Maybe they're always that good.

Or maybe we were blessed, with that peculiar energy that comes the first night out, two days after finishing the record you've been sequestered working nonstop on for two months. Maybe it comes with hearing applause again, and feeding off that energy. Maybe it was just nice to be out and about.

Whatever it was, it was an amazing show.

It's always a gift to watch those rare performers who manage to convey their sheer joy and passion for the music in live performances, and who exchange energy and seem to feed off each other in the best possible way. The Tim Malloys are like that, at least Adam and John are. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings seem so in tune with each other it's practically scary; it's like they keep falling in love with each other, over and over, every other minute. If they ever split, I'll be very, very sad. The both get these little smiles when they're playing, that break into full ones when they can't help it. They were giddy, giddy, giddy the other night, every time the audience clapped for them. (I"m reading The Final Confession of Mabel Stark by Robert Haugh--it's a fictional autobiography about a famous tiger trainer who was born in Kentucky (and got married a lot), and there's a section I kept thinking of watching them where she talks about getting applause for the first time from the house and feeling like no matter what else, at that moment: I'm the kind of person people clap for. Anyway...)

If I'd written this after the show, like I should have, it would be longer and more detailed. You'd feel like you were there too. Instead, I will just finish up with Mr. Rowe's setlist, copied down for this express purpose. Did I mention we were in the third row?

Oh, one last thing, David Rawlings plays guitar like he's a livewire and his fingers are emitting arcs of electricity. Like he's being shocked with each note, literally. It's phenomenal to watch. And some of the songs become completely new things, the way Gillian sings them, what was sad becomes a smile.

(The new album will be out in June, because they're putting them out themselves now, so smaller delay. It will be awesome if the new songs they played are any indication whatsoever. I'm sure you can get more information at the website here.)

Okay, setlst (some song titles may not be right):

I Wanna Play That Rock and Roll
Miss Ohio (Great line: "I want to do right, but not right now")
Make a Pallet On Your Floor
(This is when they admitted that even though they kept looking at the floor
they didn't actually have a setlist, or that they did, but they threw it out
on the first song because, as David said, "We could tell it wasn't right for
you.")
Rock of Ages (Wanna Go Round)
Jesus, We Can Only Wonder Why?
Elvis Presley Blues
True Life Blues
Dear Someone
One More Dollar
Everything Is Free
Red Clay Halo
(Here Christopher has a note that it's cool that Ed McClanahan(writer) was in
the audience as a special guest of the concert series.)
INTERMISSION
Walking on the Narrow Way (I had a really good mother and father...)
(Tuning difficulties and David said, "It's like a Swiss watch up here,
folks.")
My First Lover
By The Mark Where The Nails Have Been
Revelator
Airmail Special (sung by David)
Yellowbird Song (but we really don't know on this one, really pretty tho)
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Don't You Call My Name (the Caleb song)
END OF SHOW
ENCORE
Orphan Girl
I'll Fly Away
SECOND ENCORE
She Walks These Hills (which was killer awesome)

Great show.

Tonight we go see The Mountain Goats from Tallahassee, because Michaelangelo e-mailed me a couple of weeks ago and said, "You are going to see the Mountain Goats on April 12 at High On Rose, right, right?" And when a music critic e-mails me and says that kind of thing, all I can say is, "Of course."

I've been doing some work on the horrendously slow-going rewrite of Voices, which has to be done in two weeks or so (eek ack uck). We're at the coffeeshop now and I'm burnt out for the day on work, and will probably just read some comic books. We had lunch at this great gourmet cafe where all the sandwiches are named for famous dead people and actually reflect their personalities. I had the Isadora Duncan. And the best mint lemonade ever.

I think that is enough, if not all.

(Everyone who I really want to write e-mail because I deperately owe you e-mail, I figure this slow-going rewrite means I will end up getting to that tomorrow, just to have a break.)