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July 11, 2005
Get out the Map
Saturday night I got to do something I almost never do.... see a concert by one of my favorite bands. I see the ads for the shows and think, "wouldn't that be fun?" Soon after, though, I usually talk myself out of it. It's too expensive, or too far to travel, or the crowd will be crazy, or it's my only night to do laundry or I just had painful gastrointestinal surgery or whatever.
This time, though, my pal Mary from work said "No one wants to go to see the Indigo Girls with me. Will you go?" Hm. Let's see. I'll have to think abou... YES.
So, Saturday evening saw me, Christopher and Mary in a City CarShare Scion XB cruising south on 101 to the Fox Theater in Redwood City, listening to an MP3 CD with something like 70 Indigo Girls tracks. We were munching on Citizen Cake chocolate sandwich cookies. The sun was shining; pizza, beer and amazing music were in our immediate future. Life was good.
And it only got better! Amy and Emily were in great voice, especially Emily. She must have perfect pitch; she laid it all out there, and I never heard a single off note. She's like an angel! They did a simple girls-and-guitars show, with no band. Their opening act, Girlyman, joined them in a few songs, and was the perfect accompaniment.
And speaking of Girlyman they were fantastic. They are a trio of Brooklynites including an Asian gal on guitar, a gay boy on bass and the most adorable baby dyke you’ve ever seen on a hand-played drum and the occasional other instrument. Not only were they super cute in the extreme, they also sounded great – sort of folksy and upbeat, and heavy on the close harmonies. Sound familiar? The audience loved them.
As I promised to Emily, here is a set list of everything Our Girls performed during their almost hour and a half on stage with no breaks. I lost C'pher's pen while taking notes at about song 6 or so, but Mary came through with a spare. As an added bonus, I've listed the albums each song came from, as well as weather each is an "Amy" song or an "Emily" song. If you have to ask what that means, you're not really an Indigo Girls fan... yet.
1. Devotion – Retrospective (Amy)
2. Fill It Up Again – All That We Let In (Emily)
3. Joking – Rites of Passage (Amy)
4. Power of Two – Swamp Ophelia (Emily)
5. Ozilene – Come On Now Social (Amy)
6. Wood Song – Swamp Ophelia (Emily)
7. Perfect World* – All That We Let In (Amy)
8. Andy – Come On Now Social (Emily)
9. Shame On You – Shaming of the Sun (Amy)
10. Least Complicated* – Swamp Ophelia (Emily)
11. Dairy Queen – All That We Let In (Amy)
12. Winthrop - Rarities (Emily solo)
13. Let It Ring – Prom (Amy solo)
14. Get Out The Map – Shaming of the Sun (Emily)
15. Let Me Go Easy – Rarities (Amy)
16. Closer to Fine* – Indigo Girls (Emily)
17. Kid Fears – Indigo Girls (Amy)
18. Virginia Woolf – Rites of Passage (Emily)
19. Chicken Man – Rites of Passage (Amy) + Bitterroot – Become You (Amy)
Encore #1 Galileo – Rites of Passage (Emily)
Encore #2 Finlandia* – Rarities (traditional)*
* with Girlyman
The album Rarities you’ll see mentioned above is a brand-new compilation of random wonderfulness that apparently haven’t been collected in one place; covers, live tracks and contributions they made to soundtracks and tribute albums. Of note are the fabulous and evocative “I Don’t Wanna Talk About It,” which I remember from the soundtrack from the great movie “Philadelphia,” and “Finlandia” an old hymn tune set for 5 voices… Emily, Amy and the three members of Girlyman. As you can see from the set list, they ended the show with that, and everyone knew right then and there that the music couldn’t get any better. It was the perfect finale.
They followed the album convention of starting with an Amy song, and during the show they faithfully traded back and forth between them Amy songs and Emily songs (unless you count #19 as two Amy songs, which I don't really. It's my list, so there). Final score: Amy - 10, Emily - 10, Audience – love.
Up on the watershed,
standing at the fork in the road,
you can stand there and agonize
‘til your agony’s your heaviest load.
You’ll never fly as the crow flies.
Get used to a country mile.
When you’re learning to face
the path at your pace,
every choice is worth your while.
That’s for you, Brenda! You were with me in spirit.
Posted by kyle at July 11, 2005 12:16 PM
Comments
When I saw that you had written a post about how well Emily sang on Sat. night, I automatically assumed you were writing about my performance at El Rio. Sadly, there were no encores of *that*.
Posted by: ET at July 12, 2005 1:31 PM
I have to admit the Indigo Girls usually come up as a ploy to bother my girlfriend when I mention to her that girls love to drive around together listening to the Indigo Girls and gossiping (they do!), not that there's anything wrong with that. But for some reason it annoys her. However, they do have very tight harmonies. I randomly downloaded "Chickenman" one time and I was surprised at how bad ass rock 'n roll it was. Good song, if I remember correctly.
Posted by: Hip E. at July 20, 2005 11:35 AM
Hip E., you are clearly an AMY fan. She is the take-no-prisoners rock chick. Check her new album Prom and the song "Let It Ring," or her cover of the Dire Straits classic "Romeo & Juliet" on Rites of Passage.
Posted by: Kyle at July 20, 2005 12:04 PM