Scouts.  In other words she wouldn’t be able to go with me.
• I could not sell this ticket because of a miscommunication with someone who wanted it and the inability of several other who wanted to go to change their plans.  So I had to eat the cost (although I guess it was nice having an empty seat next to me)
• The weekend also later proved to be a weekend that Clark was supposed to go on a camping trip.  I was going to go for Friday night and leave Saturday.  The troop discouraged that saying that kids tend to freak if you leave mid-trip.  Rather than going on the camping trip, Clark chose to bail on the whole thing and I felt guilty about it all weekend. [On the plus side we had a lot of fun Saturday on our own].
• I thought the show was at 8 but it was really 7:30.
• I had planned plenty of time to arrive early for 8, but 7:30 would have been about 15 minutes early.
• However, I was bringing Clark to a friend’s house and we wound up leaving about 15 minutes after I initially wanted to leave.
• En route, a road that i normally take was closed and the detour had my ETA on the GPS go from 42 minutes to 55.
• I wound up in a location I’ve never been before and in my haste/trying to figure out how to get to where I needed to go (no detour signs at that end of the road) I committed a driving infraction evidently right in front of a policeman.
• He pulled me over which added easily 15 minutes to the total time.  [MORAL: although I wasn’t speeding, it never pays to speed because if you get caught it will certainly nullify any time you would have saved].
• The only positive of the night was that the policeman took pity on me and kept my record clean, giving me a fine for something else (thank you)–although I don’t know how much the fine is yet…
• By the time I got close to the venue, the traffic was terrible.  The Mann Center is a great venue but there’s only one way in and a bottleneck is inevitable.