February 28 2008: Steve Earle, Allison Moorer - Calvin Theatre, Northampton MA

I cut out of internship a few hours early so Caitlin and I could get dinner and then a drink with Alicia and Rob and then see Steve Earle. He played the first half-hour solo acoustic, opening with "Steve's Last Ramble" and "Devil's Right Hand," the latter of which was really fun to hear. But like the show in general, it didn't hold up to the memory of the last (and only other) time I'd seem him play. "Someday" was pretty good, and "Tom Ames' Prayer" was pretty fabulous, and "Billy Austin" was undeniably fabulous. Never heard that song before, and man did it blow me away.

But for the last hour of the set he played his new album. I'm not sure if he played every last song, but he played the ones I like ("Jericho Road," "Oxycontin Blues" and "Red is the Color") and a bunch that I recognized from, but didn't paid much mind to, that one or two times I played the whole record through. And it went on for quite some time so I figure even if he didn't play the whole thing, he may as well have. The effect was the same either way: bunch of pretty good songs with a DJ spinning the rhythm tracks. Guess that's what happens when you start giving a guy Grammys.

But for the encores he played old tunes again, and finished up the show with "Copperhead Road" and "Christmas in Washington." Christ did the old hippies in front of me shit themselves over "Christmas in Washington."

And all in all was a pretty great show, especially those first 30 minutes. Man did those first 30 minutes have some great songs.

Febuary 2 2008: Adam Sweeney, Sarah Levecque Band - the Basement, Northampton MA

Everyone likes free shows at the Basement, especially when it's people you're friends with plus people you've never heard of before and blow you away.

Sarah Levecque and her band played first, and it was pretty much like it must have been for people when they would see Lucinda Williams play small places like this. Amazing. She played mostly acoustic guitar and sang, and the rest of the band just played standard country. But her vocal phrasing and melodies were both just about perfect. She switched over to an electric guitar for a few of the later tunes, but the acoustic tunes were the best.

And Adam played next. He had those two dudes that I don't really know on double bass and fiddle, and Ben on drums. Ben got dragged to the show by John, who I guess told him that he could either spend the evening playing that board game Risk or come out to the show. So Ben barely makes it out of the house, and then he's got half a beer in him when Adam says, "Hey Ben! Wanna sit in?" And Ben figures he's got his cymbals in the car anyway, and free beer never hurts, so what the hell.

And it was a good show, expecially considering that no one on stage had played with the others in at least six months. "Albuquerque" sounded real nice, like it always does, and the Pureka's "Porch Songs" was a great way to end the set.