Paul Westerberg 2005 Tour - New Orleans and Memphis

Mar. 9, 2005 @ The House of Blues, New Orleans
Mar. 10, 2005 @ The New Daisy Theater, Memphis, TN

Ok, I am a terrible tour correspondent, cause I was at both of these shows and have no setlists and no pictures! Thanks to OTWS and Steve for sending in some pics since I'm so lame in that department. I did manage to remeber enough to write up a breif re-cap of the shows though:

New Orleans was a fantastic show. I escaped from a freaking blizzard (barely) to get to NO and was so damn happy to be someplace sunny and warm with NO SNOW, that I would have been ok with seeing a Yanni concert. So spending the day wandering around New Orleans and then seeing one of the best PW shows I've ever seen (Saturday in Mpls in Nov was this good as well) was pretty damn great. It was an incredibly tight show, very few missed lyrics, the band sounded great together and Paul's voice was really, really strong. And a great audience too, incredibly enthusiastic and well-deserving of two encores :)

Highlight songs for me: "As Far As I Know", the "AAA/flowerbedroom" mashup, If I Had A Hammer", "Alex Chilton", "I Think I Love You" (which is done withOUT irony, it's a damn good song), "How Can You Like Him?", "I Will Dare" (speeded up Ramones-style), "Valentine", "23 Years Ago" (just cause A-Reg wanted to hear it so much) and the last song in the second encore, "I.O.U." which just about blew the roof off the place. Before playing "Alex Chilton", Paul said something to the effect of "If the person this song is about is anywhere near this building, I apologize." (Alex Chilton lives in New Orleans).

Memphis...hmmm. Memphis was heading toward being the same type of show as New Orleans, but after the first 4-5 songs, veered off into the unpredictable with a very impromptu rendition of "Do Right In Your Eyes". Paul was tumbling all over the stage thru out the show and also engaged in a wrestling match with Kevin that landed both of them on the floor - maybe not the best choice for a guy nursing a torn hamstring!

The show was very heavy on the blues, including a slowed-down version of "I Will Dare". It also included a first time outing for "$100 Groom", which seemed like a spur-of-the-moment choice as well. There was a long version of "Long Black Veil" which also seemed impromptu, with Paul one minute motioning the band to follow along and the next, cutting them off. Towards the end of the show, he asked the audience "Do you guys want to hear "Sadly Beautiful" of "Eighteen?". (These are comparable choices?). He played a few seconds of "Sadly Beautiful" and then they tore into "I'm Eighteen" and he just wailed on that song, screaming the lyrics out: "Lines form on my face and hands". A 45 year old man singing "Eighteen" shouldn't work but it did.

It wasn't the tight, focused, kick-ass show we got in New Orleans but it was rock and roll, and raw, and real, and not always nice and tidy. Toward the end of the show, during "MPLS", Paul took a pretty hard fall to the floor and played lying on his back, then went and crouched behind Michael for the long instrumental finish of the song. He then crawled off stage (literally). Some confusion ensued as they stage crew worked to get the microphone cord to reach backstage, once they did, the band played "Got A Mind to Give Up Lving" with Paul singing from offstage. And thus ended the show.

About 15 minutes after the show ended, there were a few stragglers left in the building and the venue staff was sweeping up. I was about to leave the building and heard "Alex Chilton" playing from the theater. Which seemed odd. So I stuck my head in and there were Paul, Jim and Michael, playing away, with maybe 10 people in front of the stage, going nuts. Color me hugging the stage in about 2.5 nanoseconds. Paul and the band were having a blast, just laughing and singing and jamming, getting a huge kick out of the whole thing. After AC, they went into "Left of the Dial" and the bouncers took pity of the folks who had been outside the venue and let about 20 more people back in.

I honestly believe that if there hadn't been one person left in the theater, they still would have come out and played for the sheer fun of it. So yeah, "unpredicatable" would be a good word for Memphis. I have a friend who asked me "Why do you go to see multiple concerts by the same person?" and my answer was "Why do you go see multiple Red Sox games?". He says: "Every game is different, you don't know what's going to happen." I say: "Exactly" :)

NEW ORLEANS, MARCH 10

I've been following Westerberg with a certain thoroughness since 1983, and have seen countless Replacements and solo shows - most great, some lame - so I think I can say with some authority that Westerberg's New Orleans show was about as good as he's ever been and as good as he's ever going to be.

The performance was ripped and tight, as if the four men had played together for years. There were no manic breakdowns, temper tantrums, lost songs or goofing around - just song after song, performed with elan and soul. (The contrast between Westerberg's show and the generally tepid performance delivered by Elvis Costello at the same venue two nights later could not have been more vivid. Westerberg came across as a guy who could rock and was good at doing it, while Costello seemed like the talented hack I've always suspected he is; his show wasn't bad, but there was no danger to it whatsoever.)

Westerberg's band was so good - frankly, they roared as much as played - that the flaws in his latest solo records are all the more apparent. There's no excuse, at least no artistic one, for Westerberg playing drums himself. He's lousy at it, and hearing Michael Bland hit them so well makes me a bit peeved at Westerberg for thinking he's even in the ballpark. I do not find the "low-fi, DIY" responses to such criticism a reasonable excuse for mediocre work.

The tunes from "Folker" and "Come Feel Me Tremble" sounded like completely different songs Thursday, which is a nice way of saying they sounded like good songs, as opposed to the 4-minute circle j**ks they are on the CD. As currently constituted, Westerberg's recording process actually detracts from his TEXTsongwritingTEXT, a remarkable feat, since Westerberg writes songs better than just about anyone. Hearing these songs performed well makes them seem like better songs, not just better performed songs.

Look, I'm not saying Westerberg should rehearse all the personality from his records. But when you attend a show as great as the New Orleans one, it certainly makes you wish Westerberg would put a little time into the process. It's as much craft as art.

I'm sorry I don't have a set list, but judging from the reviews of other concerts, I don't think Westerberg went too far off the reservation. He did the Partridge Family cover, which was amusing, and the performance was a good argument for what I've written above. If Paul and His Only Friends can make that lame song sound great, just think of how good they could make Westerberg's records sound.

I know I'm hardly the first person to make these points, but when you see a show as good as the New Orleans one, it's hard to think of anything else.

bripam (via the message board)