“So…..that just happened……..”
That’s the thought that’s going through my head after seeing one of my idols, Rickie Lee Jones, in concert tonight. Imagine the perfect setting… 12 feet away from her in the Egg, one of my all time favorite places to see a show. I trembled just taking my seat at the thought of seeing her so close and hearing her voice so near. The last and only time I saw Rickie was in Northampton, Massachusetts about 8 years ago. I was fighting a pretty serious flu that required me to sit on the aisle and get up several times to use the bathroom. Also, George Bush was in office at the time which made for a very cranky Ms. Jones who intermittently reminded the audience to ‘take {their} country back’. I can understand and sympathize with such irreverence during that time. It was that awkward time for our country where 9/11 was still fresh but the impending war and patriot act was starting to chip away at the unconditional love and patriotism our nation briefly acquired. But I also wanted to hear some fucking music. I know which forums to attend to get my politics, thank you very much.
Considering all the variables as to why the first Rickie Lee Jones concert experience was not the greatest, I didn’t give up on her. I at least decided I would wait for a Democrat to be in office before seeing her live again.
Cut to this evening. For the most part it was a truly magical experience. She opened with “Satellites” which was a nice, friendly welcoming. Almost made me forget that she had pronounced “Albany’ wrong. Several times. I got to hear “Weasel and the White Boys Cool”, another favorite of mine. I realized that though I hadn’t listened to some of her albums in quite some time, the words swept back through me immediately and I mouthed them along. I showed some aural restraint out of respect for the audience and the close proximity of the performer. If only some others had shown such courtesy. During “Chuck E.’s in Love”, her most well known (and yet least favorite of mine) there was a girl sitting next to me that sounded like she was auditioning to be a backup singer. Speaking of the audience, I don’t think there was a single person in it other than my mother and I who did not get up and go to the bathroom. Shocking. But I digress.
The most mind-blowing portion of the night did not come from one of her dark lyrics or her knack for making the live version of the song delightfully unrecognizable. It came during the song “Company”. She berated her guitar player in a manner I can only describe as uncomfortable. Like having dinner at a couple’s house and watching them have a passive aggressive argument; once you sense it’s about to escalate you politely mention that ‘maybe it’s time to get going’. As a musician I’ve barely even spoken to people in my band like this in practice, much less on a stage. During the most dramatic part of the song she adlibbed the line ‘where the fuck are you, Jeffrey?’ Then she basically shooed him off the stage when the song was over.
She moved to the piano and played more of my favorites – “We Belong Together”, “Pirates”, “On Saturday Afternoons in 1963”, “A Stanger’s Car” and “Living it Up”. Before “Living it Up” she referenced the oh-so-current Fatboy Slim, asking the audience to try and provided percussion sounds. Another awkward moment that kind of wrecked what should’ve been one of my favorite songs of the evening. That one was not so delightfully unrecognizable. I was desperately hoping for Coolsville, but to no avail. Then she returned to the guitar and begrudgingly asked for “what’s his name, oh yeah, Jeff” to “come back from purgatory”.
She did a song that I didn’t know. I believe it was off her new album. She prefaced it with ‘so this is about another dead kid’ and rolled her eyes. At that point it seemed as though she had enough of Albany (pronounce Al as in the name and bunny as in the bunny). She seemed almost bored. Then she did “Night Train” and left pretty abruptly. Definitely the only show I’ve seen at the Egg that didn’t have at least ONE encore.
I’m not disappointed. I’m a little confused. She talked about being on some sort of celebrity poker show. I found myself questioning her ‘celebrity’ and chuckling. She’s not as well known as she should be and has more of a cult following in my opinion. After a performance like that I could see that small crowd growing smaller by the day. Certainly not the ‘celebrity’ someone might want for ratings on a poker show unless she can provide that kind of train-wreckage ‘what is she gonna say next’ aspect that these reality shows require, which is a shame when she should be known for the great music she has written and recorded over the years. I think I’ll just stick to listening to those recordings from now on.
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