set list + videos from the Dar Williams show
Okay, well, we'll start with videos! There are three of them.
So, people kept yelling out random songs for Dar to do, mostly older ones, but someone yelled "Buzzer!" near the beginning, so she said, later when she played this, that she was glad to hear that.
She told a story about how she had this dream one night that she was in this old, crumbly German opera house and had to be on stage to sing an aria, and on her way rushing down to the stage, Shawn Colvin took the stage and sang a really awesome aria and as Dar was rushing down the stairs she thought to herself, "Dammit, of course Colvin has a great aria..." When she woke up, she had one particular line in her head, and it apparently turned into this song.
As she was tuning her guitar she said, "So I said, 'well, it's a pop song, so of course it's going to be about the Milgram experiments.'" She talked about how, when she first read about the Milgram experiment, she wondered what she would do in that situation (which, I'm sure, everyone does. I know I did.), and what freaks her out most of all is that, when the experiment was repeated in 2005, the results were the same. She said that the 1960s were all about obedience--even the hair was obedient. She expected 2005 to be better.
Stephen Trask, the composer of Hedwig, is a college friend of Dar's, who called her up one day and said, "So, there's this crazy, weird play that's opening off-broadway and I wrote the music for it and I think you should come see it." In the liner notes of Promised Land, she writes, "In college, Stephen Trask would sit us down to listen to Yoko Ono, Nina Hagen, Elton John, or Tammy Wynette. He was incredibly democratic in his appreciation of musicians. [...] I'm grateful for the musical education I got in the concrete dorms of Butterfield A."
My camera tragically started freaking out during this song, but here's a bit of "The Mercy of the Fallen." I freaking LOVE this song, internet. I love what it's about, I love the stories she tells before it... it's just wonderful.
The show itself was wonderful! A good mix of older songs and newer songs and some neat stories that I will perhaps write up some day. For now, I'm pretty tired and my computer is making my lap hot (THROUGH my lap desk. Crazy.). HERE IS THE SET LIST:
The Easy Way
Spring Street
Farewell to the Old Me
It's Alright (with Shawn Mullins)
Book of Love
Blue Light of the Flame
Buzzer
The Christians and the Pagans
The Hudson
Echoes (sing along!)
As Cool As I Am (Okay--one little story. That's not really a story. Basically everyone in the room sang along with this at top volume and kept spontaneous bursting into cheers and clapping and flailing madly. I may have cried a little.)
You Are Everyone (with Shawn Mullins) (Also, bee tee dubs, if I ever convince a girl to marry me, I want this song played at my wedding.)
Midnight Radio
The Mercy of the Fallen
Encore:
Summerday
The Babysitter's Here (So, people, of course, kept asking for this song and I didn't think she was going to play it, but then she told a story about her son and mentioned the word "babysitter" and the room went crazy, so I think at that point she almost had to do it. I would have preferred another older song, like, say, "The Ocean," which I still haven't heard, but I do love it, and I did cry, as always.)
I wish she was coming back this way soon :( The next closest gig is in Mamaroneck next week and it's already sold out.
Click to viewSo, people kept yelling out random songs for Dar to do, mostly older ones, but someone yelled "Buzzer!" near the beginning, so she said, later when she played this, that she was glad to hear that.
She told a story about how she had this dream one night that she was in this old, crumbly German opera house and had to be on stage to sing an aria, and on her way rushing down to the stage, Shawn Colvin took the stage and sang a really awesome aria and as Dar was rushing down the stairs she thought to herself, "Dammit, of course Colvin has a great aria..." When she woke up, she had one particular line in her head, and it apparently turned into this song.
As she was tuning her guitar she said, "So I said, 'well, it's a pop song, so of course it's going to be about the Milgram experiments.'" She talked about how, when she first read about the Milgram experiment, she wondered what she would do in that situation (which, I'm sure, everyone does. I know I did.), and what freaks her out most of all is that, when the experiment was repeated in 2005, the results were the same. She said that the 1960s were all about obedience--even the hair was obedient. She expected 2005 to be better.
Stephen Trask, the composer of Hedwig, is a college friend of Dar's, who called her up one day and said, "So, there's this crazy, weird play that's opening off-broadway and I wrote the music for it and I think you should come see it." In the liner notes of Promised Land, she writes, "In college, Stephen Trask would sit us down to listen to Yoko Ono, Nina Hagen, Elton John, or Tammy Wynette. He was incredibly democratic in his appreciation of musicians. [...] I'm grateful for the musical education I got in the concrete dorms of Butterfield A."
My camera tragically started freaking out during this song, but here's a bit of "The Mercy of the Fallen." I freaking LOVE this song, internet. I love what it's about, I love the stories she tells before it... it's just wonderful.
The show itself was wonderful! A good mix of older songs and newer songs and some neat stories that I will perhaps write up some day. For now, I'm pretty tired and my computer is making my lap hot (THROUGH my lap desk. Crazy.). HERE IS THE SET LIST:
The Easy Way
Spring Street
Farewell to the Old Me
It's Alright (with Shawn Mullins)
Book of Love
Blue Light of the Flame
Buzzer
The Christians and the Pagans
The Hudson
Echoes (sing along!)
As Cool As I Am (Okay--one little story. That's not really a story. Basically everyone in the room sang along with this at top volume and kept spontaneous bursting into cheers and clapping and flailing madly. I may have cried a little.)
You Are Everyone (with Shawn Mullins) (Also, bee tee dubs, if I ever convince a girl to marry me, I want this song played at my wedding.)
Midnight Radio
The Mercy of the Fallen
Encore:
Summerday
The Babysitter's Here (So, people, of course, kept asking for this song and I didn't think she was going to play it, but then she told a story about her son and mentioned the word "babysitter" and the room went crazy, so I think at that point she almost had to do it. I would have preferred another older song, like, say, "The Ocean," which I still haven't heard, but I do love it, and I did cry, as always.)
I wish she was coming back this way soon :( The next closest gig is in Mamaroneck next week and it's already sold out.