Show Review: Rhett at the Granada Theater, 11-12-11
A special guest fan review by Dr. David Welsh:
It was a big night for what has become a November tradition at Dallas’ Granada Theater: the annual Benefit for Cystic Fibrosis. For the past five years, Rhett has headlined this event dedicated to raising awareness and money for the fight against a crippling disease. Tonight set a new record for ticket sales, which should help the organizers go well past the $100,000 already brought in by previous performances.
Those willing to donate extra money for VIP passes were treated to a preshow meet-and-greet. Rhett opened a spontaneous mini-set with “Our Love,” then followed with the rarely performed “Sometimes” (at this reviewer’s personal request). The 50+ people in attendance sang the missing Murry parts perfectly on “Indefinitely,” which then provided the foundation for a frantic “Four-Leaf Clover.” Rhet was his usual gracious self, chatting with fans and posing for endless photos.
After the intimacy of the preshow, the doors opened and the Granada began to fill. Opening act The O’s were a marvel of sound and energy emanating from two dudes playing banjo, guitar, kick drum, tambourine, and lowebro pedal steel. Beautiful harmonies and a deprecating sense of humor all done up in a Louvain-meets-Everly-Brothers style seemed a perfect appetizer for an Old 97’s show. Sarah Jaffe followed. Her earnest brand of heart-wrenching vocals oozing sensitive vulnerability clearly pleased her many fans in the audience. This reviewer was concerned that if Jaffe’s set lasted any longer, he might start to grow ovaries.
Rhett finally took the stage at 10 PM. He planted his musical flag with the opening blast of “This Is What I Do,” and then never looked back. The setlist included three songs from his previous solo releases, two covers from his upcoming solo release (The Interpreter), a range of Old 97’s material concentrating on TFTC forward, a Christmas favorite, and a brand-new song performed for the very first time (perhaps titled “Sleepwalking”?) featuring the instantly classic couplet: “she had a prominent nose; she took off all of her clothes.” He performed a cheesy duet (the 80’s synth-pop chestnut “Only You”) with local radio personality Gordon Keith; and brought a young lady up from the audience to accompany him on “Firefly.”
Although between-song banter was kept to a minimum, we did learn that the Old 97’s were set to accompany Billy Bragg on a tour supporting Mermaid Avenue until their visas were cancelled at the last minute. Rhett’s rendition of the Woody Guthrie-penned “California Stars” from that album was a memorable moment in a memorable evening. Lyric flubs and broken strings were minimal during the 70-minute performance, but the energy on stage was high-octane throughout. Dramatic spit-takes erupted during “Doreen” and again for the encore of “Big Brown Eyes.” The sound quality was impeccable, the crowd was adoring, and a good time was had by all.
~ David Welsh
The entire setlist was as follows:
1. This Is What I Do
2. Niteclub
3. Won’t Be Home No More
4. Singular Girl
5. Here It Is Christmastime
6. Rollerskate Skinny
7. California Stars (cover)
8. The El
9. Doreen
10. Question
11. [new one] “Sleepwalking”?
12. Designs on You
13. Barrier Reef
14. Only You (cover) duet w/Gordon Keith
15. Firefly
16. Champaign, IL
17. Perfume
18. A State of Texas
19. Our Love**encores**
1. Big Brown Eyes
2. American Girl (cover)
3. Timebomb
New Rhett solo album out 11/22.
Rhett is hard at work on a new solo album to be released next spring, but in the meantime there’s an excellent new album coming out very soon. You can now pre-order “The Interpreter: Live at Largo” on iTunes. Rhett talks about this mostly live, mostly solo acoustic album in the video below.
Live @ the Granada 12/28 & 12/29
The Old 97s will play two nights at the Granada Theater in Dallas on December 28th and 29th. Click the performance dates below to get your tickets.
Deep Ellum Comes Alive
Last night The Dallas Observer held their Music Awards Showcase in the streets of the Big D’s famed (and infamous) Deep Ellum. Sarah Jaffee, Centro-Matic, Old 97′s and The Toadies kicked off the festivities on the main stage constructed in the street with the sparkling Dallas skyline as their backdrop. Afterwards roughly 50 bands played in multiple clubs throughout the district, entertaining revelers as well as Zombies until late into the morning.
By all accounts, the guys nailed it, busting it open 97′s style in front of a packed street.
image by Rachel Parker of Dallas Observer
image by Neff Conner
image by Branton Ellerbee
image by Rachel Parker of the Dallas Observer
image by Rachel Parker (hair by Rhett)
You knew St. Ignatius had to be on the setlist, right?
(Thanks to TheBourneBlogger for archiving the evening on YouTube.)
Later Philip and Rhett picked up the sticks to lend a hand on the skins during the Toadies set. Who wouldn’t want to see video of this? If anyone stumbles across any, please post in comments.
image by Rachel Parker
Looks like it was a an amazing night to be roaming the streets of Dallas’ music scene, with or without brain-munching Zombies.
There are more photos of the evening for your viewing pleasure here.
Read an oral history of Deep Ellum by the artists who inhabited its clubs back in the day here.
Old 97′s with Waylon Jennings: Free Download
Finally, after all these years, the fabled version of “The Other Shoe” that the Old 97′s recorded with Waylon Jennings is available to the public. Shooter Jennings has made it part of Southern Independent Vol. 3 over at www.givememyxxx.com. Just click the link, sign up and the free download is yours. Enjoy!
TGTV2 T-shirt Contest Winner
Congratulations to Clay Billman for his winning design!
Watch the merch page for the new shirts, coming soon!
Getting Magnified
Earlier this summer at Outside Lands in San Francisco, Murry, Rhett and Philip took a little time out to kibitz with Google’s Magnifier crew. They discussed the secrets to their longevity, finishing each other’s songs and revealed the totally rock ‘n roll story behind Mr. Miller’s shiny white gold tooth. And someone in the group even busts a move, baby!
Finalists in the TGTV2 tshirt design contest are up
Head to Facebook to vote for your favorite.
Tour Round Up – Video Edition
As we East Coasters wait around to see what nasty turn Hurricane Irene will take, here are some fun tidbits from the final leg of the 97′s summer tour.
They started in San Francisco at the Outside Lands festival where Rachel Swan had this to say:
“Baby-faced singer Rhett Miller — who is now forty, but for the most part still retains his pink-cheeked, puerile features — paused toward the end of his Saturday afternoon set with alt-country group Old 97′s. “Hey, I just saw one of those gate-crashing flashmobs tear down the fence over there,” he said, pointing over the heads of several hundred people who had gathered at Sutro stage. He snickered. “Sorry, Outside Lands staff, the revolution still lives in San Francisco!” Miller and three bandmates dedicated their next song, an energetic rock number called “Every Night Is Friday Night,” to “those cheapskate motherfuckers.” It was an appropriate highlight for one of the best, and most sparsely attended performances at Outside Lands… Flashmob aside, the group’s set was willfully understated, with a few folksy love ballads (including “Question”), and one Merle Haggard cover. If anything, it showed that the 97′s remain both powerful and vastly underappreciated.”
So true on both counts. Here’s the sing-a-long favorite, Barrier Reef from that sunny afternoon.
Heading South, the guys hit Harlow’s where one lucky fan, Tami Hackbarth, posted via Twitter, her dream setlist which included the one song she’d been waiting years to hear live. That night Rhett made her musical wish come true by singing Eyes For You.
Before their last show of the summer in Los Angeles, Rhett rose at an unGodly early hour for normal human beings, let alone a Rockstar, to appear on Fox’s Good Day LA. As you can see, he charmed the socks off the hosts, especially the ladies.
http://www.onenewspage.us/video/20110817/549828/Old-97-Rhett-Miller-on-GDLA.htm
Can you say smitten?
Speaking of special guest, as promised in the above interview, the lucky crowd at the Wiltern that evening were indeed treated to not one, but two beautifully harmonized songs by Rhett and Sam Phillips. We’re still waiting for a video of Fireflies surface on the interwebs (anyone… anyone…), however one generous soul posted their version of Sam’s Broken Circle for all of us envious fans to live through vicariously.
Absolutely gorgeous!
But wait, there’s more!!
One last link before I go outside and enjoy the sunshine, this time from an interview back in July. In between back-to-back shows at the Bell House and a stop at the Rolling Stone offices, Rhett visited the studios of WFUV in Manhattan to chat with Claudia Marshall. In between songs, they discussed how Elmore Leonard’s dialog style inspired the lyrics to No Simple Machine, how he has allowed himself to occasionally pen a grammatically incorrect song and how they as a band have embraced the mentor status in which they find themselves these days, while still maintaining their love of garage rock. The two also spoke at length about he and Murry’s humble beginnings before the 97′s formed and how through trial, error and frustration, the band finally “decided to do something that had no chance at succeeding.” A decision for which we can all be grateful.
http://play.wfuv.org/fuvplayer.php?MediaID=c79d2ce2-9729-4aee-974c-dd6cb63df0eb#.TleXzerVmEY.twitter
That’s all for now. Enjoy what’s left of the summer, and keep checking back for new Fall tour dates.
Rhett featured in The Atlantic
Some links worth checking out from The Atlantic:
About that day – Excerpts from Rhett’s 9/11 Diary
How I Wrote Songs Without a Guitar After 9/11 – Including MP3s of 2 demos of songs written just before and after that day
- Archives 2012