Present Joys

Karen and I made a trip to Chicago last weekend to see Lambchop touring in support of FLOTUS, and of course it was a wonderful time—about as weirdly-laid-back as the other time I’ve seen Lambchop play, and about one hundred times more laid-back than any other show by any other band I’ve ever seen. Delightfully quiet—quiet to a point where you begin appreciating the band’s musicianship in an uncommon way. They played (nearly?) everything on FLOTUS, plus a few Is a Woman-era selections, and finished with that great cover of “When You Were Mine”. Sui generis.

Last sunday (22 apr 2012), Ian and I went to see Lambchop play at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland. We got to the venue with some time to kill before the show, so we went to check out the record/vintage clothing store in the basement of the place. There, we ran into Kurt Wagner himself, who was also shopping for used records. We were able to talk to him and tell him how excited we were to see him, and he was really kind and friendly and down-to-earth.

The setlist included nearly all the songs from Mr. M and every one of them sounded amazing. Overall, this was one of the quietest concerts I’ve ever experienced. We were standing at the very front of the stage and I could hear acoustic sound coming from the instruments themselves, which was a really unusual experience. All the musicians were amazing, especially the drummer. And they played “Soaky in the Pooper” as an encore! Ian and I had parked around the back of the building, and as we were leaving after the show, Kurt had just come outside to light a cigarette. He recognized us from earlier and thanked us for coming. It was all a really very nice experience.