August

August has not been a very august month for many of my friends. For even more, it's been a month of endings. It's definitely been that for me - at least three endings from my personal history.

Weirdness: my horoscopes keep saying that I should be active, grabbing at brass rings, talking about and acting on what I'm feeling. There's not enough hell no in the world for that. Not now - not during August. Personal history aside, this is not an auspicious month for taking action. Anything started right now will have that tinge of grey over it. I have this odd feeling of sitting tight, with my eyes on the finish line of this month. Not passive by any means, but holding rock-steady, with no sudden movements.


Coming up, a report of the Corb Lund concert on Saturday. Short form: SQUEEE! (He's a hottie!) OMG, they're all amazingly talented musicians. I wish more people had shown up, and I will personally dragoon manymany people into the next concert they hold in SF.

Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans

Concert Report.
Dateline: Saturday, August 26th, 2006.
Venue: Hotel Utah Saloon.
Acts: Rich McCulley, Four Year Bender, Corb Lund.
Attendees: e_juliana, maidengurl, Martin, Gary, and a host of other miscreants.

Right. First off, Hotel Utah is an interesting venue. It's quite obviously an old saloon - maidengurl and I had fun imagining it as it must have been almost a century ago. However, the music area is small. Not much room for the audience. It's a little better up on stage, but not much.

Opening act - Rich McCulley. Meh. He had a fiddle & mandolin player with him by the name of Amy, who was adorable and much more talented than him.

Second act: Four Year Bender. MADE. OF. AWESOME. Seriously, this band is just fantastic. Country-influenced blues or blues-influenced country - either way, amazing. Go - check out their music and then buy their CD from CDBaby. Go see them if you can, but they seem to be confined to the Bay Area right now. It's totally worth it just to watch their drummer, though. She is INSANE, in the best of ways.

Headliner: CORB!!!! Whee!

Okay, so, it wasn't a big crowd, and it was kind of clear from his expression that he was unhappy about that. But we were all very happy to be seeing him and the band, and the audience was very receptive. Corb seemed a little punchy, which is understandable given the touring schedule they've been doing. He was charming in a very diffident way - I'd say Canadian, but I've seen that sweet diffidence in rural boys & Midwesterners, too. Damn good performer, though.

Holy hell, are these guys talented. The core band is Corb, Kurt, Grant, and Brady, and these guys are masterful. Some of my favorite Corb songs feature the fiddle, so I figured they wouldn't play them when I didn't see a fiddle in the rack (side note: I babbled for a bit at Gary about how happy I was to see the dobro in the rack. He laughed at me). I was wrong - Grant is a monster and made the fiddle bits sound just as good on steel guitar. Kurt is hellaciously talented on the bass - he did a solo before they played "Big Butch Bass Bull Fiddle" that was just amazing. Brady is damn good, too, just sitting quietly in the back and keeping everyone on task. And, of course, Corb. He joked about how he used to ride broncs until he realized that the money was about the same in the music biz and there was much less chance of being injured. Bless.

Funny - right before their last song, Corb talked about how he likes to end shows with a bit of spirituality, a hymn for everyone, if you will. And then he launched into a full version of "Jack Of Diamonds", which leads into " Time To Switch To Whiskey". BLESS.

I'm not good at talking about live music - about what works and doesn't. I know when there's a musical joke being made, but I can't always articulate what it is. I can tell you that Corb Lund & the Hurtin' Albertans are well worth the time & ticket. Very talented musicians, fun stories, and good songs - what more do you want?

To that end - my friends in Seattle and Portland are hereby put on notice that you might want to check them out this week:

August 29, 2006
Doug Fir Lounge
Portland, OR

August 30, 2006
Tractor Tavern
Seattle, WA

( Set list. )

Cute moment from the night: Corb had been hanging around at the merch table, which was right next to where we were sitting (small space, eh?). I went up to the bar to chat with Martin & Gary, and Martin asked if I had been doing groundwork & chatting with the band. I said no, but I had been tracking Corb since he first showed up. Martin looked at Gary & said, "She'd throw me over for him in a heartbeat!" To which I replied, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no... maybe. Okay, yeah." What can I say? He's just that awesome.