Humphrey’s By The Bay, June 11, 2007 San Diego
You can heal someone's soul. You don't even know why.
Tonight was the first time I'd heard "Turn It On" live. It's not my favorite song on OOTC by far, but you'd never know that by how much I enjoyed seeing it in person tonight.
The encore was: Holiday Road, Turn It On, Show You How and Shut Us Down. If I expected Turn It On at all, I thought it would be the last song. When the unfamiliar strains started playing right after the band introductions, I was shocked and felt rejuvenated, like this was suddenly a song with no setlist.
The venue was Humphrey's By the Bay and it lived up to its name. The stage was set in the middle of a marina, with yachts tied up about 20 feet away. The venue was also attached to a motel and several rooms had balconies and patios with concert views. Ironically, for $720 you could get a suite and front row tickets, but the suites sold with the tickets did not face the stage. The occupants with the concert view paid less for their rooms than people paid for the better show seats.
The tickets said 7:30 p.m., but Lindsey didn't emerge until well after 8:00 p.m., which was annoying. He walked to the mic with clasped hands and said, "Everybody have a drink? Stay warm." He then began to play.
He's changed Not Too Late since the last leg and I'm not thrilled. He makes it loud in ways that I don't think appropriate and does these coyote yowls at the end of the verses that used to strike me with their very starkness.
For Castaway Dreams, he says that he wants to do another song from the new cd, but says he shouldn't really call it "new" anymore because it came out in October. Well, Lindsey that is spanking new for you! At your pace, OOTC is still a new album. He says Castaway, like most songs on the album, is about growing up. Something we all do at different rates. He says once you realize that it's time to leave things behind you, it helps to have some time alone, to get used to letting go and learning to dance on the remains. He concludes, "Change is good." After the song, he dashes the guitar pick to the ground in front of the stage. Audience members scramble for it. I find the gesture amusing. He doesn't toss it towards anyone in the audience, but he must mean for them to retrieve it. It took as much energy for him to hurl the pick to the ground as it would have to put it right back on the mic stand directly in front of him.
For It Was You, after the last verse when he says "love them and watch them grow," he hits his chest, indicating himself and says "Papa."
He sounds so much better doing Big Love live tonight than he did on the Park City Music special I just watched on cable.
I like the way the lighting changes switch for different songs, red strobe lights for Red Rover, spinning mirrors that reflect the light for Under the Skin. You get a different visual mood to accompany the songs.
When he says Under the Skin is about someone he's known for a long time, there's the inevitable "Must be Stevie Nicks" cry from the audience. Lindsey likes this now and always has a comment and doubletake. Tonight when they say it's about Stevie he, cocks his head and says with studied hesitation, "It. . . could . . . be."
Again on I Know I'm Not Wrong, I love the way the music stops and he yells the line, "A year gone bad," acapella. He sings, "Don't blame me. Ha Ha ha." Of course, I am terribly frightened: those "ha ha ha" s remind me of Book of Love.
When he introduces the band he says they have always supported him through "what has been and what will be." He says he has a new album coming out in early 2008 and he looks forward to working with them well into the future.
When Brett introduces Lindsey he says something about it being a musician's dream to work with a man like that and there are few people in life you meet who have the power to inspire the way Lindsey does. When they take their group bow, Brett playfully lifts Lindsey's right leg off the ground. The longer the tour continues the more convinced I am that Lindsey and Brett are having an affair.
After he runs up and down the stage giving high fives to the hands of outstretched hands, he stands there, his black t-shirt drenched. His neck and chest are so wet that they glisten almost as much as the silver necklace he's wearing.
Even were he not so talented, his enthusiasm is contagious. He looks like he has enjoyed the show as much as anyone else in the place. So often, he generated the loudest cheers, not with the music, but with body language, the way he hops and rocks forward, to emphasize frenetic notes at the climax of ISA. The way he opens his mouth wide, with eyes closed, as if his spirit has reached a crescendo, at the same time his guitar solo did. The way he teases by playing with one hand. The way he smiles wryly, as if personally amused by a joke someone in the audience has told. The way he . . . turns it on.
Michele
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