Indigo Girls -- Knitting Factory Spokane, March 18, 2010
I just saw the Girls here in my home area of Spokane, WA last night. It was a concert I've long looked for -- they tend to play in the Seattle-ish area nearly every year, and while we do drive over every year to see them, it's great to not have to deal with hotel costs, restaurant meals, 8-9 hours of round-trip driving...
Anyway, the venue they played in is a two-level concert house, styled vaguely on the House Of Blues venues around the country. It holds about 1500 people, and seemed to be mostly full, which made me pretty happy because I want this show to be successful enough that they will come back again!
The evening started off with a good set by Bitch (the opening act), but I was EXTREMELY frustrated with the lack of consideration by the crowd during her set. Even the performer was complaining about it from the stage, commenting at one point that "you all are just a bunch of chatty cathys, aren't you?" and later twice more making comments about the general failure of the crowd to just shut the f*** up and listen. I think I might have enjoyed her set more if I hadn't had this HUGE group of women behind me who were carrying on conversation like they were in their own house with the stereo on or something. I kept trying to turn around and make it plain to them silently that they were disturbing me, but to not much avail.
The changeover was EXTREMELY fast, being basically taking off the one-woman setup and putting in place a 2-woman setup. Soon IG was on stage, and they certainly captured the crowd's attention a lot more than Bitch had...
The setlist: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/indigo-girls/2010/knitting-factory-spokane-wa-6bd4aa66.html
As you can see, it was heavy on Poseidon & The Bitter Bug tracks, with performances of SEVEN of the ten tracks on the album (making up basically a third of the total songs). I'm not complaining about that at all -- I love the new album but haven't really dug deeply into it, and every time I see the songs performed live, I appreciate the CD more.
What I WILL complain about again is the really inconsiderate group of women sitting behind us. Every time a track was played that they weren't familiar with (anything pretty much after Come On Now Social, it seemed), they would start up taking again, in very loud voices. I tried again with glances over my shoulder to catch the eyes of people who were talking and cast them some daggers with my eyes, but it wasn't working. Finally, during Sugar Tongue, I stood up, faced backwards, and started saying over and over (increasingly loudly) "Please be quiet! Please be quiet" accompanied with simple sign language (hands together begging, finger to lips). I finally got them to shut up right about the time the show was winding to a close. Next time I'll use that tactic earlier in the show.
Anyway, back to the concert. Both Amy and Emily looked GREAT. They seemed pleased with the energy and atmosphere of the crowd and venue, and were even willing to try some of their more risky, extended audience sing-along stuff. It wasn't quite the overwhelming wave of audience voices that I've heard at other concerts, but considering that they haven't played live in Spokane in something approaching a decade, I think it went very well.
I ended up being a total fanboy and waited after the show to get autographs by the tour bus. I chatted with Sulli a bit while waiting in the 25 degree night... By the time they came out it was after midnight and the group waiting had dwindled down to about 10 people. I got to actually converse briefly with both Amy and Emily, got a great personalized autograph on my P&TBB album, and even got to tell Amy that she should try Shed Your Skin again as an acoustic duo song, something they haven't done since about 1997. We'll see if that appears in any setlists... :D
In all, it was a SUPER night with IG. I took two people with me who had never seen them before (I hope I made them into fans!), they played Watershed AND Reunion AND The Wood Song (three faves), and I got to sleep in my own bed afterward!
I really hope they come back. Spokane obviously has an enthusiastic base for the Girls, and we have some really excellent venues for an act such as theirs.
Anyway, the venue they played in is a two-level concert house, styled vaguely on the House Of Blues venues around the country. It holds about 1500 people, and seemed to be mostly full, which made me pretty happy because I want this show to be successful enough that they will come back again!
The evening started off with a good set by Bitch (the opening act), but I was EXTREMELY frustrated with the lack of consideration by the crowd during her set. Even the performer was complaining about it from the stage, commenting at one point that "you all are just a bunch of chatty cathys, aren't you?" and later twice more making comments about the general failure of the crowd to just shut the f*** up and listen. I think I might have enjoyed her set more if I hadn't had this HUGE group of women behind me who were carrying on conversation like they were in their own house with the stereo on or something. I kept trying to turn around and make it plain to them silently that they were disturbing me, but to not much avail.
The changeover was EXTREMELY fast, being basically taking off the one-woman setup and putting in place a 2-woman setup. Soon IG was on stage, and they certainly captured the crowd's attention a lot more than Bitch had...
The setlist: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/indigo-girls/2010/knitting-factory-spokane-wa-6bd4aa66.html
As you can see, it was heavy on Poseidon & The Bitter Bug tracks, with performances of SEVEN of the ten tracks on the album (making up basically a third of the total songs). I'm not complaining about that at all -- I love the new album but haven't really dug deeply into it, and every time I see the songs performed live, I appreciate the CD more.
What I WILL complain about again is the really inconsiderate group of women sitting behind us. Every time a track was played that they weren't familiar with (anything pretty much after Come On Now Social, it seemed), they would start up taking again, in very loud voices. I tried again with glances over my shoulder to catch the eyes of people who were talking and cast them some daggers with my eyes, but it wasn't working. Finally, during Sugar Tongue, I stood up, faced backwards, and started saying over and over (increasingly loudly) "Please be quiet! Please be quiet" accompanied with simple sign language (hands together begging, finger to lips). I finally got them to shut up right about the time the show was winding to a close. Next time I'll use that tactic earlier in the show.
Anyway, back to the concert. Both Amy and Emily looked GREAT. They seemed pleased with the energy and atmosphere of the crowd and venue, and were even willing to try some of their more risky, extended audience sing-along stuff. It wasn't quite the overwhelming wave of audience voices that I've heard at other concerts, but considering that they haven't played live in Spokane in something approaching a decade, I think it went very well.
I ended up being a total fanboy and waited after the show to get autographs by the tour bus. I chatted with Sulli a bit while waiting in the 25 degree night... By the time they came out it was after midnight and the group waiting had dwindled down to about 10 people. I got to actually converse briefly with both Amy and Emily, got a great personalized autograph on my P&TBB album, and even got to tell Amy that she should try Shed Your Skin again as an acoustic duo song, something they haven't done since about 1997. We'll see if that appears in any setlists... :D
In all, it was a SUPER night with IG. I took two people with me who had never seen them before (I hope I made them into fans!), they played Watershed AND Reunion AND The Wood Song (three faves), and I got to sleep in my own bed afterward!
I really hope they come back. Spokane obviously has an enthusiastic base for the Girls, and we have some really excellent venues for an act such as theirs.