| Great Big Sea in Lincoln Center, NYC |
| An uneventful drive brought Karen and I and Chris, a GBV, to NYC. After parking the car in the underground garage (too chicken to park on the street) we strode to Damrosch Park to find Caroline right there! Didn’t even have to look for her. Have I said what a nice person she is? When I left my journal at the pizza shop near the World Trade Center, she called them and collected it for me and kept it till today when I could retrieve it. It had all manner of sentimental stuff and email addys and quotes, etc. from my Writing course at Teachers College this summer. Thank you Caroline! Weird set-up to hear Great Big Sea. It seemed like a bajillion chairs in neat little rows with security present in the front so no one had access to the performers. Except where they went in and out right next to where we sat! LOL! No b’ys going back and forth but the Solas members and the Jeff Kweskin bnad members and Odetta’s “son” along with Tony Pitcher were moving freely between the audience and backstage. There were barriers in front of the stage and really, you couldn’t get anywhere near the stage. That should have been a warning sign that this concert would be different. Solas was great but I only heard half their set. The Jeff Kweskin bad was good but I can only take so much bluegrass and that was over my limit. The lead singer had borrowed the sequined blouse that Alan had on that belonged to what’s her name who opened for GBS! LOL! She looked a little overdressed compared to the other band members. The fiddle player was out of this world! And the harmonica guy was pretty good too. |
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| This is only the lower half of the band shell. Jeff Kweskin's Band is playing here. If you like bluegrass, go buy a CD! |
| When they left, Odetta came on. I have never seen her before but she COMMANDS an audience. If the audience is not with her, she stops and gets them back however she has to. She had scolded us for singing a lousy version of “This Little Light of Mine.” So we had to sing it again! LOL! She was warming up the audience for singing with GBS. She had stories to tell between songs, articles to quote, news items to discuss, and politics to debate. What an entertainer! She brought out a guy who played harmonica with her – called him her “son” and said she’d known him since he was 13 years old. I don’t know how old he was but his hair was cut in the world’s longest Mohawk with a feather in the back. The braid of the Mohawk must have been over 7 feet long and he had it tucked in his pocket so it wouldn’t touch the ground. Both he and the piano player with Odetta were great. From the time Solas was on, Danny could be seen backstage on the sidelines watching the performers. Tony was running back and forth and at some point when Odetta was singing, Karen pointed out what looked like Bob or Séan watching and drinking a bottle of water. This person did not have the flowered shirt on though, so we thought later that it could have been Bob. During Odetta’s set it started to rain and the umbrellas came out. but it really didn’t rain hard enough to get terribly wet. Maybe after Buffalo on Thursday I have an appreciation for what wet really is! |
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| Solas - they are good. get a CD! |
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| Odetta and "son" with braid |
| Odetta |
| As Odetta left the stage, people started to come from everywhere to stand in the front. The cops came up and told everyone in no uncertain terms that they would have to have a seat. No standing or dancing in the aisle according to New York City law. Actually, I think the one security person thought we were all Canadian. “We don’t do that here,” she said. I almost answered, “Well we do in Philadelphia!” But I thought that if she was the cop and I wanted to see the show then I’d better shut up and sit down. That really put a damper on things. People actually got up to dance several times in their seats and were told to sit down or leave. And Cheryl of the famous Howard and Cheryl from New Jersey gave me a direct quote for this review. “Feel free to tell everyone what a shitty idea this (no dancing, standing) was,” was her comment. What were they wearing? Darrell all in black, Alan in black Nike T-shirt with those nice maroon pants, Séan in the Hawaii 5-O blouse and blue jeans, and Bob all in black (no surprise there) with the new racing stripe shirt. |
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| Here’s the short set list: Donkey Riding – Darrell looked really tired for this song. It seemed a little hard for Alan since no one was dancing. But we were all clapping! Billy Peddle When I’m Up – it stopped raining here Everything Shines – Alan took a page from the Buffalo songbook and had us repeat “It’s only rain!” But then we told him it had stopped and he informed everyone that “it never, ever, rains for a whole GBS concert. This was a real good version of ES I thought. Sean and Bob were singing little extra harmonies in there. Goin’ Up – For the last couple of concerts I saw, Séan seemed like he wasn’t feeling well and had no energy. Well – he got it back! We had plenty of dancing, hip swinging and “engagement” with the b’ys. I just wished that we could have been closer to see it. And Alan had to resist the temptation to encourage us to “get up, get up, get up” or to “have a dance” ‘cause it just wasn’t in the cards. It seemed very strained here. |
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