The Next Big Thing

Don's been oot and aboot in 'Frisco again...

"full house at tommy's joynt - baseball games downstairs, prez debate upstairs...(we stayed downstairs)...then over to the music hall for nick lowe. opening guy geraint watkins was already on. burly welshman sitting at a digital piano doing some boogie woogie. seen him before(with dave edmunds. when i asked dave about nick he said, "he stole my keyboard player!). seen him playing accordion but not piano and certainly not singing. quite good. he did an almost fats domino version of "heroes & villains"! also did some songs that would not have been out of place on a nick lowe album.

lowe came on soon after... no band. uh oh. last time he had no band and he was boring. but that was slim's. nobody's ever good at slim's. again just like that show this was solo acoustic. he wore a shiny new gibson j-45 over nice red and grey dress shirt. looked older but good (aging gracefully). started same as last time with the exquisite gospel tune, "there will be no peace until god sits at the conference table" (and you couldn't help but think of those 2 jokers in the "debate"). he said this was the last show of a tour "thru hurricanes, earthquakes and a locust plague in milwaukee". well, i made that last part up. it was supposed to be the last show but apparently we're doing what looks to me like a hoe-down". he was referring to the bluegrass fest in the park this weekend. he promised to "trawl thru my back catalog, do some new ones, and some covers i hope you think are my own". he was great. sang great, played great. did more recent things like "indian queens"("closest i get to folk music") and "lover don't go" as well as old faves like "half a boy" and "i knew the bride" --joined by watkins on the latter two). they also did a great song by watkins called "only one rose". another highlight was john hiatt's, "she don't love nobody". and of course nick's own pop gem, "cruel to be kind". crowd loved every minute of it. he closed with "what's so funny bout peace love and understanding". amen. back for a great encore: "without love" and "heart of the city". house lights went up but nobody was leaving. he must've heard them pounding the floor (dressing rooms are downstairs) -- i mean these people were going nuts. lights went back down and he came back for yet another. i didn't recognize it but it was great -- a typical country rocker he does best. surprisingly great show. see him in golden gate park this saturday -- free."