lucinda williams live


has anyone seen lucinda williams on her current tour,i took my wife and 9 year old daughter to see her last night at the university of buffalo center for the arts,we had second row tickets and wonderful view of lucinda all night,she played about 17-18 songs and it was a nice mix of her material,after the 1st song she said that the room sounded great,i thought it was one of the best sounding rooms ive seen someone in,she talked to the crowd a lot in between songs and she seemed to be in very good spirits and having a lot of fun,she has 9 dates left on the tour and is columbus ohio on fri night,i am trying to convince my wife that we should go since its only 3 hours away and its a general admission venue and we could see her in the front row this time but she says no,so i guess im waiting for the next tour to see her again
mikeys
Mike I have not. HBut would travel far and wide to see her. IMHO she has a great ear for sound, as shown by the quallity of her recordings and she also has that raw energy that i really love. A great performer, so I'm told and you are confirming. GO SEE HER AGAIN!!

Cheers
Peter
I saw her live last year where she debuted much of the "West" LP. It was the second best concert that I have ever been to. And I have been to many, many concerts. The number one concert was Springsteen during his solo tour in support of his "Devils and Dust" LP.

David Y.
I went to see Lyle Lovette at the university of buffalo center for the arts last year both he and the sound of the room were fantastic.
I just saw Lucinda here in Atlanta last month. Apparently she is quite the 'couples' musician, as my partner Wendy and I consider Lucinda's music a main soundtrack of our courting. I thought the concert was great, and she liked the sound of Atlanta's Tabernacle too. (It really does have pretty good acoustics. We saw Tom Waits here in the fall and it was also great sound).

I thought Lucinda and her band were excellent, but I want to compare this show to the one I saw in Denver in December of 2003. That was one of the all-time greatest concerts I ever saw. The differences were that in 2003, Lucinda's mom had just died, she was just over a relationship, and she was heavily into alcohol/drugs. Now I don't wish her to still have those burdens, but she was pouring out her soul as I stood in the front row in awe. She seemed to be using the performance as a way to try to exorcise her demons, even as she continued to be more more "blown away" as the concert went on. She staggered around and seemed to barely be able to come back to the mike in time for each verse and chorus. The fans were so supportive and into trying to help her make it through the show, that they sang along to help her with the words, and shouted encouragement at every chance. The band also sensed her battle and picked up the intensity and fills to push her along. Amazingly she made it through every song and at after the last encore she practically fainted into the arms of her bass player who helped her off. I imagined this was what it may have been like for Janis Joplin or Billy Holiday on similar nights. The drama of the performance and the intensity of her singing was unforgettable.

Last month's show she talked about her mother's death three years ago, her sobering up, and her sea-change move to California. Lucinda looks cleaned-up, together, and very clear. She was calm, focused, and obviously happy with her life right now. There was a joy in her voice and music this time. She did talk a lot more with the audience. She is in a good place now. And she is well worth seeing, with a great supporting band. But I will never forget her remarkable open-souled dramatic performance three years ago, as happy as I am for her now.
ThomasE,

I too saw Lucinda in 2003 on the front row, against the barrier at Cincinnati's awesome Tall Stacks Festival. It was one of the best shows of my life, and I've seen a lot of shows.....

The show started out a bit odd, with Lucinda actually stopping midway through the first number to scold a flash camera photographer. She seemed a bit out of sorts at first, but as things warmed up, WOW, What a show! Unbelievably personal in her delivery and a really gut wrenching performance.

BTW, I saw Steve Earle at the same show, and all I can say is "That dude can ROCK!" Really incredible stuff. Saw Jayhawks, Nickel Creek and Los Lobos at that same show too. All for $10!!!!!! Cincinnati's Tall Stacks Festival may well be the best value in music today. Of course that is only if you enjoy Roots, Americana, Blues, BlueGrass, real R&B and the like....

Enjoy,

TIC