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Loudon Wainwright III at 'The Bloomsbury Theatre' Loudon walked onstage at the Bloomsbury Theatre shortly after nine carrying his guitar, harmonica and bottle of water (which he later switched to beer) and launched into two songs from the new album - 'Missing You' closely followed by 'Living Alone', the last lines being changed to "you're 55 now, living alone". He joked "now you know how old I am, you're probably thinking doesn't he look great or hey, the plastic surgery worked". Followed by the new song 'Heaven' which was recently previewed on the Andy Kershaw show. A beautiful little song and very funny in concert. 'The Picture' a longtime favourite signalled the first of the 'family songs leading into 'Surviving Twin' from the new album and he announced that you can meet "the ole Loudo in the foyer after the show to get your copy". Next a song I had never heard of, called 'I Remember Sex'. Loudon said he'd written it about 5 years ago, tried it out, decided it didn't work too well in concert, but had recently come back to it after hearing a 'work tape' of him singing it. It was funny / unusual, and candid in the style of 'He Said, She Said' Lines like 'I tried it on my own / then I tried it on the phone'. Followed by 'Be Careful There's A Baby In The House'. A lady yelled for 'White Winos' and Loudon sang a beautiful version but not before remarking that he was "saving that for the fifth encore" :) Naturally this song was followed by 'Homeless', again, a flawless version. Topical song time, Loudon introducing 'You Don't Wanna Know' as he recalled his time on the Jasper Carrott show in 1985 where he had to write a topical song each week. And it was "one of the coldest winters, when trains weren't running and there were holes in the road". Then picking up the harmonica he adopted the protest singer guise as he launched into 'Something For Nothing', a hard rant against computers and 'file sharing'. The first few lines give you the gist . . . You can pull one
of my songs Sing-a-long time - 'The Doctor' followed by a Wainwright classic 'Your Mother And I' and 'Bed' "from the new CD, chunk of product". 'The Graveyard' was particularly moving (one of Loudon's most personal songs) and a rousing version of 'Last Man On Earth' finished off the first part of the concert. After the dreadful events of recent weeks, many of the list wondered whether Loudon might write a song about it. Well, Loudon has done so. He described the subway journey he usually takes from his home into New York, listing the various stations on the route, one of which was the World Trade Center. The song is called W.T.C (?) and, from what I can remember, describes the events of that day, the train going through that station without stopping, and finally arriving in safety in Canal Street. There's a lot in the song, I hope he plays it on the Peel show tonight. Some listers mentioned 'Hard Day On The Planet' recently and it was the most natural song to end the first encore.
After the show Loudon was out weaving through the crowd to get to the CD counter and a busy round of signing CDs. As I queued, Debbie (fellow lister) mentioned that Caesar said "hi" and Loudon said, "oh yeah, my friend from Ireland". Finally got to say hi to Loudon myself, said I was Martin the guy who does the website, but Loudon said he recognised me from the last few shows. I passed on best wishes from Linda who "couldn't be here tonight" and Loudon said "tell Linda I send her my best". And so that was it. Loudon headed off with a few friends into the night. And what a night it was!!! |
Back for the second time and
the requests came thick and fast, Loudon electing for 'Primrose Hill'
- "a local song" (since it is only a few miles from
the theatre). 'Motel
Blues', 'Unhappy Anniversary'
and 'Lullaby' completed what was a truly amazing show, and one
of the best I have ever seen.