Tag no opening band no opening band no opening band
I didn’t take this photo, but I did see Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy at the Wexner Center a few days ago (25 jan 2013). The show had a sterile vibe, even by Wex standards: there was no opening act and the show started right away at 8pm. But the sterile vibe was a perfect presentation for the band’s very tight, acoustic set. Everything was great, from the very first song, “May It Always Be” sounding exactly like the original recording on Ease Down the Road. It was super super super.
This was the second time I’d seen BPB, and this show was much more intimate. I remember at the show in Nelsonville, there were enough people playing instruments that Will only played guitar about half of the show, spending the rest of his time dancing around instrument-less. This time, he played guitar the entire show, so there was a lot less monkeying around. I found this to be something of a mixed blessing.
A bunch of my friends decided to come with me with basically no background knowledge, and I was a little worried about Will’s general weirdness being a turn-off. Thankfully, I think they really enjoyed it and were not too weirded out by things. One last thing: Emmett Kelly is a really cool dude.