- Loudon
Wainwright III
- at the
East Cultural Center, Vancouver, B.C
- Saturday
September 4th, 1999
-
 Canada Venue : a cozy live theater
setting, seating approx. 200 floor, 150 balcony)
- General Admission ($18.50 Can).
- Show Time: 8:00 p.m
Once wasn't enough
for me, thank you. =)
Arriving at 7:00
p.m. to pick up my pre-ordered tickets, I was disappointed to
see that they were having people form a queue to get into the
theater, rather than opening the doors early. Fortunately,
the ticket holders line was not that long, and I wasn't looking
for front row anyway, so I bought a beer and stood in line until
they opened the doors at around 7:45 (28 never felt so young
*g*). Once inside, I grabbed a fifth row floor seat, on
the centre aisle. My wife arrived at 8, and I was very
excited when finally the house lights dimmed, and the emcee emerged.
I had noted earlier
that there would be an intermission, so I was anticipating a
long night with the Loud, but my hopes soon turned to fear as
the emcee announced that in order to have an intermission (to
sell more beverages), there would be a local band, then a break,
then LWIII would play a set. Gads! I was fuming (as
my wife could attest to) for this duo's first four songs, then
used a break between songs to exit, stage left already. I
might have actually enjoyed their set, if the evening had been
simply billed as LWIII with guests, instead of psyching me up.
In a way, it worked well, since the bar was open with no line,
and I got to play out the New Street People. I wandered
around back of the theatre to "suck my cig in fear",
hoping to perchance bump into Mr. W, but it was not to be. I
returned to wait out the opening act in the lobby and chatted
a bit with some other disturbed fans. "There was no
opener on the bill", "Loudon should have played two
sets" that sort of chatter. (Supposedly, one set was what
Loudo wanted).
Soon enough we
were back in the theatre, and around 8:45 the moment had arrived.
First though, they had the raffle for Loudo's new CD. $1
a ticket, heh. I felt like shouting, just buy a CD!
The emcee explained that normally Loudon would be traveling with
CD's, but that Canadian customs had a problem with it, so there
were only a few for sale, from the racks of the local Virgin
Store =( Enter Loudon Wainwright III sporting a long sleeved
grey/white plaid shirt, grey trousers with lavender suspenders.
Never glimpsed his socks, but his yellow shoelaces stood
out =) A curt "thank you", and right into . .
.
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1. |
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What Gives? - Loudon stumbles over
the first verse, but finally makes it thought to the second et
al. Loudon comments that "I made it!", referring
to crossing the Canadian border. He begins the intro to
. . . |
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2. |
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OGM - Loudon precedes this
with the intro "this song is called OGM, which stands for
Out Going Message." He then bumbles the first line/guitar
part badly and has to stop. He restarts the intro guitar
riff, and repeats his earlier intro for the song word for word. Plays
it through well 2nd time around, with a huge pause after "playing
with the cat". A pinch of tittering from the crowd.
Loudon then snaps on the capo for . . . |
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3. |
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I'm Not Gonna
Cry -
Loudon makes it up until the second verse, when he suddenly blanks
the lyrics, and gets some crowd help. Loudon comments that "I'm
forgetting these songs, and I wrote them!" Loudon
then decides "I'd better go with something new, since I
thought I'd try some older stuff, but it doesn't seem to be working
out." He then muses about going to Portland for the
7th and while he's there, he's gonna hunt down Tanya Harding. |
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4. |
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Tanya's Twirls - Loudon plays flawlessly,
and seems to cheer up a bit =) Loudon does a little plug
for Social Studies, and then he segways into . . . |
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5. |
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A Year - the first somber tune
of the night, very nice. Then another from Grown Man .
. . |
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6. |
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1994 - Loudon gets spunky
with this one, wiggling and knee flicking a bit more. 2nd
verse though proves troublesome as Loudon gets stumped at "just
been dealt the lousy hand in the genetic poker game." So
stumped he fully stumps and looks really perplexed. The
crowd (including me) help out again, and he picks it up from
there. Loudon then mentions that "I wrote this last week,
so it's sort of a world premiere", which of course I figure
is gonna be something I already know the lyrics for, but instead
he surprises me by going on to talk about the day "New York
was almost washed away." He then goes into a tune,
which is either exactly the poem that was posted recently, or
with some slight editing. |
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7. |
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Storm Couplets - well composed song
for the lyrics. Loudon then goes for a "sing-a-long"
with . . . |
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8. |
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Bein' A Dad - Loudon gets into this
one, does some nice strumming patterns for the verses. Loudon
mentions that tomorrow is his birthday, "so I'm gonna do
something I normally wouldn't, which is play these two songs
in the same set, back to back even, but since it's my birthday
. . . " |
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10. |
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Birthday Song
#1 -
He chuckled at how he had to rearrange the lyrics to say "I
know in a few years I'll be hitting ..sixty" which doesn't
quite gel with the next line of "that half way point, when
life really begins." Loudon just smiled through it
=) Then some more plugging for Social Studies, with an
explanation that these songs were not like his usual stuff, but
were topical, and therefore had a shelf-life, and limited appeal,
and then a chuckle. |
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11. |
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The O.J Song - Loudon talks about
his new place in New York, saying the Clinton's might be his
neighbours. Then makes a crack about the native name for
his home town area is Katona- meaning dysfunctional. Loudon
goes on about the Clinton's, once to pause and ask if it's boring
to hear an American going on about this in Canada, but says he's
gonna talk it about it anyways so ... leads into . . . |
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12. |
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Inaugural Blues - Loudon makes another
comment about going back for more of his "water".
There are 3 unopened bottles of water on a stool, but Loudon
is nipping from his mug. He then grabs a bottle and asks
is anyone in the audience is dying of thirst since there's no
way he could drink all this water. "Maybe we should
raffle it off!" he suggests. |
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13. |
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Bad Man - new one to me, since
I waited to buy Social Studies from the man himself =) Loudon
says he's gonna get more personal, and sing about his family,
which I thought was leading to 4 Mirrors, but no, he plays .
. . |
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14. |
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The Picture - very nice =) Loudon
quips his latest favorite motif is "death and decay",
and then acts out a typical exchange as "hey Loudo, what's
up?...I'm dyin!!".."so on that note"... |
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15. |
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The Doctor - Loudon turns the chorus
of oooh-oh-uh-oh-oooh I went to the doctor into a sing-a-long.
Interesting =) Loudon then pauses after a sip, and
says away from the mic "requests?" There is a flurry
of songs, including me trying to get Colours, or 'Sunday Times',
or 'It's Love and I Hate It' in there, but after the furor dies
Loudon hasn’t picked anything up but in the next wave of
songs. Someone says "I Know Where You Are". Loudon
says "I know where you are.. I know that one! *strum* oh,
it's actually called Down Drinkin at the Bar" |
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16. |
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Down Drinkin
at the Bar
- Loudon turns this chorus into a sing-a-long as well .. not
as interesting heh. More requests are hurled out (me again too),
but he's a brick wall to my songs, but grabs someone's suggestion
. . . |
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17. |
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Whatever Happened
to Us?
- Loudon then shuffles like that's the end of requests, and as
he's going for the capo, a woman is heard "He Said/She Said". Loudon
stops and says "ohh, I love it when a woman requests that
song" |
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18. |
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He Said/She Said - End of request portion
and Loudon goes mellow with . . . |
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19. |
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Homeless - I think that's the
name?? The song about his mother dying. Loudon claimed
it was "written last week", but I knew the words. Unreleased? |
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20. |
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White Winos - Wow. This song
was new to my ears, but familiar from this list. I was
under the false impression this song was on Social Studies -
too bad, because I immediately loved it, and am sad to think
it's not available yet. A brilliant composition with typical
biting LW lyrics of the personal nature. Loudon then goes
back to Social Studies, and murmurs how this song is a single,
but oh ya, this is Canada, so.. He mentions that he's the
man with the song for the new millennium =) |
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21. |
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Y2K - "thank you very
much, good night"
Encore #1 : |
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22. |
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A Father and
Son -
Loudo stumbled and stopped on the third line " I always
miss that third line" *replays* "When I was your age
I was just like you, and just look at me now, I'm sure you do
...*blanks*", an audience member shouts "grandfather".."right!,
But your grandfather was just as bad, and you should have heard
him trash his dad..." Loudon talks about writing,
and then sings . . . |
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23. |
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Pretty Good
Day So Far
- "thank you, good night"
Encore #2 :
Just as the stage
lights come up for encore #2, a couple who is exiting, find themselves
sharing the spotlight for an instant as they skitter out. Loudo
noticeably chuckles, and comments "they just had to go!"
He's about to play, when two people in opposite ends of
the floor request New Street People. Loudo pauses and says
"ok". |
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24. |
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New Street People - Fear of Flying was
requested, to which Loudon said "some old folks around here,
and I’m one of them" |
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25. |
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Men - Never would have put
money on him ending an evening with this one =) There was
a time when this was my favorite song. =) "thank you, good
night" |
 Afterwards, I grabbed a copy of SS, and lined up
to get a signature. I was a little dumbfounded when it
was finally me shaking hands with Loudon. I just smiled,
looked him in the eye, and said something like "wow".
Heh, not exactly a profound statement. =) I thanked
him for the show, and told him not a day went by, that I didn't
listen to a tape. He said "really? not a day?"
My wife said "it's true". =) I confirmed
it was true, and told him he HAD to come back again sooner this
time. As he was signing the CD, my wife gave him a videotape
as a birthday present. It contains a homemade video of
The Acid Song made by my in-laws. My wife thought he might
find it amusing. I was just embarrassed he he he.
All in all, it’s
what I expected. Vancouver crowds are notoriously mellow,
and Loudo put on a good show, but his head was sometimes elsewhere. He
warmed up after the first few songs. =) And that was it.
Loudon in my home town =) 3 yr wait is too long though
= ( I assume if you read this far, you don't mind that this
was such a long post =) ttfn.
Phinneas.P.Gage
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