Three more at the Rio

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The Rio Theatre's comfy seats

Hi everyone, I certainly have some catching up to do on this blog. I’ve been to three concerts that I want to tell you about. Seems like it’s because I’m always too tired to write, but I suspect it’s also partly because I feel dumb when I try to write about music. I will perservere, though. I want to polish up my musical memories so I can pull them up on a bad day!

Coming up soon, posts on Lila Downs, Fleet Foxes, and Tinariwen – all performers I’ve heard recently at my favorite neighborhood theatre. Someone’s been doing an incredible job with the booking there!

Friends, if you invite me to the Rio, I’ll go. I do not have the will to resist.

Oh, but Mr. Owner, if you’re reading, would you please stop having the staff squeeze my bag or my jacket pocket on the way in? It feels slightly creepy and humiliating, like airport security. Just ask me whether I’m carrying food or beverages, and I will answer honestly.

The Rio’s upcoming show list

glow riding

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bike glow lights

bike glow lights

I went cruising Saturday night. On my bike. My bike buddy and I had our glow lights on. We rolled through downtown a few times enjoying any attention we could get. A few people called out stuff like “Neon!” and “Cool lights, man!” We got some Las Palmas tacos to eat at the end of the pier, then rolled on back. It was so much fun I almost felt guilty. I couldn’t help thinking of parents parenting and students studying and various people WORKING while I was reverting to a giddy ten years old. I can’t wait to do it again!

My friend takes great photos with a nice camera, but it wasn’t dark enough to get a satisfactory shot. Maybe at the dark of the moon he can try. The pic above is from the glow lights website.

By the way, I almost forgot to mention that drivers gave us a wider berth than I’ve EVER gotten from drivers before. I guess when these lights have gotten popular enough, the drivers will get careless again, but for now, it felt like magic cycling protection.

In other bike news, I’m one step closer to getting my kitty on wheels. I got Scoonie’s old cat carrier (poor dear Scoonie was a traffic fatality last fall), lined it with a fresh towel, and placed a few treats inside. Ratty went right in and made himself at home. I closed the carrier door and carried him around outside for a few minutes, and he seemed to enjoy it. Now I need some rope to lash it to my bike rack.

Alejandro Escovedo at the Rio

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The 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.

Alejandro Escovedo – Rosalie

Alejandro’s website

Dave Rawlings Machine at the Rio

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Now I know why they call it the Dave Rawlings Machine. First of all, Dave is, without question, a passionate picking machine. Second, the unnamed cog in this two-geared machine, Gillian Welch, has become a household name, and she’s in need of no additional publicity. Why Gillian got the fame and Dave didn’t is a bit of a mystery, but Gillian is a one hundred percent supportive musical partner.

Dave plays an unusual instrument. According to Wikipedia, it’s a 1935 Epiphone Olympic archtop. He sure gets the most out of it.

They’ve collected a repertoire that suits them very well. Some excellent originals and traditionals, of course, and a variety of covers: the song Jackson, Ryan Adams’ When You’re Young (wait, I just looked it up and learned that Dave co-wrote that song with Ryan), Dylan’s Diamond Joe and Queen Jane Approximately, Neil Young’s Cortez the Killer, and, as the last finale, a sweet and soulful Girls Just Want To Have Fun.

I had been expecting a laid-back evening, but I was a bit surprised. They really rocked! Many thanks to my friend Julianne, who had seen them before, recommended them to me, and went to tonight’s show with me.

By the way, they were not too proud to invite Mike McKinley, of our local Harmony Grits, up to the stage with his mandolin, for three or four numbers. Gillian thanked Mike for playing her her first Stanley Brothers Record. Aw.

I couldn’t find any vids on YouTube that rocked as hard as they did at this show, but here’s To Be Young.

To Be Young, Dave Rawlings Machine, Asheville

Links:

Dave Rawlings Machine on MySpace

YouTube video: Sing That Rock ‘n Roll

Dave Rawlings Machine on Wikipedia

GILLIANWELCH.COM

Harmony Grits