Set list: Bryan Adams

Earlier tonight (11 January), I went to see the Bryan Adams acoustic show. My god, this guy is awesome! Not only did the songs transfer really well to acoustic, and not only is he still in great voice, but Bryan Adams has one of the coolest personalities ever. I usually try not to clutter up my set lists, but I am here just dumping in all my commentary from an e-mail I excitedly wrote to a friend, because his cleverness and charisma were just as much a part of the great concert experience as his great talent.

As an interesting note, one of my favorite performances of the night ended up being "Can't Stop This Thing We Started," even though I wouldn't actually put the studio version at the top of my Adams singles list. It just transferred to acoustic really well.

In case it isn't clear, I would highly recommend anyone seize the opportunity to see this man in concert. He's awesome! He also played almost all of my favorites (and the only big one missing, "Friday Night in London," was definitely not expected, since it was just a b-side) and, on top of everything else, he chose to omit "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" from the show. Tell me this man isn't amazing.

Set list:

1. Tonight We Have the Stars

2. Back to You

3. Here I Am (this was the first place where I had to note a joke because it amused me so much - before this song, he had quickly mentioned that it was just him and the pianist tonight, in case people hadn't been aware that it was a no band, acoustic show. At the end of this song, during the chorus, he substituted in "Here I am / Without my band")

4. Let's Make a Night to Remember

5. Can't Stop This Thing We Started

... here's the next point where he amused me. After this song, some woman in the balcony yelled out, "I think you're sexy!" and he was like... "Is that the Nashville mating call? 'I think you're sexy!' 'I'll be right over, baby.'" And then he turned his attention back to the general crowd and was like, "Drunk and horny - just the way I like them" The rest of the night, he'd occasionally come back the joke when that section would yell again... stuff like, "Don't make me come up there." Sorry, I'm sure this stuff doesn't transfer as well second hand, but eh.

6. I Thought I'd Seen Everything

... while he was introing the next song, someone near the front got up and started walking toward the doors, and Adams started playfully harassing him, to the degree of, "Pee break, eh? No, I understand. You gotta go, you gotta go. It would have been nice if you'd waited for me to finish talking, but still..."

Now, for one of the advantages of catching him in Nashville - he's done some co-writing with country singer/songwriter Gretchen Peters. For the next song, he brought out Peters to sing and play guitar with him.

7. When You Love Someone

The next song was another Adams/Peters collaboration, and she stayed on stage to perform it with him, too. Apparently, Adams hadn't done this one live before, and after announcing that, he was like, "I'm sure I'm gonna fuck this up." She got a chance to play off him too, either here or after the song, with something to the degree of, "I've been working with this guy for over fifteen years now, and I'm still not sure whether to kiss him or slap him," to which he replied, "I'm up for both!"

8. Blessing in Disguise

Peters exited here.

9. Heat of the Night

Here, the lights came on and he surveyed the audience. Amongst other things, he noted someone holding a "will you marry me?" sign, and was like, "See, this is why I love playing America. In Canada, the women would never do this. They wouldn't have the nerve. In America, they're so forward." Not an exact quote, but the general idea...

10. Seven Spanish Angels

11. You're Still Beautiful to Me

Here, he adjusted the microphone and guitar for a new setting, and, looking up at the balcony section that kept calling him sexy etc., he said, "There, now you can't see my crotch."

12. Cuts Like a Knife

13. This Time

14. Please Forgive Me (about halfway through, he said, "I always thought this would make a great country song," and then he did a verse with a mock-country accent that was pretty damn hilarious)

15. Summer of '69

16. Walk On By

17. It's Only Love (no Tina there, but there was a Martina - Martina McBride joined him on stage for this)

During the intro to the next one, he told a story of how he'd been told to write a song for the film A Night in Heaven about a male stripper. He sang a brief few seconds consisting of these lyrics: "Pants off / You're done" and then explained that he just couldn't parlay that theme into a good song, so he instead wrote...

18. Heaven

19. The Right Place

20. Lonely Nights

21. The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You

22. Run to You

Encore

23. Somebody

24. Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman

25. Never Let Go

26. Straight From the Heart

27. All for Love (did all the parts himself)

Set list: Jason Mraz

Went to see Jason Mraz tonight. I have to say, this was, surprisingly, one of the best shows I've ever seen. The audience was great. Mraz and his band were awesome. Mraz set a very fun, engaging atmosphere and came off as incredibly personable and likable, as well as quirky enough to do his songs justice. I can tell I've truly had a great time, when, despite the absence of perhaps my favourite Mraz song ("Wordplay"), I was not disappointed at all. Truly great show.

The opening act was Lisa Hannigan. I missed all but her last song, but she seemed to be quite good. She later joined Mraz on stage to do the female part of "Lucky," and she did that quite well too. I didn't see enough of her to truly judge, but my brief impressions were positive.

Also, to the pair of young-ish girls (probably high school age) next to me who caught one of the photographs tossed at the end, kudos to you. Rather than being some of the annoying fangirls I've encountered at other shows, you were enthusiastic and having fun without being rude or detracting from the concert experience. That's rare. Thanks for actually contributing positively to my own experience. (And yes, Jason Mraz is better than Edward Cullen.)

Mraz's set:
1. Make It Mine
2. The Remedy (a cool reworked version that I'm sure is all over Youtube and included a bit of Oasis's "Wonderwall" at the end)
3. If It Kills me (with a very amusing ukulele and spoken word intro)
4. Mary Jane (the Rick James song)
5. Daddy Sang Bass (even though this wasn't a unique performance for Nashville, we applauded it as if it was.)
6. Who Needs Shelter
7. Bella Luna
8. A Beautiful Mess
9. Live High
10. The Dynamo of Volition
11. I'm Yours
12. Three Little Birds (mainly the chorus repeated for audience interaction)
--encore--
13. A medley of You and I Both and Sleeping to Dream
14. Lucky (with Lisa Hannigan)
15. Build Me Up, Buttercup
16. No Stopping Us complete with extended sax, scatting, band introduction, a Copacabana send-up to introduce one of the band members... yeah. Good times.
17. Butterfly

Set lists: Sara Bareilles and Marc Broussard

I'd seen Sara Bareilles in concert when she was an opening act for Paolo Nutini. Tonight, I went to see her on her own tour, with supporting acts Marc Broussard and Raining Jane. To be honest, I was also quite excited to be able to see Broussard. I'd only heard a few of his songs, but I quite enjoyed them, so I figured he'd make for a nice concert experience as well as Bareilles, who I knew would.

The first opener was Raining Jane. I didn't keep their set list, but they were okay. Nice-ish music, a bit of a world/eclectic influence. Not necessarily anything that would excite me, although a couple of the songs were quite good. Pretty cool, though, and the members had good personalities. A little rough as far as stage presence at time, but I'm sure that's something that will be worked out with more performance experience.

As anticipated, Broussard and Bareilles both had awesome sets. Broussard was high energy, and his supporting band is awesome and deserves props for their part in his set as well. I wish I'd jotted down their names. Anyway, I even was inspired to get a cool Broussard shirt at the merchandise table. Bareilles's set was also fun, with most of the tracks being drawn from Little Voice, but a few unexpected things thrown in. When I first saw her, "Love on the Rocks" included a snippet of "Bennie and the Jets" thrown in. While that didn't happen this time around, Bareilles had plenty of other cool little insertions. I hope she keeps that up as her career progresses, as I think it's a fun concert tactic that really helps to express her own musical tastes and definitely also her personality.

I'd urge anyone with a chance to see Bareilles or Broussard to take it.

Marc Broussard's set:
1. Rocksteady
2. Man for Life
3. The Wanderer
4. Real Good Thing
5. Another Night Alone
6. Home
7. Gavin's Song
8. Going Home

Sara Bareilles:
-band entered to Four Seasons' "December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)"
1. Vegas
2. Bottle It Up
3. Morningside
4. Love on the Rocks
5. Between the Lines
6. Fairy Tale
7. I Feel It All
8. August Moon
9. Little Voice with the opening verse of "Viva La Vida" thrown in
10. City
11. Chorus of "Black and Gold" (sweet!), Come Round Soon, chorus of "I Kissed a Girl" (not sweet!)
12. Love Song
13. Many the Miles, joined by Marc Broussard and the audience
14. Living for the City, joined by Marc Broussard and Raining Jane... excellent choice for a group jam. I wish more people would do awesome jam covers. It was also one of the highlights when I saw Ben Lee a while ago, and he and his openers did Cheap Trick's "Surrender."
Encore
15. Sullivan Street (Counting Crows song)
16. Gravity

Set list: Nine Inch Nails

So, yeah, I was counting on somebody posting this set list. It seemed like NIN fans had a big enough Internet presence that I could count on doing that kind of thing. Wrong! Nobody kept a very good set list for this show. The ones before and after? Yep. Nashville? Nope! Suck-ass crowd (for this and other reasons).

So yeah, I went to Nine Inch Nails' Hallowe'en show, and despite some crowd problems and my lack of set list, it was awesome. They rocked hard and really had great effects to complement the performance. I particularly enjoyed hearing "The Hand That Feeds," which was followed up by "Head Like a Hole" as the last two songs before the encore. Great stuff. "Discipline" was also amazing live, as was "Hurt" during the encore. "Survivalism" was cooler than I expected and "March of the Pigs" was insaaaaane. However, maybe the best part was the Ghosts tracks. I hadn't heard them before, but the segments of the show when they were played were absolutely amazing. I may need to invest in that album.

The opening act, Health, was pretty cool. Not really my thing, but some nice modern progressive rock stuff. I felt bad for them, because the audience assholes were giving them a rough time. I cheered, anyway. I swear, some concertgoers are retarded and should be banned. Go home and listen to your albums if you want to have control over who's playing and what they're playing. Otherwise, buy your ticket and enjoy the show you're given, 'cause it ain't your set list to frickin' decide.

---
UPDATE: I see now that one of the NIN forums has updated its set list to look much more like what I remember. I'm gonna go ahead and post it here as it seems likely to be accurate.
1. 999,999/1,000,000
2. Letting You
3. Discipline
4. March of the Pigs
5. Head Down
6. The Frail
7. Closer
8. Gave Up
9. The Warning
10. The Great Destroyer
11. 5 Ghosts I
12. 25 Ghosts III
13. 19 Ghosts III
14. Ghosts Piggy
15. The Greater Good
16. Pinion/Wish
17. Terrible Lie
18. Survivalism
19. The Big Comedown
20. 31 Ghosts IV
21. Only
22. The Hand That Feeds
23. Head Like a Hole
--encore--
24. Echoplex
25. God Given
26. The Good Soldier
27. Hurt
28. In This Twilight

Set lists: Lupe Fiasco, Lil Wayne

Saw Lupe Fiasco and Lil Wayne on Thursday night. Lil Wayne was the headlining act, but Lupe Fiasco was my reason for attending. I'm not a huge Wayne fan, and although I stayed for his whole set, I can't say my mind changed much. The opening act was Free Sol, who may actually have some good music, but whose set sucked as their bass was turned up way too effin' ear-splittingly loud, making it impossible to enjoy.

Anyhow, Lupe Fiasco brought it. I loved his set, and it made the night worthwhile despite the others. "Go Go Gadget Flow" sounds particularly amazing live. I just wish he'd had more time to perform. I did attempt to keep Lil Wayne's set as well, but not being as familiar with his shit, it's pretty spotty. Maybe someone can fill in the blanks. Free Sol I didn't even try to guess.

Lupe Fiasco's set:
1. Kick, Push
2. Hip Hop Saved My Life
3. I Gotcha
4. Go Go Gadget Flow
5. Dumb It Down
6. Paris, Tokyo
7. Superstar (with a pretty cool "I love you you you..." intro)
8. Daydreamin' with a great "wake the fuck up" speech

Speaking of the speech, that's one other place where Fiasco upstaged Lil Wayne. When he spoke, he was fun to listen to. Lil Wayne was, erm, less so. You can only be amused so many times by being asked how many people have bought Tha Carter III, you know?

Lil Wayne's set, maybe sort of kind of:
1. Mr. Carter
2. Bonafide Hustla
3. Got Money
4. Sky's the Limit
5. La La
6. Fireman
7. Might've been Tha Block Is Hot... something from his first record
8. Lollipop
9. Can't Believe It
10. Comfortable
11. Mrs. Officer
12. No clue what came here
13. ... or here
14. Girls Around the World
15. Misunderstood
16. Don't know what came here
17. ... or here
18. Duffle Bag Boy
19. Pop Bottles
20. Go DJ
21. Shoot Me Down (the opening sounding like "Iron Man!" ... dunno if it's that way on the record)
22. A Milli
23. He played a chorus from Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You." Don't ask me why.

Anyway, Lupe Fiasco was thoroughly enjoyable. Even if you like Lil Wayne, though, I don't know that I'd recommend a show. Most of it wasn't exactly live, vocal-wise.

Set lists: The Fratellis, Electric Touch, The Airborne Toxic Event

On 24 September, I went to see The Fratellis. The other bands there were Electric Touch and The Airborne Toxic Event, neither of whom I knew before attending. I got to the show fairly early, bought a ticket, and was able to stand near the stage area, so I was quite close to the performers. Pretty cool. Electric Touch was the first to perform, and they rocked. Great music and great stage presence. Truly an awesome set, and they made a fan out of me. They also stayed around to chat and sign merchandise after their set, so that was another perk. Next was The Airborne Toxic Event. I regretted my proximity to the stage during their set, because one of the guys on guitar seemed to enjoy making really distorted sounds and other examples of painfully loud discord. Some of the songs seemed like they might have had decent lyrics, and I did like the lead singer, but it was hard to get into the set when several songs involved painful elements. Finally, The Fratellis took the stage and played a kickass set. I did, however, want to punch the idiot next to me who yelled out a request for "The Gutterati?" after every freaking song. It's not like the band didn't have the freaking set list planned and taped to the freaking stage. I was quite pleased that "The Gutterati?" wasn't on there. Neither was "Creeping Up the Back Stairs," which was being requested somewhat less frequently by a drunk chick who wasn't quite as close as the Gutterati dickhead. My favorite song off the first album, "For the Girl," was also absent, but I greatly enjoyed what they did play, and unlike the two people I've mentioned, I recognize that I'm paying to see the performers perform the set list they've decided upon, not one I've dictated. Right, rant over. Here's what got played:

Electric Touch
1. Call My Name
2. Dance
3. Love in Our Hearts
4. Saved
5. Lines
6. Come Together (Beatles tune)
7. Breakdown
8. Give Me a Sign
9. Who Put the Fire Out

The Airborne Toxic Event
1. Wishing Well
2. Papillon
3. Gasoline
4. Happiness Is Overrated
5. Does This Mean You're Moving On?
6. Something New
7. This Is Nowhere
8. Sometime Around Midnight
9. Innocence

The Fratellis
1. Shameless
2. Got Ma Nuts From a Hippie
3. Lupe Brown
4. Henrietta
5. A Heady Tale
6. Cuntry Boys and City Girls
7. Tell Me a Lie
8. Whistle for the Choir
9. Stragglers Moon
10. Chelsea Dagger
11. Everybody Knows You Cried Last Night
12. Acid Jazz Singer
13. Ole Black 'n' Blue Eyes
14. My Friend John
15. Flathead
16. Milk and Money
-Encore-
17. Mistress Mabel
18. Doginabag (I think - only thing I can't remember for sure)
19. Baby Fratelli

Set lists: Squeeze with Aimee Mann

It's been a while since I've had set lists to post, but on 3 September, I had the great pleasure of seeing Squeeze in concert at the Ryman auditorium. I love Squeeze so much it's not even funny. That's also why I bought my tickets way soon after they went on sale to the general public and ended up with a front row seat (as far as traditional seating goes - there were 12-20 chairs set up slightly closer than my row, but that's still plenty close for me!) Aimee Mann opened, and while I haven't really followed her solo career much, she also performed quite a set. I only really knew one of the songs at all well ("That's Just What You Are") but she did a good job of selling me her material. I'd mean that literally if I hadn't been a little too broke to buy one of the albums at the merch table since I'd already gotten too much before the show. One thing I also noticed was her radiant smile. Anyhow, overall, despite being put off by some of my fellow concertgoers, who apparently think it's a wonderful idea to crowd in front as the show progresses regardless of who might have been enjoying the view without them, I was quite happy with the artists (especially Squeeze - so not a disappointment in the least) and would recommend catching a show if at all possible.

Aimee Mann's set:
1. Stranger Into Starman
2. Looking for Nothing
3. Freeway
4. Phoenix
5. Save Me
6. It's Not Going to Stop
7. That's Just What You Are
8. Red Vines
9. Columbus Ave.
10. My Father's Gun (an Elton John remake)
11. Thirty-One Today
12. Borrowing Time
13. How Am I Different

Squeeze's set:
1. Strong in Reason
2. If I Didn't Love You
3. Revue
4. Up the Junction
5. Take Me, I'm Yours
6. I Think I'm Go-Go
7. Separate Beds
8. Piccadilly
9. It's So Dirty
10. Black Coffee in Bed (there was a bit of an extended jam on this one)
11. Annie Get Your Gun
12. Goodbye Girl
13. Melody Motel
14. Tempted (this one kind of surprised me - I didn't think they'd be pulling out the Carrack material.)
15. Slaughtered, Gutted, and Heartbroken
16. Is That Love
17. Cool for Cats
18. Another Nail in My Heart (my favorite!)
19. Hourglass
Encore
20. Slap and Tickle
21. Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)

Set list: Johnny Mathis

On 11 May, I went to see Johnny Mathis in concert at the beautiful Louisville Palace Theatre. For those unfamiliar, the Palace is a gorgeous venue, and it's definitely worth attending something there if ever you're in town. Mathis's voice has held up amazingly well after all these years. It's rare that anyone can continue performing for six decades, but it's rarer still that they can give the caliber of performance Mathis gave. My only regret is that we didn't get even more of his songs, but his beautiful voice and performances made up for any disappointment in that respect, and for any awkwardness caused by being notably younger than 99% of the crowd. Before the intermission, we were treated to the comedic stylings of Gary Mule Deer, which were amusing enough, although his set mainly consisted of old jokes which I've heard several times or been forwarded via the Internet. Eh, whatever. Mathis made up for any of his shortcomings too.

Some of these I'm labeling as medleys, but it's not so much that as the end of one complete song segueing into the beginning of another in some cases. This should still give the basic idea, anyway.

1. Medley: Two for the Road/Charade/The Days of Wine and Roses/Moon River
2. It's Not for Me to Say
3. Chances Are
4. Gina
5. It's All in the Game
6. Medley: Let Me Be the One (the Nichols-Williams one)/Let Go (a song I'd not known before that I greatly enjoyed)
7. I'm on the Outside Looking In
8. When I Fall in Love
9. Misty
10. To the Ends of the Earth
---Gary Mule Deer, Intermission---
11. Pure Imagination
12. Medley from Kismet (his first Broadway show): Sands of Time/Baubles, Bangles, and Beads/Stranger in Paradise
13. Secret Love
14. You Make Me Feel Brand New
15. Walk On By
16. 99 Miles from L.A. (didn't expect this, but he did an amazing job with it)
17. The Twelfth of Never
18. A selection of Portuguese songs - couldn't say what, but it ended with an English rendition of "Brazil"
19. You'll Never Know

Set list: Robert Cray Band

On 25 April, I got to see the Robert Cray Band perform. Despite sitting next to a drunken ass, the show was amazing. Cray's set included traditional blues numbers and the blues-rock for which he's best known. He and the band kicked serious ass with some awesome guitar, keyboard, and drum work in addition to Cray's emotive and well-delivered vocals. He also played "Right Next Door," which I love, so yay for that.

Set:
1. Phone Booth
2. The Twelve Year Old Boy ... awesome guitar work here
3. I Was Warned ... also particularly awesome. As I recall, this one sounded Santana-esque.
4. Poor Johnny
5. Right Next Door (Because of Me)
6. Midnight Stroll
7. Bad Influence
8. Twenty
9. The One in the Middle
10. Back Door Slam
11. Smoking Gun
Encore
12. Sitting on Top of the World
13. I'm Walkin'
14. Time Makes Two

Set lists: Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Carlene Carter

On 23 April, I had the pleasure of seeing Elvis Costello & The Imposters. As an additional treat, the opening act was the lovely Carlene Carter.

Carter was great fun. She still has a great voice and she seemed to be in fine spirit despite recent rough times, making jokes for the audience, narrating stories, and just being generally lively. Perhaps her best line of the night was when she claimed to finally be "putting the try back in country." She performed a mix of some of her 90s material and songs from her recent album, Stronger. As a cool treat, she also threw in "Cry," from her 1980 album Musical Shapes. She also demonstrated the importance of her family by not only mentioning them and dedicating songs to them, but also by singing some Carter material, including The Carter Family's "My Dixie Darling" and the June Carter-penned "Ring of Fire." It was a good set.

Costello and band were also very good. Costello, too, did a mix of classic and current material. It was great to see him live, and I had a pretty decent view of him and the band from my seat, so that was cool. I won't say this is the best concert I've ever seen, but it was definitely solid, and I would recommend catching a Costello live show. He and the band sounded quite good to my ears, and obviously the man has a vast catalogue of awesome songs. One song he performed that came as a very pleasant surprise is "Indoor Fireworks." The only other thing I can really say is that, through the uptempos, midtempos, down-tempos... through the wild abandon on some of the numbers and the potential energy of others... through it all, it was quite an experience.

Carter's set:
1. Every Little Thing
2. Bring Love
3. To Change Your Heart
4. The Bitter End
5. Me and the Wildwood Rose
6. Ring of Fire
7. My Dixie Darling
8. It Takes One to Know Me
9. Why Be Blue
10. Cry
11. Stronger

Costello's set:
1. Stella Hurt
2. (I Don't Want to Go To) Chelsea
3. Clown Strike
4. Wonder Woman
5. Either Side of the Same Town
6. Every Day I Write the Book
7. Song With Rose (a Rosanne Cash co-write)
8. Accidents Will Happen
9. Harry Worth
10. Drum and Bone
11. Flutter and Wow
12. Femme Fatale (the Velvet Underground song)
13. Pardon Me Madam, My Name Is Eve
14. The River in Reverse
15. American Gangster Time (which was dedicated to Jay-Z and Beyoncé)
16. Beyond Belief
17. You Belong to Me
18. The Impostor
19. Radio Radio
Encore
20. My Three Sons
21. Indoor Fireworks
22. Man Out of Time
Encore
23. No Hiding Place
24. Turpentine
25. Go Away
Encore
26. Mr. Feathers
27. Alison
28. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding

"Peace, Love, and Understanding" made an awesome closer, but I have to say, Nick Lowe's acoustic rendition was so amazing that I'd have to give him the nod there. Still, I'm glad I did indeed get to see both perform it within the span of a few nights.

As you can see, he played a substantial set, and I am grateful for that!

And lest there be any doubt, let me say here that the Momofuku material is excellent. I wasn't inclined to buy the vinyl edition, but I'm definitely interested in the forthcoming CD release and would recommend anyone check it out in whichever edition is more desirable.

Set lists: Nick Lowe, Ron Sexsmith

On 21 April, I saw Nick Lowe, and it was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. The man is so versatile. It was just him and his guitar, and yet he still managed to do awesome versions of various songs from his catalogue. Also, as many times as I've heard it, I have never felt "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love and Understanding" the way I did seeing him perform that acoustic version. Amazing.

As a bonus, this gave me a good reason to wear my "We finally nailed the Jesus of Cool" t-shirt. I don't actually need a special reason to wear it, as I rather love it, but it was cool to have one.

The opening act was Ron Sexsmith. Having seen Feist a couple nights before, I was kinda hoping he'd perform "Secret Heart," which she did after saying she was told he was in attendance. He didn't disappoint in that respect, so now I've heard two cool renditions of that tune within the last few nights. His music was quite good and I'm actually pretty interested in checking him out at some point.

Right, so, set lists. Here's Sexsmith's:
1. Former Glory
2. Cheap Hotel
3. Jazz at the Bookstore
4. Reason for Our Love
5. Where's My Everything (Nick Lowe's song)
6. Secret Heart
7. One Last Round
8. This Is How I Know
9. Lebanon, Tennessee
10. Just My Heart Talking
11. Strawberry Blonde
12. For a Moment

And Nick Lowe's:
1. People Change
2. Soulful Wind
3. When I Write the Book
4. What's Shakin' on the Hill
5. Long Limbed Girl
6. Lately I've Let Things Slide
7. Has She Got a Friend
8. All Men Are Liars
9. I Trained Her to Love Me
10. I Read a Lot (a new song accompanied by some amusing talk about two kinds of concert goers: those who hear new songs and think how genius the artist must be to have time to write yet another amazing song, and those who are wondering when the new material will end and the familiar stuff will come back.)
11. Cruel to Be Kind
12. Heart
13. Man That I've Become
14. I Live on a Battlefield
15. Hope for Us All
16. Without Love
17. Rome Wasn't Built in a Day
18. Shelley My Love
19. I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)
20. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding
Encore
21. Heart of the City
22. My Baby's Gone (with Ron Sexsmith ... they sounded so much like a modern version of The Everly Brothers on this. Good stuff.)
23. The Beast in Me
Encore 2
24. Seven Nights to Rock

And just to keep the Nick Lowe goodness going...
1) He's in my CD player right now.
2) My next concert will be Elvis Costello (obvious connection there - perhaps he'll be the next to give me a second version of a song I recently heard live? I actually doubt it but we'll see) with opening act Carlene Carter (the former Mrs. Lowe).

Not that I imagine Nick Lowe needs any validation, but if I hadn't been cemented as a full-on fanatic before tonight's show, I can confidently say that is the case now. I am on such a musical high that I want to ramble more, but I'll cut it off here, enjoy a bit more Lowe tunage, and then I suppose it's time to sleep and rejoin reality.

Set lists: Rites of Spring (Day 2)

Well, I only actually attended two sets on the second night: Feist and Lil Jon. I enjoyed both. Musically I preferred Feist, but for entertainment value at an outdoor festival, Lil Jon probably won.

I didn't even try to keep Lil Jon's set, but he did a lot of what you'd expect him to do, including "I Don't Give a Fuck," "Bia' Bia'," "What You Gon Do," "Get Low," "The Anthem," "Salt Shaker," "Let's Go," "Snap Yo Fingers," etc. He ended the show with some interesting selections: "Sweet Home Alabama," "Sweet Child o' Mine," and "Don't Stop Believin'."

I did try to keep Feist's set, but I proved kind of inept there. I have half of it and will see if anyone can help me complete it. Anyway, as it currently stands:

1. When I Was a Young Girl
2. My Moon, My Man
3. Gatekeeper
4. I Feel It All
5. ???
6. Secret Heart
7. Inside and Out
8. 1, 2, 3, 4
9. Mushaboom
10. Sea Lion Woman

The fifth song is probably "So Sorry," although we had one guess of "Intuition."

Set lists: Rites of Spring (Day 1)

Well, the first day of Rites of Spring has turned out to be a bit of a bust as I'm a wimp who can't take the rain. As it turns out, my phone couldn't take it either as it's now screwed up. Oh well.

Anyway, I did stay out for the entirety of Lady Antebellum's set, and I'm glad I did. They're awesome. Here's what they played:
1. Love's Lookin' Good on You
2. Slow Down Sister
3. Mason-Dixon Line / Free Fallin' medley
-He sang a few lines from "I Can't Stand the Rain" here-
4. Lookin' for a Good Time
5. Things People Say
6. Long Train Running
7. Love Don't Live Here
8. Woman Scorned
9. Hard to Handle

I then went back to my room, dried off, and opened my window to hear Cupid. He led off with "Do Yo Dance," did pieces of "Buy U a Drank" at some point, and ended with "Cupid Shuffle." Not sure what else he did.

Then I listened to Colbie Caillat, but her stuff doesn't translate as well for window listening.
1. Oxygen
2. Hard to hear and some idiots outside my window kept drowning her out
3. Realize
4. Thought it was "Battle" but then she performed that later, so...
5. Couldn't tell
6. Missed this too... this sucks
7. Battle
8. Bubbly
9. I don't know
10. Beast of Burden ... and that was a really cool rendition.
11. Feelings Show

I also listened to Spoon's set through my window. They sounded good but at this point I gave up on even trying to keep set. I did hear "The Underdog" near the end, which I love, so yay.

Set list: The Raconteurs

On 14 April, I went to see The Raconteurs play their first of two shows here. They were awesome, so I would have loved to have seen the second as well, but I'm just glad I made it to any of them. For a while, it didn't look like that would happen.

The opening act was Magic Wands. Don't know much of anything about them, but they were okay. Nothing special. Lacking in stage presence. You can hear their music at their MySpace page.

The Magic Wands' set:
1. Kaleidoscope Hearts
2. Black Magic
3. Teenage Love
4. Heartbreak Whirl
5. Kiss Me Dead

The Raconteurs:
1. Consoler of the Lonely
2. Hold Up
3. You Don't Understand Me
4. Top Yourself
5. Old Enough
6. Yellow Sun
7. Blue Veins
8. Level
9. Attention
10. Hands
11. Salute Your Solution
12. Steady, As She Goes
13. The Switch and the Spur
14. Carolina Drama
Encore
15. Many Shades of Black
16. Rich Kid Blues
17. Five on the Five

Set list: Etta James & The Roots Band

I went to see Etta James & The Roots Band perform on Tuesday. It was a great show! James is still in excellent voice, and her stories were very entertaining as well. It would be fun just to hear her reminisce for a while. She's very engaging and certainly still has plenty of spark and sass left in her.

Anyway, the set. The first two numbers were performed by The Roots Band before James came out.
1. Cissy Strut
2. Second Roots Band instrumental (don't know which it was)
3. Come to Mama
4. I'd Rather Be a Blind Girl
5. I Want to Ta-Ta You Baby
6. You Can Leave Your Hat On
7. Piece of My Heart
8. A Lover Is Forever
9. At Last
10. Baby What You Want Me to Do
11. You Don't Have to Go
12. Sugar on the Floor

Some great songs there, and like I said, part of the entertainment came from hearing her stories about the songs and the people she's known. Great stuff.

Set list: B. B. King

I saw B. B. King on Friday. The fact that the man can still perform like he does at his age is amazing. I'll be posting his set list, but that only tells a small piece of the story, because so much of the show was listening to him talk, sometimes making serious points, other times with tongue planted firmly in cheek, but always saying something worth hearing. My one regret about the show is, because I chose to buy the cheapest of tickets, I ended up in the very back with some annoying people. First, they tried to evict me from my seat even though I clearly was where I was supposed to be and fairly obviously couldn't have been taking up two spaces. If I were going to steal a seat, would I choose one of the worst ones in the house? Eezus. But as if that wasn't enough, one of the guys refused to shut up during the show, several of them were drunk enough to be annoying... gah. I was kinda pissed off. Oh well. If you get a chance to see B. B. King, definitely take it - the man is still the king of the blues. And bring a friend or two to ensure you're seated in better company.

Oh, and the fact that King performed "How Blue Can You Get" made me really happy. That's the one song I went in really hoping to hear, and he didn't disappoint.

The opening act was Joanna Cotten. I'd heard her song "Funkabilly" like once before, but that was my only real exposure to her. She had some good tunes, though, and she definitely has good stage presence. I wasn't crazy about "Money Train," but from there her set really picked up. If you wanna check her out, I think my favourite was "Easy to Forget."

Cotten's set:
1. The Big Revival
2. Money Train
3. High Maintenance
4. Easy to Forget
5. Keep My Faith
6. Funkabilly
7. Miracle in Lee County

King's set:
Long instrumental jam by the B. B. King band to open
1. Let the Good Times Roll
2. I Need You So
3. Every Day I Have the Blues
4. Blues Man
5. When Love Comes to Town
6. All Over Again
7. Another instrumental of some sort
8. You Are My Sunshine
9. Dirty Old Man
10. Something about "I may not be as good now as I once used to be, but I'm as good once now as I used to be" or something to that effect... it also included mentions of Viagra and Cialis
11. How Blue Can You Get
12. Rock Me Baby
13. The Thrill Is Gone

Set list: Stars

Wow! I saw Stars earlier this evening, and they put on an awesome show. Truly great. One interesting thing I hadn't realized is that male lead singer Torquil Campbell also plays the trumpet. Seeing him blow live was pretty amazing.

Opening acts this evening were Pash and Martin Royle (of Washington Social Club). Pash was decent indie pop type stuff. Martin Royle had great strange presence - very amusing. His songs were crafted to entertain, and they succeeded in that respect.

Pash's set:
1. Can't remember the opening song
2. The Best Gun
3. Down

Martin Royle
1. If Time Ran Backwards
2. I Don't Care If I Get Fired
3. Breaking the Dawn
4. Sex With Your Ex
5. "There's nowhere else we'd rather be" is a lyric
6. Charlie the Russian
7. The Breakup

Stars
1. The Night Starts Here
2. Elevator Love Letter
3. Soft Revolution
4. Window Bird
-A chorus of Phil Collins's "One More Night" with the last line changed to "'cause I can't fuck forever"-
5. One More Night
6. Reunion
7. Bitches in Tokyo
8. Heart
9. Going, Going Gone
10. Take Me to the Riot
11. Midnight Coward
12. Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
13. Ageless Beauty
14. In Our Bedroom After the War
Encore
15. My Favourite Book
16. What I'm Trying to Say
17. Calendar Girl
18. The Woods

Set list: Michael Bublé

Michael Bublé, without a doubt, put on one of the best shows I've ever seen. The man is an amazing vocalist and entertainer. I can't even begin to describe just how awesome he was live, but I would love another chance to see him.

The opening act was an a cappella group called Naturally Seven. Their set list, perhaps minus a song or two since I was a tad late to be seated (merch table trip):
1. Broken Wings
2. Say You Love Me
3. Sounds of Silence / Scarborough Fair / April Come She Will
4. In the Air Tonight

And Bublé's set:
1. I'm Your Man
2. It Had Better Be Tonight
3. Me and Mrs. Jones
4. Friends in Low Places chorus / Fever
5. A line from Rehab intro'ed Call Me Irresponsible
6. Try a Little Tenderness ... only he pretended to play trombone while the actual trombonist, Nick, did the song
7. I've Got the World on a String
8. You'll Never Know
9. You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You (which will be on his new album)
10. Lost
11. Feelin' Good
12. Home ... as a duet with Blake Shelton
13. Everything
14. That's All Right (Mama)
15. YMCA
16. Save the Last Dance for Me
17. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)
18. That's Life (with Naturally Seven)
Encore
19. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
20. A Song for You

Set lists: Tim Finn with Eileen Rose

Instead of doing my homework, I used tonight to seize the opportunity to see Tim Finn in concert. I do not regret it at all. He put on a great, great show. There's a reason he's lasted so long in this business.

I'd not heard of his opening act, Eileen Rose, before, but she also had a good set. Apparently, Tim Finn actually contacted her via Myspace and invited her to tour with him. Pretty cool, eh?

Anyway, here are the set lists:

Eileen Rose
1. "sink right to the bottom" is one of the song's lyrics
2. "I need a prophet" and "forget about me" are phrases in the song
3. "pale yellow sun" is a lyric... and I believe the chorus talked about rain ... can you tell I don't know these titles? Sorry this is such a useless set list
4. Shining - one actual title for ya!
5. I'm the Only One - woohoo, two!
6. "it doesn't mean a thing" is in the lyrics
7. "Simple Touch of the Hand" - 3 actual titles!

Tim Finn
(In case it's helpful, I'll mention the songs that were originally by Split Enz or Crowded House, even though they're all basically his songs)
1. Couldn't Be Done (this shows you how out of touch I am. I was sure he'd be saving this for his closing number)
2. Poor Boy (Split Enz)
3. Weather With You (Crowded House)
4. Six Months in a Leaky Boat (Split Enz)
5. Winter Light
6. Saw to the Tree
7. How Will You Go (Crowded House)
8. Dirty Creature (Split Enz)
9. Salt to the Sea
10. So Precious
11. Persuasion
12. Horizon
13. I See Red (Split Enz)
Encore
14. Not Even Close
15. Parihaka
16. It's Only Natural (Crowded House)

Set list: Rick Springfield

I saw Rick Springfield perform and let me just say that he is not only awesome in concert, but seems like a very cool person. He also did a lot of cool guitar theatrics. Here's the set list:

(Thanks to Amy for the comment letting me know what #11 was)

1. Who Killed Rock and Roll
2. Will I
3. Affair of the Heart
4. Kristina
5. I've Done Everything for You
6. Rock of Life
7. Fire (the Jimi Hendrix song)
8. Living in Oz
9. Crossroads (as popularized by Cream)
10. Saint Sahara (this is a new song that he performed for the first time. It was written for a young girl who recently died of brain cancer. Her mother was in the audience.)
11. Red House (the Jimi Hendrix tune)
12. Don't Talk to Strangers ... this one went on for a long time as he entered the audience and kept having random people sing the title, as well as other forms of interaction with the people (e.g., coaxing a shy guy into singing by telling him ladies love guys who sing, inviting a 12-year-old birthday girl on stage to dance and sing with him, etc. What an awesome 12th birthday, eh?)
13. Medley: Bop 'Til You Drop / Celebrate Youth / Calling All Girls / Don't Walk Away / State of the Heart / What Kind of Fool Am I / I Get Excited / Bop 'Til You Drop
14. Intro to Saturday Night (the BCR tune) / I Can't Explain (the Who song). He also took this opportunity to mock his movie Hard to Hold and tell a story about Keith Richards (with a guitar lick from "Satisfaction" to accent it)
15. Love Somebody
16. My Generation (The Who song) ... he at this point had a guy from the audience give him his cell phone and used it to play guitar... then had a woman give him her cell and randomly called someone.
17. Human Touch ... this was the song where he went through most of the audience, including people (like me) on the second floor. I was within inches of Rick Springfield!
18. Jessie's Girl
Encore
19. Perfect
20. Love Is Alright Tonite

The Squirts opened. I don't really know their song titles, but here are a few lyrical snippets from each song they sang which may or may not be helpful in identifying them:
1. "I am left here barely breathing"
2. "The Way I See You" - I think that's an actual title
3. "worst of times" "i'd do it all again"