Although I didn't take notes or obtain setlists, last week I did manage to make it to the final three shows of what has been billed as the "final tour" by Bonnie `Prince' Billy (a/k/a Will Oldham). Each show was quite different from the others, and each wonderful in its own way. In hopes that anyone is interested, here are a few random thoughts and memories about each gig.
On Thursday June 11, Will O played the Southgate House in Newport KY, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. The Southgate House is a wonderful venue, a comfortable speakeasy that has been continuously operated since the Prohibition era. It is filled with secret rooms and secret passageways, and features great sound and great sightlines. It is said to be the birthplace of the Tommy Gun! Until about 2004, the Southgate House was one of Will's most frequent tour-stops. I attended one memorable BPB show there in 2003 or 2004 at which a man in the audience stripped naked, climbed on stage, and danced right next to Will while Will unflappably continued to perform. (When the naked man finished his dance, he sheepishly asked the audience to return his clothing to him, which finally happened only after about ten awkward minutes had passed with an increasingly anxious-looking naked man lollygagging on stage).
This time, nothing quite as unexpected as a spontaneous nude dance took place, but BPB and band played a flawless 2.5-hour set to a sold-out house (capacity about 500). It seemed to me that a disproportionate proportion of the songs were ballads, slow songs, and sad songs (including a half-speed, quiet version of "I See A Darkness," plus "The Brute Choir" and "Agnes"), though Emmett Kelly vigorously disputed this charge when I later asked him about it. Will O made several between-song attempts to provoke an Ohio River controversy (by disparaging Ohio and extolling Kentucky), but the congenial half-Ohioan audience had too much love for Will to really rise to the bait and defend themselves against Will's taunting. For this show only, the first opening act was Brett Eugene Ralph's Kentucky Chrome Review, a new Louisville-based southern-rock combo led by Brett Ralph, the man who brought coastal hardcore to Kentucky in the early 1980s. (Although almost no one outside the Bluegrass ever noticed, in 1996 Will O used his Palace Records imprint to reissue some 1985 archival recordings by Brett Ralph's second Louisville hardcore band, Fading Out). Although I missed the beginning of the Kentucky Chrome Review's set because the line to get into the building was 30 minutes long, I was highly impressed with what I heard. I also bought a copy of Brett Ralph's new book of poetry, "Black Sabbatical," which was published this month by a Louisville small press and will be worth its cover price just for its awesome cover alone. (I haven't yet had a chance to read the poetry).
On Friday June 12, I traveled to Columbus OH, where Will played the Capitol Theatre, a "state-of-the-art, 903-seat facility opened in 1989 as part of the Vern Riffe Center for Government and the Arts." The Theatre was quite literally located in a generic Ohio state government office building, part of the state Capitol complex. At street level, there was nothing to indicate the presence of any theatre at all: you just had to know that it was there, head past the government security station inside, and make your way up some escalators to find the performance space. The excessively sterile atmosphere, 11pm mandatory set-closing time, and phalanx of empty seats (the 900-seat facility was only about half-full) seemed to have some negative impact on Will, as did the news (received either just before or during the gig) that Chris Knox (of seminal New Zealand bands Tall Dwarfs, Toy Love, and The Enemy) had suffered a stroke and was rushed to a New Zealand hospital. Nonetheless, BPB & band pulled off a hard-rocking 100-minute set, featuring a few unexpected zingers (including "Same Love Makes Me Laugh Makes Me Cry," a Bill Withers cover from "More Revery"), in a venue with comfortable padded seats and probably the most professional sound and sightlines located anywhere in the Buckeye State. To me, it seemed as though the Columbus set was more rollicking and ferocious than the ballad-heavy Southgate House set, although again the band members disagreed completely with my assessment. For this show only, the first opening act was Brian Harnetty, an Ohio-based folklorist and tape loop artist (now a prof at Berea College in Kentucky, I believe), who has an album coming out that features BPB on vocals. (The Harnetty/BPB track can already be heard at http://www.myspace.com/brianharnetty).
Finally, the Saturday June 13 gig in Lexington, KY was the final gig of BPB's 90-day world tour. It was absolutely stunning, easily the best of the three gigs. It took place at the Red Mile Round Barn, a historic round barn on the grounds of a Central Kentucky horse park/harness racing track ("steeplechase" according to Will). The place had an octagonal stage in the middle and a ceiling that was probably 100 feet high. The poles that held up the ceiling were all decorated with Christmas lights, and there was also a giant ornate chandelier. The barn had several openings that you could wander in and out of. The weather outside was magical, a warm and perfect Kentucky night. Outside there was beautiful bluegrass, white wooden corral fences, and--in the distance--horses, as far as the eye could see. Will O's mother was at the show, as were Cheyenne Mize's parents. Will made very frequent references to how glad he was to be playing in Kentucky. As at the Southgate House on Thursday, Will tried to stir up some regional rivalry (in this case, Louisville versus Lexington), but again failed because the vibes in the room were simply too good to provide fertile ground for planting even faux-antagonism.
For this show, Will O & band played for three-and-a-half hours, from 10:30 pm until 2 am! Although it took about ten minutes for the sound man to figure out how to deal with the unusual acoustics in the round barn, after that he cracked the code and the sound was perfect. The set was very sentimental. Virtually every period of Will's career was covered, though with a heavy emphasis on "Lie Down In The Light" and "The Letting Go" (including fabulous performances of "I Called You Back" and "You Want That Picture" in which Will & Cheyenne's call-and-response vocal performances held the whole audience in rapt silence). With a reference to the venue, Will played a stunning version of "Horses" (a song not performed either of the previous two nights). In the middle of performing "Beware (My Only Friend)," the musicians took a break from playing while Will, Emmett, and Cheyenne sang a beautiful extended acapella version of the Hare Krishna chant "Polestar of My Life" (from "Blue Lotus Feet"), before the band eventually finished performing "Beware."
Towards the end of the set, Will grabbed a few hundred dollars out of his front pocket and dispatched a few kids in the front row to buy beers for everyone in the whole audience (hundreds of people, though many did not imbibe). At the very end, Will rolled a big die that landed on eleven--meaning that the final encore would be eleven(!) verses of "Nobody's Baby on Earth," sung consecutively by each and every member of the band. Among these eleven verses were one sung backwards(!) by bass player Josh Abrams, and one sung in the voice of Alfalfa (from the Little Rascals)--at Will's insistence--by guitarist Emmett Kelly. That they could do this so perfectly (esp after playing for 3.5 hours) was a testament to how talented and inspired this band really was.
The Lexington show also contained a personal honor/horror for me, when during the set and quite unexpectedly, Will called me up to the stage by name and awarded me a gold star (a sticker, the kind that are awarded to first-graders) for being a great fan and friend!
As has been noted by everyone who attended any of the 75+ shows, Will's band for this tour was incredible beyond words. His drummer was Jim White of Australia's Dirty Three (who sometimes drums for Nick Cave), a true individual whose drumming swings and rocks in an instantly recognizable style. Like The Feelies (who supplement the incredible Stan Demeski with additional percussion from Dave Weckerman), Will O suppliemented the incredible Jim White with additional percussion from longtime Oldham associate Pete Townsend (of Louisville KY). Although Will Oldham's sound is spare and is usually nowhere near as polyrhythmic as The Feelies, the two-drummer approach worked perfectly. Guitarist Emmett Kelly (poached from the band of Azita Youssefi a few years back) is a wonder, not only playing flawlessly but also singing backup in perfect harmony with Will O and Cheyenne Mize. Bass player Josh Abrams, a Chicago avant-jazz/post-rock scenester, lended a perfect touch of urbanity and sophistication to Will's sound. And young violinist singer Cheyenne Mize--to whom Will ceded the front and center of the stage at all the shows, as well as the lead vocal position on some songs--will have a very very bright future IMHO.
All three shows on this final leg of the tour were opened by the New Zealand electropop trio Bachelorette, recently signed to Drag City Records (on Will O's recommendation) in the USA. Electropop music is not really my thing, but Bachelorette have an interesting sound and great voices and it was nice to hear them play each night.
P.S. A Will Oldham fan named Daniel Relyea who attended the Red Mile Round Barn gig strung together the following set-list from the show, which may or may not be complete. In sending me this list, Daniel recalled Will O saying (from the stage during the set) that he wanted to play 60 or 70 songs. Emmett Kelly told me that the band had learned about 70 Will O songs for this tour:
sheep
you remind me of something
i don't belong to anyone
face him
where is the puzzle
strange form of life
hard life
ain't you wealthy, ain't you wise
easy does it
i won't ask again
lay and love
you want that picture
medley-beware/pole star of my life/beware
a minor place
cursed sleep
grand dark feeling of emptiness
seedling
wolf among wolves
work hard/play hard
love comes to me
you don't love me
i called you back
LXIV
careless love
even if love
the worlds greatest
nobody's baby on earth
Eh, I dunno, I just can't seem to get into any kind of Electropop tunes. Bachelorette doesn't seem as bad to me as the other Electropop I've heard, but still, just doesn't do it for me. Not sure why...
Posted by: Alison | November 16, 2009 at 03:22 AM