JessibirdThe Rio Theatre is practically around the corner from my house. How lucky am I? It’s like an extension of my living room, but warmer and with more people. Everything’s so comfy, too, since they took the seats out, cleaned everything, and replaced them. No more sticky movie theater soda-candy floor.
I’m finally catching up on posting about the show I went to in February: Alejandro Escovedo with David Pulkingham. This is the first time I’ve seen Alejandro in concert, though I hope not the last.
The show feels intimate. Alejandro and David, instead of walking out on stage, walk halfway down the aisle, stop there and sing Five Hearts Breaking.
This is where I realize I should have brought a half-dozen hankies!
Alejandro’s songs tend to be about basic, vital things. No clever songs about Oxford commas. Nope, he gets right down to the nitty-gritty and sings these beautiful story-poems about the need for love, friendship, redemption, and of course, rock and roll, in a lonely world. And he sings his soul out.
The songs reach right through my ribcage, grab my heart, and squeeze it. I’m simultaneously feeling the ache of old, despairing loneliness and the warmth of anger and of love. It hurts like frostbite thawing out. Can you wonder that tears start streaming down my face?
My sincere thanks to Alejandro Escovedo.
UPDATE: Youtube is down at the moment. If these videos don’t work, try back in a few hours, or maybe tomorrow.
Alejandro Escovedo’s “Everybody Loves Me”
Here’s a happy one:
Alejandro Escovedo’s “Always a Friend”
An instrumental, followed by a love song based on a true story: A couple met and fell in love, but for seven years, they saw each other only once a year. They wrote each other every day.
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