MEMORIES THEY CAN'T BE BOUGHTEN

For complete tour information, see the Tour section for reviews and the Photo Gallery. The final show was in NYC, at the Bowery Ballroom on August 26 and it was a goddamn hootenanny from the first moment of the show, when old Grandapaboy showed up, to the last, with Paul standing on a rickety table on stage, howling out "Nevermind". I did a little bit of traveling to see shows in Detroit, Philly and NYC, along with the hometown shows in Boston and Northampton. My reports:

• Detroit
It was hot. It was Africa hot. It was surface of the sun hot. It was really fucking hot. But a wonderful show, despite the unbearable heat in the venue, did I mention it was hot? Paul opted to wear a lovely pair of orange plaid...what I can only describe as lounging pajamas - visit the Detroit show page for a picture (thanks Michael). He was in rare form, appearing relaxed and in a good mood, and the audience was tremendously appreciative and enthusiastic and probably relieved as hell the show actually happened after suffering thru the Ann Arbor in-store cancellation back in May. Musical highlights: "Even Here We Are" and "Black-Eyed Susan" played back to back; "Love Untold" segueing directly into "Things" and Paul playing my request for "Crackle and Drag".

• Philadelphia
This show differed greatly from the Detroit show in that, while it was unspeakably hot OUTside the venue, the TLA actually had some type of ventilation/air-conditioning system. Musically, this was not at the top pf my list, but in every other aspect it was - great gathering of folks before the show, with 3 continents represented. And of course, as you are all deathly sick of hearing by now, I got to sit on the couch next to Paul for "If Only" and "Swingin' Party". Aside from that moment and having Paul landed in my lap on the couch after he finished the main set, the best part of being onstage was seeing what Paul sees every night - an audience that is just beside themsleves with happiness. Paul let the audience sing the last song of the night "Here Comes A Regular" and watching that from on stage was pretty wonderful.

• Somerville & Northampton
Noho was the 8th show I saw this year, including the Boston in-store. Nothing I had seen up to this point prepared me for this show and how unbelievably great it was. He nailed every song, maybe 2 flubbed lyrics the whole night, his guitar playing was phenomenal and what a fantastic crowd/venue (ok, I'm biased). The place was sold out and packed to the rafters and it seemed to me like every person in the place knew every word to every song. Highlights: - "Valentine", what a tremendous version, "Can't Hardly Wait", "Love Untold"/"Things", "Best Thing That Never Happened". "I'll Be You", "We May Be The Ones", "2 Days Til Tomorrow", "I Will Dare", "Alex Chilton", "Left of the Dial", "Let The Bad Times Roll" (w/ Joey and Dee Dee mention), "Nevermind" and a cover of "Souvenirs" that really just left me speechless.

The show in Somerville the night before was great, it was tougher to pull off this dynamic in a theater setting -- I think audience participation/energy is key to this thing clicking and it's harder to get that going much in a theater venue where people are seated all night. But nonetheless, a great show and a rapt audience even if they weren't the rowdiest bunch of the tour. Big thumbs up to the t-shirt guys in Row C :) Personal faves: "Nobody", "Black-Eyed Susan", "I Will Dare" and the cover of "Candida" was fun as hell, I was hoping for him to follow up with "Knock Three Times".

• NYC
The Warsaw show was a blast, very fun venue and great, great crowd. This show drove home to me the much better appreciation I have for some older songs, seeing them done in this format - "Valentine", I have always loved but something about the way Paul's been doing it live this time out, it just takes on a whole new life. Same thing with "I'll Be You". Paul has said that the way he's performing on this tour is the way he wrote them - standing up by himself, stomping his feet, and perhaps that's why I am seeing some songs in a whole new light. Made my last foray on to the stage at this show and requested "Black-Eyed Susan", which he did play, but not without a little "Black Diamond" thrown in at the beginning :)

I was pretty wiped out for the Irving Plaza show so am probably not the best judge of it, I thought it was pretty damn good, not quite as great as the Warsaw. For this show, I retreated to the balcony. It was kind of fun looking at the crowd/Paul interaction from that perspective, pretty cool to look down and see 1,000 folks singing their hearts out and I was standing behind a guy in the balcony who was just going nuts the whole show. I thought the balcony area would be a little more laid-back since it was the VIP area and I assumed they would be too cool to show any enthusiasm but I could not have been more wrong about that, what a rowdy little bunch of VIPs they were!

Grandpaboy showed up for The Bowery show and he was in a much looser mood than he had been at other shows, starting off the show with some of the country covers he did at the Guthrie. I was irrationally happy to hear him do "Postcards From Paradise"! Every time I get my moment at the bus to talk to him, I meant to ask him why/how he ever hit upon that song to cover but needless to say, I always forget. "Between Love and Like" was a highlight, I absolutely love that song. And we all owe a little thanks to Tom from Singapore, who traveled 10,000 miles for these shows and handed Paul a note asking for "Within Your Reach" -- Paul's crusty reply: "10,000 miles for a song I don't know, no pressure there!" but of course, he ended up playing it, with lyrical help from the audience and lots of improvisation. During the couch session, Paul played a perfect rendition of "Crackle and Drag", with someone holding the lyrics for him, I think it was the first time I've heard it all the way thru with all the lyrics and wow. The show ended with Paul perched precariously on a table on the stage, HOWLING out "Nevermind".