[dar-list] Dar in Somerville last night

[Luca, Joseph (EHS)]

Howdy---



Dar was, except for a mid-"Ocean" coughing fit, in fine form last night.  Very
funny, very on.



Re "The Ocean"---about eight or nine years ago on this list, when discussing
the song, someone wrote that there were supposed to be five voices in the
song.  I could never find five.  Last night, Dar said that there were three:
"you, me, and the ocean."  Toward the last verse, she started coughing and
couldn't speak or sing, so she motioned for us to sing the "la la" bit that
closes the vocals.  After, she said that when the coughing commenced, she'd
thought that she could make it to the end, but then remembered "all those
damned 'la la las'" at the end...



She invited opener Freeman (a Welsh s/s making his Boston debut) to join her
on "If I Wrote You."  She joked that they'd just met in the dressing
room---"it wasn't in a stall..."  Later, when providing an extended intro to
"Mercy of the Fallen," she talked about going to bed, only to find, to her
horror, that there was no TV in the room, and that she'd be alone with her
feelings.  But she found a copy of "Canterbury Tales" there, which she started
to read.  (When someone clapped, she said, "Thank you, Cambridge!").  She also
found a stack of Cosmos from the '80s, and she grabbed one with Christine
(sic) Oxenberg on the cover; Dar took the quiz, and learned that she was
self-reliant.



She also mentioned a show put on by the Multistage folks (last night's
promoters) early in Dar's career ('95)---a bunch of upcoming s/s played on the
same bill---and included was a new singer named Gillian Welch.  I never knew
they appeared at the same show.  Dar told of a friend who was complaining
about the holidays this year; the friend lamented that for all the glitz and
hope, it's the same every year.  Dar said her response to the friend was,
"That's clinical depression."  Dar admitted to loving this time of year, with
its "false promises" of fresh starts; she loves the resolutions and new daily
organizers you get to crack open.



Dar also mentioned having lived in the area, at 15 Willow Ave., and mentioned
having paid $300/month, including utilities.  To a bit of a humorous hissing
response, Dar affected a couple of comical voices and gestures, saying "Don't
you go hissing at me!  Blame the 'Utne Reader" for writing 'Davis Square is
one of the coolest...'"



Dar was playing Peter Mulvey's guitar, and she gave him big props, especially
vis-`-vis his energetic version of "The Ocean."  Other selections last night
included, in no particular order, "Comfortably Numb," "Teen for God," "Blue
Light of the Flame" (replete with touching and funny stories about Rachel
Bissex, including Rache's uninhibited ability to drop trou and go
skinny-dipping when it was time to swim), "When I Was a Boy," "Beauty of the
Rain," "The One Who Knows," "Spring Street," "We Learned the Sea," "C&P,"
"February," and an encore of "Iowa," with the usual sea---I mean ocean---of
cellphones.



And although folks were on their feet and riotously clamoring for a second
encore, the lights came up, and Dar was gone.  It wasn't the longest show, but
I found it to be thoroughly enjoyable.



My apologies for the staccato posting---the combination of Monday, clouds,
work, and senescence is conspiring to enervate...



Ciao,



Joe



Dissent is what rescues democracy from a quiet death behind closed doors.
-Lewis H. Lapham, editor (1935- )