Virtually Home

My favorite venue on a nice day There's nothing like being in my favorite venue, in the heart of my hometown. I had fun seeing trying to see the venue through new eyes: the giant sepia portraits of country and western stars, the spring-loaded wooden dancefloor, the disco ball and neon star in the ceiling, and the faded awning above the stage make the place feel old and kind of hokey, but in the best possible way. Cain's has been my favorite thing about my hometown for about half my life at this point. So many of my favorite Tulsa memories happened there. Ian Felice during the Felice Brothers set I visited the Gypsy coffee shop on my way to the venue and waited outside on a nice, sunny day. My friends arrived from their trip from Kansas City all the way out to Memphis and back, and we had a nice time waiting for the show. I appreciated the warmer spring weather, after leaving frigid Minnesota. Conor and the Felices played wonderful sets. This was my Life in the Dark ...

Ryan Adams and the Unknown Band Sometimes a show changes your life -- at least in a daily lived experience kind of a way. The set that Ryan Adams and the Shining played at last summer's Basilica Block Party in Minneapolis was one of those. It kicked off a year-long exploration of Adams' catalog (which is pretty extensive and to be honest I haven't even scratched the surface - the guy seems to write 72 songs for every 15 he releases). Setlist night 1. Photo credit: Ryan Adams via Instagram Naturally, I was thrilled to learn Ryan was playing two weekend nights in a row in Saint Paul on his really ambitious  Prisoner  tour. Living in the Midwest, you usually don't see a lot of two-night stands, and you almost never get weekend shows. It seems like tours are just perpetually passing through most of the Midwest on their way to Chicago for a weekend night. I got there early and met a handful of really cool fans, some of which I would go on to see again at Conor Ob...

Kansas City was night 2 of a 3-night trip during the March leg of the Salutations tour. I had a lovely time visiting some high school friends, Jessi and David, that I hadn't seen in a long time. Jessi and I went to the venue early and camped out in the 40-degree weather for kind of awhile. The venue owner came out after an hour or so, and she congratulated us on being the first in line and offered us drinks. We drank some water and chatted with her about what it was like to own a venue. The Felice Brothers The venue was beautiful, with curved staircases up to a pretty swanky balcony. However, the stage is ridiculously tall. So tall that, if you're standing right in front of it, you have to crane your neck to see up at it, and probably wouldn't be able to see anything over the monitors. We ended up opting to see the show from the balcony, which made our sitting in line for hours in the cold kind of a moot point. The show was excellent - the Felices were in fine form...

Matt Berninger is a  great songwriter , but it took me a long time to figure that out. The first things I notice about The National songs are the weird interplay between the musical rhythms and the lyrical rhythms, and the repetitive lines. Now that I've looked closer, I often like what he does with his words. Berninger wrote the lyrics to The National's "England" in part about this weird music venue in Koreatown, LA. It's literally a Catholic church, a cathedral, that they rent out for shows. If you know me very well at all, you probably know that religion isn't my thing. Cathedrals, though, with their vaulted ceilings, attention to detail, feelings of immensity, and glorious acoustics? I loved touring old cathedrals and basilicas during my time in Europe. I even went so far as to take a course in college called Medieval Church Architecture between the 4th and 12th Centuries. Believe me when I tell you that contemporary alt folk performed in a cathedral is mo...

Miwi La Lupa, left, on guitar and vocals I have a feeling this show is going to remain one of my favorite musical moments. The 40th Street Theatre was recently acquired and remodeled by some folks who own a stringed instrument store in Omaha. Apparently they did all the work themselves, and it looks like it was a little theatre, before. It has room for 200, if people are friendly, and a small raised stage. Conor decided to play a show there, and I think it was the inaugural show for the venue. Tickets were sold only in person, for cash, at Solid Jackson/Almost Music or Pageturners. Ryan was kind enough to pick me up a pair on his lunch break. They were really good-looking, hand-numbered, screenprinted tickets that glowed in the dark and displayed a secret message. I thought this was a really great touch, especially in the era of identical, mass-printed Ticketmaster ticket stubs or print-at-home sheets. Hartford/Focht opened. They're a husband-wife team who play and sing tog...

Ian and Christmas of the Felice Brothers opened The Waiting Room is one of my favorite venues. First of all, it's in Omaha, where opportunities and great memories of previous shows abound. But practically speaking, it's also got a low stage, no barrier, isn't too big, and boasts a really excellent collection of concert posters. I met up with show-going friends and waited in line all afternoon. The temperature was pleasant in the sun, and the glass doors mean that while waiting, you can both hear and see the sound check. We had a blast hanging around, and then ate a pretty wonderful dinner at Lot 2 shortly before doors. The crowd was amiable before the show, and I got to catch up with a bunch of acquaintances. The Felice Brothers played a great set, if a somewhat solemn one. Phil and Farley seemed to be joking around in the wing at stage right, but the others were pretty serious. Since I hadn't seen the Felice Brothers before, I didn't make much of it, but w...