D and I started in Chinatown, looking for a likely restaurant. Decided on Chow Chao...or maybe it's Chao Chow? (Whatever....I think it's Carolyn's favorite.) Highlight was the pea pod stems in garlic sauce...bright green as an Irish hillside and tasty. A little shopping for weird food in a Chinatown convenience store, then find a parking spot, only a five minute walk across the public garden to the Orpheum. Umbrella? Naah, we won't need it...and I don't feel like carrying it. Outside the Orpheum a couple of damsels are in distress...sitting on the curb looking a little frantic. Seems they have left the tickets at home. The tickets may very well be in this woman's purse, but panic is setting in and she will never, ever find them in there...until tomorrow morning. I offer them my two extras for $20...TOTAL...what a good guy. Digging in the purse finally produces a ten and a fistful of ones. Good deed done (or so I think), we head for our seats. The usher shows us the seats and says, do you have your other person? You have three tickets. Oh god....I only gave the ladies one! Head back to find them and immediately run into lady #2, who has figured out she knows where to find us. Good deed preserved.
Suffered through Suffering Bastards...too loud, too boring, etc
Lucinda comes on after a not too long wait. Right away you remember why she is the headliner. Sound level perfect, room to crank it up later on, and we can understand every word. (Of course the seats are worse than Fenway seats, but I think I will live without having to amputate.) Oh, and there's Jonathan about 15 feet away.
The show is great....but. I have never thought of Lucinda as a particularly good singer....I love her poetry and style and passion. But she sounded great...a rich and warm voice I've never heard before. And, by the way, don't think I hear on the CD, even on the same songs. She mixes up old and new....you heard some things in N'hampton I would have liked to hear...and builds a solid show. She seems genuinely relaxed and happy out there. And I did not find the cheat sheets distracting...just a little strange. She does have an enormous repertoire. But I think the West songs are too simple and repetitive. Earlier songs are much richer poetry, with complex, unusual perspectives and depth.....there's a whole story behind every loss, every yearned for lover. Anyway...
Out the door and of course it is snowing big wet cats and dogs....told ya we don't need no stinking umbrella. But what the hell, it's late, we're wet already, so why go home? The Cantab is the usual scene. We stay past one, dancing and meeting characters. The sexy young blonde doing major public affection with her boyfriend... and giving me the big eyes over his shoulder. We end up sharing a table and drinks with them before they stumble off into the night. D says they are history, based on what blondie whispered to her. Then the guy in the orange leisure suit with the big lapels and more bling than any white man can handle assures us that D is the most beautiful woman in the place. A perceptive dude. Good thing tomorrow is Sunday.
Not to be outdone, Joan Anderman of the Boston Globe opines here
JK note - I do agree that Lucinda's voice was the best I've heard, a very pleasant surprise after sensing a slow but steady deterioration in recent years.
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