I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 8, 2020] The Exile Follies

There are some musicians who I’ve often thought I’d like to see but who I wouldn’t really want to travel too far too see.  This trio of artists are each musicians that I loved back in the 90s but whom I’ve lost touch with since then.

I used to love Throwing Muses and I have her first two solo albums.  I often thought about going to her live, but I wasn’t sure if it was worth it if I didn’t know her new stuff.

Same with Grant Lee Phillips.  His song “Mockingbird” is one of my favorite songs of all time, but I don’t love all of his material, so I wouldn’t want to have gone for a whole show, I didn’t think.

And John Doe.  X is one of favorite bands from back in the day and seeing them live was amazing.  But I was never sure if I’d want to see just him because I don’t know much of his solo work.

So this tour with all three of them (and in a nearby venue) was perfect.

Kristin came out first.  She sat on a stool center stage and played her acoustic guitar.

She played ten songs.  Before even playing she began introducing the first song as being about bullshit (quite an opening!).

She said “Sno Cat” was about getting in an argument in the middle of the night and storming out, not really realizing it was the middle of the night and you were in your nightgown.  Nevertheless, she hopped in the car and just drove around.  Then she saw a guy doing donuts on his lawn with a snowmobile and wondered if he had left impulsively too.

Her voice sounded wonderful.  She hasn’t lost anything in her voice, and she still sings with that distinctive quirky style that is so specific to Hersh.  I happen to think her voice works better with loud guitars around it, but it sounded quite lovely with the acoustic as well.

It turns out that Hersh has put out a lot of albums since I bought Strange Angels.  And this show was not going to be a nostalgia act.

Consequently I didn’t know many songs.

She did play one Throwing Muses song, but it was a B-side of a single and I didn’t know it.  There were two women in front of me who knew most of the songs though and were quite excited by the setlist (even though the whispered loudly to each other throughout the show).

Kristin told a few stories while tuning, but mostly she was all about the music.

I was thrilled when she played “Your Ghost,” the song of hers I know best.  She ended her set with “The Cuckoo” another song I knew from Hips and Makers.  And those both sounded great.

The theater was warm and I definitely closed my eyes and drifted during some of her songs, but it was still a nice set.

Then she called Grant Lee Phillips up on stage.  He came up and stood on her right.

And the two of them sang her song “Gazebo Tree” together.  I recognized that song and thought that Phillips added nicely to it.

Phillips was also about ten times more animated than Kristin. He was very funny–making jokes, poking gentle fun and generally being a good frontman.  After Kristin’s song, the two duetted on Grant Lee’s song “Josephine of the Swamps” and their voices really do work well together.

Kristin told him he looked very nice and he said that John Doe taught him to steam his clothes before he went on stage.  He was pleased that this venue provided a steamer in the dressing room. Kristin said she didn’t know what that was (she’s a hick, she said) and assumed he meant something for steaming food.

Kristin left and Grant said that he was going to play a song from when he was on Gilmore Girls.  I wondered if he’d mention the show at all, and it was great to hear “Mona Lisa.”  I wonder how many songs he did on that show and if they all wound up on an album.

He then played a new song that he didn’t have a name for yet.

Much like with Kristin, I loved Grant Lee’s band Grant Lee Buffalo, and I have a couple of his early solo albums, but I didn’t realize he’d been putting out music steadily for fifteen years as well.

So the middle of the set was a bunch of songs I didn’t know.  I like Grant’s voice and his charisma was in evidence tonight, but I still drifted a bit–it was warm and cozy in that small theater and the music was mellow and comforting).

Then he introduced a song from Grant Lee Buffalo that he hadn’t played in a while.  It was “Mockingbirds.”  I was shocked to discover that indeed he hasn’t been playing this song and that this was the first night in a long time that he’d played it.  I would have been so annoyed if he hadn’t.  It sounded great (although he changed some of the high notes–which is probably understandable).  Still, it was wonderful to hear.

He played another song from that album and then returned to his solo albums, playing three songs from his 2016 album The Narrows.

Then he called out John Doe, who stood to his right.  It was funny that they were so far apart, but it made logistical sense.

They duetted on “Loaded Gun.”  Once again the two voices together really sounded great.  They both song in a very different style and their voices melded nicely together.

Grant and John had a wonderful banter together.  They have clearly hit it off and enjoy touring with each other.

Next they sang John’s “Twin Brother” and then Grant left and it was just John Doe on the stage.  His voice sounds amazing as well–that same rugged, wise timbre he’s always had.

As with the other two I didn’t know that John Doe has been releasing music all this time. His latest album, The Westerner, was in 2016 and I obviously I didn’t know anything about it.  He played four songs from it.

John Doe has been playing music for over 40 years and he knows how to own a crowd.  He is charming and funny, tells great stories and even invited requests,

I can’t recall the song but someone requested an old X song sand John looked at him and said, now that’s a really fast song, how do you think its going to sound on an acoustic guitar?  You’ve got to think man.  There were a few requests for songs that he was planning to play anyhow.  Someone asked for Fourth of July and he said he only plays that during the summer. It would be like playing a Christmas song in July. Someone requested a Knitters song and he aid he was sorry but that song was just gone from is memory–I love that he admitted that.

Then someone requested “Burning House of Love,” which he played wonderfully–acoustic guitar and all.  I wonder how many shows people request the same songs.  That song is pretty popular and I assume he winds up playing it at 75% of the shows.

After this song he played a new song that he said came to him all at once.  It was called “The Cowboy and the Hot Air Balloon.”  It was a story song that was more than a little odd.

Up next was the song I liked the best from him (aside from the X covers).  He told a lengthy story about hanging out with Harry Dean Stanton and playing guitars together.  Harry Dean seemed to really enjoy it.  They learned this song together and so in Harry Dean’s honor, he played a Mexican traditional song called “Cancion Mixteca.”  John got the guitar sound just right and his Spanish was perfect–he sounded like he’d been singing Spanish songs all his life.  It was terrific.

S. and I both love his song “Golden State.”  We hoped hoped, hoped, hoped he would play it.  Someone requested it and he said later, so we knew we’d hear it.  We assumed that he would sing it as a duet with Kristin (since the song is a duet), but he decided to sing it by himself.  He introduced it by saying that many people have used it as their wedding song. To which he said, have you listened to the lyrics?  It starts out nice, but its about two people who cant get together.

Well, even without the female voice, the song sounded fantastic and it was a great way to end his set.

Then he called back Kristin and Grant Lee to sing some songs.  They each picked one and sang lead with the other accompanying.

Grant Lee’s song was a Grant lee Buffalo song from their debut called “America Snoring.”  He told us that when he wrote the song back in the 90s, things were bad in America.  He thought it was the kind of song that you would write and never need again and he’s very bummed that it’s still relevant if not more relevant now than it was then.

Kristin’s song was a huge surprise as she chose “When the Levee Breaks.”  I never thought about it not being a Led Zeppelin song but of course it’s an old blues song (which make a lot more sense, honestly–do they even have levees in England?).

But I couldn’t imagine why she picked it.  It turns out she had often released traditional songs.  She says she grew up listening to songs like that rather than lullabies.  She also released “Levee” as a b-side years ago.  So that makes sense.

John chose the X song “The New World.”  I love this song and its the one song I would have requested if I was the kind of person to shout out requests.  It sounded fantastic and having the other two on backing vocals was a great addition.  I enjoyed the conversational way that Grant joined in–although i think Kristin didn’t contribute much in the way of backing vocals, which is, again, a surprise given the female vocals in X songs.

They left the stage after this song, and we weren’t sure if there’d be an encore, but indeed there was.

The three came back out for a fun version of X’s 1981 song “Adult Books.”  Grant Lee said don’t ever do a Google search for “X adult books.”

And with that the show was over.

I’m really glad I went to this show.  It allowed me to see three artists I’ve liked for years.  And each of their sets was just long enough that I could enjoy that they did without feeling like it was too long.

Plus, the three of them sound great together and clearly enjoy touring with each other.  It turns out this is the second time they’ve done this tour.  They did it once before in 2002 and really enjoyed it then.  They felt it was time to do it again and I’m really glad they did.  And SOPAC was a great venue for it.

KRISTIN HERSH

1. Sno Cat ®
2. Krait ©
3. City of the Dead ™
4. Poor Wayfaring Stranger [traditional]
5. Mississippi Kite ©
6. Flooding ©
7. Your Dirty Answer ß
8. Your Ghost ∏
9. The Thin Man £
10. The Cuckoo [traditional] ∏
11. Gazebo Tree ∇ (with Grant Lee Philips)

∏ = Hips and Makers (1994)
∇ = Strange Angels (1998)
ß = Sunny Border Blue (2001)
® = The Grotto (2003)
£ = Learn to Sing Like a Star (2007)
© = Crooked (2010)
™ = Throwing Muses B-side (1992)

GRANT LEE PHILLIPS

1. Josephine of the Swamps ∇ (with Kristin Hersh)
2. Mona Lisa ∇
3. new song
4. Find My Way ℵ
5. See America ϖ
6. Mockingbirds ¶
7. Honey Don’t Think ¶
8. Buried Treasure ©
9. Smoke and Sparks ℵ
10. Loaded Gun ℵ (with John Doe)

∇ = Virginia Creeper (2004)
ℵ = The Narrows (2016)
© = Little Moon (2009)
ϖ = Mobilize (2001)
¶ = GRANT LEE PHILLIPS: Mighty Joe Moon (1994)

 

JOHN DOE

1. Twin Brother € (with Grant Lee Phillips)
2. Get on Board Ψ
3. Don’t Forget How Much I Love You Δ
4. A Little Help Ψ
5. Burning House of Love ⊗
6. A Cowboy and the Hot Air Balloon [new]
7. Cancion Mixteca [traditional]
8. Sweet Reward Ψ
9. My Darling, Blue Skies Ψ
10. The Golden State ¥
11. America Snoring δ (with Kristin Hersh & Grant Lee Phillips)
12. When the Levee Breaks [traditional]∉ (with Kristin Hersh & Grant Lee Phillips)
13. The New World ♠ (with Kristin Hersh & Grant Lee Phillips)
    encore
14. Adult Books ∑ (with Kristin Hersh & Grant Lee Phillips)

€ = Forever Hasn’t Happened Yet (2005)
¥ = A Year in the Wilderness (2007)
Δ = Keeper (2011)
Ψ = The Westerner (2016)
∑= X: Wild Gift (1981)
♠ = X: More Fun in the New World (1983)
⊗ = X: Ain’t Love Grand (1985)
δ = GRANT LEE BUFFALO: Fuzzy (1993)
∉ = KRISTIN HERSH: B-side (1994)