Despite what some people seem to believe, watching live music is not a competitive sport -- and I'll bet you know what I'm talking about. Every crowd of any size always seems to have a guy or two determined to prove they're the biggest fan there, whooping and hollering to signify that they recognize every song before anyone else in the room.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for enthusiasm, when it's genuine. But there comes a point where that enthusiasm gets self-conscious, and distracting. For example, there was the guy seated directly behind me at Steve Earle's Wednesday night show at Carrboro ArtsCenter, who managed to work in a deafening WHOOOOO during the first few notes of each and every song. Okay, dude, I get it, you really love you some Townes Van Zandt.
Mook factor aside, Earle put on a pretty fabulous show, serving up a generous assortment of songs from his late great mentor Van Zandt -- spiced with numerous anecdotes about him. Some of the stories, I'd heard before, and yet they were just as entertaining a second time. So were "Forth Worth Blues," "Colorado Girl," "Pancho and Lefty" and Earle's impressive grasp of local knowledge.
"Oh, I been to North Carolina," Earle said at one point. "Had me a Cheerwine already. I'm always down with whatever the indigenous overcaffinated local beverage is."
Comments
Mr Van Zandt & Mr Earle
Thu, 06/11/2009 - 10:22 — green"I have no explanation for that, although it does kind of prove there's an indirect correlation between artistry and problems."
Love this line.