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Originally Posted by markolas
I went to the Austin show last night. This was my second time seeing her solo; I've seen posts here complaining about the setlist and how she talked too much, but I loved every minute of it.
I just adored this show and had a great time.
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I loved it, too, though the stories were sometimes a bit much for me.
I believe this was my 20th time seeing Stevie – 1st was in 1989, and obviously she puts on a much better show today. My seats were the worst I have had in 20 years, but I was going with friends who are casual fans and had limits, so I spent far less this time after being lucky enough to get front row the past 4 or 5 shows I have seen. But first row is not as worth it with no Edgewalk, IMO. I was even able to sneak down briefly to visit with Livia, who scored 12th row.
I am very glad I finally made it to see this tour after having to miss Houston and Dallas because of work travels last year. The track list is a dream.
Many people warned me about the venue. The sound was sometimes not ideal and the seats were very uncomfortable; your knees were right up against the seats in front of you when you sat. (The good thing about the venue is that I work a couple of blocks away, so parking was easy and free.) The venue was nearly full, but not sold out.
The Pretenders were good, but I had trouble hearing the vocals several times during their set, much more than with Stevie. I can’t be sure if it was simply a matter of Chrissy not being as loud as Stevie. At one point during SDMHA it seemed that Chrissy’s microphone completely shut down. Throughout the song, it seemed as though she was trying to belt but couldn't match Stevie as well as she wanted to.
(GrumpyOldMan time.) Merchandise was expensive, IMO. (Fifty bucks for a t-shirt?) I was fine with getting nothing, but my friend’s wife sneaked away and surprised me with one of the posters with the city and date on it.
As long as Stevie’s stories are, somehow many of them are shorter than the versions we have all heard or read elsewhere. All the same, at one point late in the show Stevie mentioned that this was her first time ever telling the reason she did something, and I wish I could remember what it was! (ForgetfulOldMan time.)
She made several mentions of the Toyota that would not drive in reverse, and my first time hearing about that was in a written interview just a few years ago. But this was the first time I heard her say that once she made money she left the car to be impounded by the police, even though Mick wanted to turn it into a planter.
At other shows, has Stevie done that long shpiel about following your dreams and writing a book and having it adapted by Warner brothers and getting rich? That one was weird. I can deal with and even sometimes be amused by the personal stories, but when she turns the concert into a self-help motivational tour, I just check out.
My friends found it cute that she repeatedly referred to South by Southwest as Southwest by Southwest. I was more amused that she referred to the Landslide Superbowl commercial and pointed out the irony that she had never been to a football game, which might be a first for a performer at the Erwin Center by UT.
Stevie and Chrissy both pandered to the ATX crowd. Chrissy made fun of how one of her musicians is from Iowa, that not everybody is fortunate enough to be from Austin, Texas. She also talked about how fun it was to walk around the city with her band, and how much she appreciates the music here. Stevie’s lighting people put up the Texas flag as the backdrop right before the encore, and Stevie said that she would never forget Austin. Let’s just say you didn’t forget where you were. I almost expected her to do Rhiannon in a cowboy hat as a pale and violent rider. (Come to think of it, she had some big Texas hair from the GDW hairshake until the end of the show.)
Stevie looked amazing and seemed to get younger over the course of the show. She looked 15 years younger than she looked at SYW and the Gold Dust tours. Also, there were more women dressed up as Stevie at this show than at any I have seen in many years.
I am so proud of her for skipping Dreams this time around.
I always regret when verses are cut from Edge, which is so lyrically strong.
Gold and Braid was one of my favorites, and unlike in 1998, it did not seem to be a weak shadow of the HBO special in terms of energy. For once I did not miss the kicks. Well, not as much.
Belle Fleur was maybe my least favorite, but was not bad.
If You Were My love has never been a favorite of mine, but (like Love Is, another non-favorite track), it works very well in a live setting.
This is the first tour ever where I like Gypsy. I never thought it worked well live. For once the music maintained the momentum that the song deserves. If Anyone Falls is another one that is better on this tour, as is Enchanted.
GDW is the only song that has sounded amazing on every tour I have seen, and last night was one of the very best.
I’m in the minority in wanting L&L to stay in the set instead of Landslide, but I have to admit, the latter was a good closing number.
When Stevie said that she had no memory of what made her write Crying in the Night, I wanted to call out, Leslie Anne Warren in that Western you saw. I am sure that for many of us on this board, we have reached a point in our "relationship" with this performer where we can finish her stories for her and remember the details better than she can.
Early on Stevie emphasized that she made the promise before Bella Donna that she will never ever be the one to break up FM. I suspect this is her way of responding to all of the recent criticisms.
As much as I like Tom Petty, I cringe a bit when Stevie
repeatedly gushes about him letting her hang out at his house and talks as though she would never have a career without him. Enough. You are Stevie frickin’ Nicks.
So glad I went. My friends complained about ticket prices for the entire month before the concert, but were wholly won over by Stevie’s performance. They even enjoyed all the stories. And at least as far as the songs go, I was entertained throughout.
- Jake