Al Stewart - McCabe's Guitar Shop - 13 February 2010
Went and saw Al Stewart again tonight, this time in Santa Monica at McCabe's Guitar Shop. I think this one is going to end up more of a picture spam than an actual review, but here it is anyway!
McCabe's had the distinction of being the first venue I ever saw Al at (all the way back in April of 2009; yeah, I'm showing my age there!). Going in that time, I had no idea what to really expect and was quite blown away. I remember after the show people remarking that he was more subdued than usual, which completely baffled me at the time. Tonight marks the sixth time I've seen Al in concert now, and I feel like I'm starting to know what his usual concerts are like and when he's "on" or "off." He has always put on a good show regardless, but I do feel like he was feeling more under the weather tonight than he was last night. I suspect someone who'd never seen Al before wouldn't notice it, but having seen him really "on" now, it does show on the edges.
Nevertheless, McCabe's is a wonderfully intimate little venue. It's situated in a huge guitar and other instrument store in the middle of Santa Monica. Last year I spent the day in Santa Monica, walking the pier and having dinner, etc., but tonight I drove right to the venue and, after some mishaps parking (park behind the US Bank if you can folks, trust me on this), queued up. I found JimB and WaterColourInTheRain (Cindy), two local(-ish, in Cindy's case) members of the Al Stewart Friends Mailing List I belong to (on YahooGroups; yes, people still use them!) already in the line. JimB lives all of two miles away and thus was almost first in line. Cindy was there with her mother Lorna (I went and saw Peter White with them on October 3rd. I, uh, still need to post a review for that) and were kind enough to let me wait with them so I didn't have to queue at the back by myself. I repaid their kindness by ditching them as soon as we were inside to squeeze into a seat in the front row. (Sorry, ladies. I love you!)
The one very nice thing about flying solo to these concerts is the fact that I can usually find a better seat than I could if I was with a partner. Tonight was no exception, and I got a seat on the front row, slightly to the left of stage. JimB and his wife and two of their friends took up the rest of the front row on my right, and to my left was a lovely Scottish woman and her partner. (Ironically I learned his name was Steve but I never learned hers!) Me being chatty me, I talked the couple up and discovered she does mosaic artwork and is doing a big Alice In Wonderland piece now and has been featured at the Museum of Man. Apparently we were so chatty that JimB thinks I knew her! Clearly he doesn't remember how friendly I was to Ilene at the Brixton show we attended together in July. I'm sure someday I'll sit next to someone who doesn't want to talk to me in the hour before the show starts, but it hasn't happened yet.
Anyway, McCabe's is very intimate. Not only are you very close to the stage, but the seats are right on top of each other. I feel bad for anyone attending who is a bit overweight, as it's rather unpleasant. They are also folding chairs, which are hardly the most comfortable things to sit on for 90 mins, especially not if you've got a wallet and an iPhone in your back pockets! That aside, though, it is a nice venue. I think Al recognizes too that McCabe's attracts a different sort of audience than somewhere like the Anthology does. He described the McCabe's audience as more of a "Folk Rock" audience, whereas I'm sure he would have called Anthology last night one of his "Pop" audiences. He mentioned that he tends to play his hits to his folk rock audiences more than his pop ones! Always contrary, that's our Al.
Another point before I get to the pictures is that last year the ticket price for Al's concert was $20 and the tickets sold out weeks in advance. This year they were $24.50 and after those sold out weeks in advance, McCabe's scheduled a second show at 10pm. Now, this means much more money for everyone all around (except those of us shelling out another $20 to see a sick old man sing until midnight), but it also meant that things were tighter than they could've been. Dave only got to open with two songs and, to my utmost sadness, Al didn't do an encore. He's done at least one encore at every show I've seen him at except the Junefest. To have the audience standing up and clapping for you and to have the house lights come up instead . . . aaah, that was sad and it was all so they could get us out and get the new audience in. I understand it, but it was sad. It ends the concert on a low note instead of a high note. Ah well. It was still magnificent.
Anyway, since McCabe's is so intimate and since I was on the front row, I got a lot of great shots (and a lot of not-so-great shots!). People have asked me how I get such nice photos (and they're really not!) when they usually get streaks of light and blurs. But, a lot of it has to do with having a nice camera (which I really don't, mine is good, but nothing professional), but really it boils down to luck and perserverance. I've attended concerts and had all my shots end up garbage. Stage lighting is extremely important. Most venues don't allow flash photography and even if they did, you'd almost guarenteed to be wasting the flash on the audience and not reaching the stage. So you need to have them well lit on stage. It helps if the camera has a setting for the occasion. Almost anything will improve the quality: a nighttime setting, a sports setting, a performance setting, a high-sensitivity setting, etc. I use a performance setting for Al's concerts usually, which gives me a higher chance to catch him instead of a streaky bouncing blurr. However, I thought I'd let you know I took over 330 pictures of the concert tonight. I've culled about 30 decent ones from all of those to share with you. There are probably 30-50 other photos that are good to okay quality. The other 250+ of them? They're blurry or blown out, or Dave is clear and Al is blurry, or Al is clear and Dave is blurry, or there's a mic in their faces or Al has just turned the other direction or ducked behind Dave or due to the singing one or both is making a horrible looking face, or something. So it's really just being lucky enough to take the picture at the right moment and taking lots of them! I really don't take them non-stop, but I do tend to take them throughout the concert to try to catch all the moments. It's what I enjoy the most about the concerts, especially post-concert. It certainly helps me remember the night more than a set list.
That's a lot of ramble that probably very few are interested in, so I apologize. I'm not even particularly happy with how these came out. My angle was awful and they're all grainy due to low lighting. I vastly prefer the ones from Anthology! But I did get some fun ones and I took a lot more so there are more to share! I shall shut up now. On to the pictures!
I've heard some people don't like Al's smile. Fools. How can you not like that?
Marc Macisso joined them for a couple songs, which is always a treat!
How can you not adore Al when he's giggling? I mean, he's giggling.
They played Time Passages, which . . . frankly baffles me, as even last night Al was like "I'll sign any album but Time Passages!"
But Marc rocked the sax on it nevertheless.
I have no idea what Dave was doing, but it's a clear shot and makes me laugh so here you go.
Almost looks like Al's giving him a pat on the head. (He wasn't.)
I'm sure this is Al ribbing on Dave. (Don't worry, Dave got him back during his Yoko Ono story.)
Marc joined them on flute for Antarctica, which was really nicely done, I thought.
Do you know how hard it is to catch him smiling while on stage? He's usually one happy blur.
(Proof that despite his cold, he was cheerful on stage, though.)
Marc on sax again.
Marc then played soprano sax on, I believe it was, Midas Shadow. I quite liked it, though it made me feel like it was 1983.
One of my favorite (favorite) things to do during Al concerts is to watch Al watch Dave (or LJ) play.
I don't know why, but it is awesome. Al always sort of bobs his head while watching, like he's giving a silent little nod of approval.
I got him smiling a lot this show. You don't know how much this pleases me. :D
AAAUGH STUPID MICROPHONE WHYYYY.
Do you know how hard it is to photograph three bouncy musicians? Here's one where they at least all have faces.
Blurry, but you can tell who is who, and I sort of like Al's blurry little smile here. And the fact that you can actually see Dave.
The rest of these shots he's mostly hidden by Marc. So. Yay framing. AKA Pure luck.
Doesn't it just make you want to smile?!
See, despite being sick and subdued, he's still a little energy machine.
I have no idea what made him make that face, but it is a great one not usually seen, ha.
The set list was surprisingly different from last night's show. No super surprises, but I did discover that I vastly prefer House of Clocks as an opener compared to Angry Bird. I'm not sure why. I guess I feel House of Clocks flows more or something. Anyway, that's what he opened with tonight and I don't feel it was nearly as strained as Angry Bird was last night. I mentioned he played Time Passages which was a surprise. He also did Palace of Versailles, Midas Shadow, On the Border and ended with Year of the Cat, so there was a lot of his more popular songs. It is a bit baffling to me. I certainly would've rather heard more obscure songs and we're the audience that would have appreciated them! Ah well. I did really enjoy the live version of Antarctica.
Oh, I do remember before Palace of Versailles, he started talking about the French Revolution and being quite violent and graphic about all the various bloody revolutions they've had. As he'd just acknowledged it's Valentine's Day weekend, I felt obligated to call out, "Romantic, Al!" He laughed at this and then he and Dave joked that they should make up a song about the Valentine's Day Massacre on the spot. (Unfortunately it didn't happen, but I'd love to hear that!) Palace of Versailles was enjoyable live, to be sure. I'm honestly surprised Marc didn't bust out a violin for it. He plays everything else!
Anyway, after the show I didn't expect Al to come out to sign, due to the aforementioned second show. So I was quite pleased that he did! One of my best friends is babel and she is, in fact, the one who introduced me to Al. She has the misfortune of living in Austin, TX and thus is unavailable to come to these concerts with me. (She came to a few over the summer, but it's a bit of a commute!) Anyway, feeling guilty that I'm getting to enjoy the musician she's loved since she was ten, I'd done up a little sign I'd hoped to get Al to sign and pose with. Now, I am a bit younger than the average Al fan and the other celebrities I've met have tended to be a bit younger than Al (with the exception of Frazer Hines). But this sort of "asking a celebrity to pose with a piece of paper" or something is fairly common amongst your average, say, American TV star. They then get posted to Twitter or Facebook or whatever.
Al, of course, is sick and probably has no concept of this. Yes, I have a friend who likes you so much Al that she'd be stoked if you held this piece of paper with her name on it and smiled while I took a picture of you. He did it, of course, I just don't think he had any idea why I wanted to take a picture of it. It rather looks like I ambused him backstage and forced him to take a mug shot! I do want to preface this by saying while sick, he was in good spirits and smiled immediately after I took this picture. Like, I even counted down and he smiled on four instead of three. Oh, Al.
Never change.
(The actual paper has her name on it, but I wasn't sure she wanted that all over my blog so I pasted in her blog name.)
There was a long line and of course another show shortly, so I felt obligated to get out of the way immediately, otherwise I would've asked him to take a second shot.
That's something of a point though: lines. People seem to have no concept of how to queue for autographs, or how to be respectful in general. Both last night and tonight, people were just pushing and shoving like a bunch of animals. Look, Mister. I'm not patiently standing here behind these women talking to Al for my health. I'm waiting my turn. Al is usually in such a dazed state and it's so harried he just signs whatever is thrust in front of his face, but it drives me nuts. And I am not a generally patient guy. I just am not a jerk, either. Last night we even did two queues, one for people buying merch to get signed and one for people who already had bought (or brought) the merch they wanted signed. When Al finally came out, people in the buying merchandise line got all nutso and cut in front again so all the others who'd been waiting longer were getting overlooked. Eventually I had to grab Dave and have him sort it out because it was just absurd. One of the guys in line was like, "Thank you for doing that man!" to me. (I guess he would've just stood there all night doing nothing if I hadn't.) WHAT IS WITH THESE PEOPLE, THOUGH, SERIOUSLY. I guess being close to a celebrity makes them absolutely crazed, or something. I don't know how Al has the patience for it. Between the crazed fans shoving stuff in his face and the other ones who won't go away and end up telling him their entire life story, I don't know how he does it. Especially while sick.
This may be part of the reason why Al is a celebrity and I'm not.
His being an amazing musician might also have something to do with it.
Anyway, I seriously contemplated staying for the second show. I certainly wanted to, and the idea of seeing Al three times in two days was pretty damn exciting. I figured the second show would be more fun too, without a time limit. Ultimately though I decided to save my $20 and go home. I live about 85 miles from Santa Monica and staying for a 10pm showing would have put me on the road after midnight. I'm not tired (it's almost 5am while I'm writing this!), but it's never me I'm afraid about, it's the other drivers on the road that late. Plus, I did want to get home in time to tell babel about the concert before she went to bed.
I'll say one thing though, listening to Al CDs in your car on your drive home after an Al concert is often quite surreal. He's so clear in your head still and he still sounds so much the same it's really like he's sitting in the car singing to you. It's definitely a way to take the concert experience home with you, and certainly made that long drive more enjoyable.
I am sad I didn't stay, but as sick as poor Al is, it may be for the better. Anyway, he's coming back locally in April, so it isn't like I have a terribly long wait to see him again!
Until April!
McCabe's had the distinction of being the first venue I ever saw Al at (all the way back in April of 2009; yeah, I'm showing my age there!). Going in that time, I had no idea what to really expect and was quite blown away. I remember after the show people remarking that he was more subdued than usual, which completely baffled me at the time. Tonight marks the sixth time I've seen Al in concert now, and I feel like I'm starting to know what his usual concerts are like and when he's "on" or "off." He has always put on a good show regardless, but I do feel like he was feeling more under the weather tonight than he was last night. I suspect someone who'd never seen Al before wouldn't notice it, but having seen him really "on" now, it does show on the edges.
Nevertheless, McCabe's is a wonderfully intimate little venue. It's situated in a huge guitar and other instrument store in the middle of Santa Monica. Last year I spent the day in Santa Monica, walking the pier and having dinner, etc., but tonight I drove right to the venue and, after some mishaps parking (park behind the US Bank if you can folks, trust me on this), queued up. I found JimB and WaterColourInTheRain (Cindy), two local(-ish, in Cindy's case) members of the Al Stewart Friends Mailing List I belong to (on YahooGroups; yes, people still use them!) already in the line. JimB lives all of two miles away and thus was almost first in line. Cindy was there with her mother Lorna (I went and saw Peter White with them on October 3rd. I, uh, still need to post a review for that) and were kind enough to let me wait with them so I didn't have to queue at the back by myself. I repaid their kindness by ditching them as soon as we were inside to squeeze into a seat in the front row. (Sorry, ladies. I love you!)
The one very nice thing about flying solo to these concerts is the fact that I can usually find a better seat than I could if I was with a partner. Tonight was no exception, and I got a seat on the front row, slightly to the left of stage. JimB and his wife and two of their friends took up the rest of the front row on my right, and to my left was a lovely Scottish woman and her partner. (Ironically I learned his name was Steve but I never learned hers!) Me being chatty me, I talked the couple up and discovered she does mosaic artwork and is doing a big Alice In Wonderland piece now and has been featured at the Museum of Man. Apparently we were so chatty that JimB thinks I knew her! Clearly he doesn't remember how friendly I was to Ilene at the Brixton show we attended together in July. I'm sure someday I'll sit next to someone who doesn't want to talk to me in the hour before the show starts, but it hasn't happened yet.
Anyway, McCabe's is very intimate. Not only are you very close to the stage, but the seats are right on top of each other. I feel bad for anyone attending who is a bit overweight, as it's rather unpleasant. They are also folding chairs, which are hardly the most comfortable things to sit on for 90 mins, especially not if you've got a wallet and an iPhone in your back pockets! That aside, though, it is a nice venue. I think Al recognizes too that McCabe's attracts a different sort of audience than somewhere like the Anthology does. He described the McCabe's audience as more of a "Folk Rock" audience, whereas I'm sure he would have called Anthology last night one of his "Pop" audiences. He mentioned that he tends to play his hits to his folk rock audiences more than his pop ones! Always contrary, that's our Al.
Another point before I get to the pictures is that last year the ticket price for Al's concert was $20 and the tickets sold out weeks in advance. This year they were $24.50 and after those sold out weeks in advance, McCabe's scheduled a second show at 10pm. Now, this means much more money for everyone all around (except those of us shelling out another $20 to see a sick old man sing until midnight), but it also meant that things were tighter than they could've been. Dave only got to open with two songs and, to my utmost sadness, Al didn't do an encore. He's done at least one encore at every show I've seen him at except the Junefest. To have the audience standing up and clapping for you and to have the house lights come up instead . . . aaah, that was sad and it was all so they could get us out and get the new audience in. I understand it, but it was sad. It ends the concert on a low note instead of a high note. Ah well. It was still magnificent.
Anyway, since McCabe's is so intimate and since I was on the front row, I got a lot of great shots (and a lot of not-so-great shots!). People have asked me how I get such nice photos (and they're really not!) when they usually get streaks of light and blurs. But, a lot of it has to do with having a nice camera (which I really don't, mine is good, but nothing professional), but really it boils down to luck and perserverance. I've attended concerts and had all my shots end up garbage. Stage lighting is extremely important. Most venues don't allow flash photography and even if they did, you'd almost guarenteed to be wasting the flash on the audience and not reaching the stage. So you need to have them well lit on stage. It helps if the camera has a setting for the occasion. Almost anything will improve the quality: a nighttime setting, a sports setting, a performance setting, a high-sensitivity setting, etc. I use a performance setting for Al's concerts usually, which gives me a higher chance to catch him instead of a streaky bouncing blurr. However, I thought I'd let you know I took over 330 pictures of the concert tonight. I've culled about 30 decent ones from all of those to share with you. There are probably 30-50 other photos that are good to okay quality. The other 250+ of them? They're blurry or blown out, or Dave is clear and Al is blurry, or Al is clear and Dave is blurry, or there's a mic in their faces or Al has just turned the other direction or ducked behind Dave or due to the singing one or both is making a horrible looking face, or something. So it's really just being lucky enough to take the picture at the right moment and taking lots of them! I really don't take them non-stop, but I do tend to take them throughout the concert to try to catch all the moments. It's what I enjoy the most about the concerts, especially post-concert. It certainly helps me remember the night more than a set list.
That's a lot of ramble that probably very few are interested in, so I apologize. I'm not even particularly happy with how these came out. My angle was awful and they're all grainy due to low lighting. I vastly prefer the ones from Anthology! But I did get some fun ones and I took a lot more so there are more to share! I shall shut up now. On to the pictures!
I've heard some people don't like Al's smile. Fools. How can you not like that?
Marc Macisso joined them for a couple songs, which is always a treat!
How can you not adore Al when he's giggling? I mean, he's giggling.
They played Time Passages, which . . . frankly baffles me, as even last night Al was like "I'll sign any album but Time Passages!"
But Marc rocked the sax on it nevertheless.
I have no idea what Dave was doing, but it's a clear shot and makes me laugh so here you go.
Almost looks like Al's giving him a pat on the head. (He wasn't.)
I'm sure this is Al ribbing on Dave. (Don't worry, Dave got him back during his Yoko Ono story.)
Marc joined them on flute for Antarctica, which was really nicely done, I thought.
Do you know how hard it is to catch him smiling while on stage? He's usually one happy blur.
(Proof that despite his cold, he was cheerful on stage, though.)
Marc on sax again.
Marc then played soprano sax on, I believe it was, Midas Shadow. I quite liked it, though it made me feel like it was 1983.
One of my favorite (favorite) things to do during Al concerts is to watch Al watch Dave (or LJ) play.
I don't know why, but it is awesome. Al always sort of bobs his head while watching, like he's giving a silent little nod of approval.
I got him smiling a lot this show. You don't know how much this pleases me. :D
AAAUGH STUPID MICROPHONE WHYYYY.
Do you know how hard it is to photograph three bouncy musicians? Here's one where they at least all have faces.
Blurry, but you can tell who is who, and I sort of like Al's blurry little smile here. And the fact that you can actually see Dave.
The rest of these shots he's mostly hidden by Marc. So. Yay framing. AKA Pure luck.
Doesn't it just make you want to smile?!
See, despite being sick and subdued, he's still a little energy machine.
I have no idea what made him make that face, but it is a great one not usually seen, ha.
The set list was surprisingly different from last night's show. No super surprises, but I did discover that I vastly prefer House of Clocks as an opener compared to Angry Bird. I'm not sure why. I guess I feel House of Clocks flows more or something. Anyway, that's what he opened with tonight and I don't feel it was nearly as strained as Angry Bird was last night. I mentioned he played Time Passages which was a surprise. He also did Palace of Versailles, Midas Shadow, On the Border and ended with Year of the Cat, so there was a lot of his more popular songs. It is a bit baffling to me. I certainly would've rather heard more obscure songs and we're the audience that would have appreciated them! Ah well. I did really enjoy the live version of Antarctica.
Oh, I do remember before Palace of Versailles, he started talking about the French Revolution and being quite violent and graphic about all the various bloody revolutions they've had. As he'd just acknowledged it's Valentine's Day weekend, I felt obligated to call out, "Romantic, Al!" He laughed at this and then he and Dave joked that they should make up a song about the Valentine's Day Massacre on the spot. (Unfortunately it didn't happen, but I'd love to hear that!) Palace of Versailles was enjoyable live, to be sure. I'm honestly surprised Marc didn't bust out a violin for it. He plays everything else!
Anyway, after the show I didn't expect Al to come out to sign, due to the aforementioned second show. So I was quite pleased that he did! One of my best friends is babel and she is, in fact, the one who introduced me to Al. She has the misfortune of living in Austin, TX and thus is unavailable to come to these concerts with me. (She came to a few over the summer, but it's a bit of a commute!) Anyway, feeling guilty that I'm getting to enjoy the musician she's loved since she was ten, I'd done up a little sign I'd hoped to get Al to sign and pose with. Now, I am a bit younger than the average Al fan and the other celebrities I've met have tended to be a bit younger than Al (with the exception of Frazer Hines). But this sort of "asking a celebrity to pose with a piece of paper" or something is fairly common amongst your average, say, American TV star. They then get posted to Twitter or Facebook or whatever.
Al, of course, is sick and probably has no concept of this. Yes, I have a friend who likes you so much Al that she'd be stoked if you held this piece of paper with her name on it and smiled while I took a picture of you. He did it, of course, I just don't think he had any idea why I wanted to take a picture of it. It rather looks like I ambused him backstage and forced him to take a mug shot! I do want to preface this by saying while sick, he was in good spirits and smiled immediately after I took this picture. Like, I even counted down and he smiled on four instead of three. Oh, Al.
Never change.
(The actual paper has her name on it, but I wasn't sure she wanted that all over my blog so I pasted in her blog name.)
There was a long line and of course another show shortly, so I felt obligated to get out of the way immediately, otherwise I would've asked him to take a second shot.
That's something of a point though: lines. People seem to have no concept of how to queue for autographs, or how to be respectful in general. Both last night and tonight, people were just pushing and shoving like a bunch of animals. Look, Mister. I'm not patiently standing here behind these women talking to Al for my health. I'm waiting my turn. Al is usually in such a dazed state and it's so harried he just signs whatever is thrust in front of his face, but it drives me nuts. And I am not a generally patient guy. I just am not a jerk, either. Last night we even did two queues, one for people buying merch to get signed and one for people who already had bought (or brought) the merch they wanted signed. When Al finally came out, people in the buying merchandise line got all nutso and cut in front again so all the others who'd been waiting longer were getting overlooked. Eventually I had to grab Dave and have him sort it out because it was just absurd. One of the guys in line was like, "Thank you for doing that man!" to me. (I guess he would've just stood there all night doing nothing if I hadn't.) WHAT IS WITH THESE PEOPLE, THOUGH, SERIOUSLY. I guess being close to a celebrity makes them absolutely crazed, or something. I don't know how Al has the patience for it. Between the crazed fans shoving stuff in his face and the other ones who won't go away and end up telling him their entire life story, I don't know how he does it. Especially while sick.
This may be part of the reason why Al is a celebrity and I'm not.
His being an amazing musician might also have something to do with it.
Anyway, I seriously contemplated staying for the second show. I certainly wanted to, and the idea of seeing Al three times in two days was pretty damn exciting. I figured the second show would be more fun too, without a time limit. Ultimately though I decided to save my $20 and go home. I live about 85 miles from Santa Monica and staying for a 10pm showing would have put me on the road after midnight. I'm not tired (it's almost 5am while I'm writing this!), but it's never me I'm afraid about, it's the other drivers on the road that late. Plus, I did want to get home in time to tell babel about the concert before she went to bed.
I'll say one thing though, listening to Al CDs in your car on your drive home after an Al concert is often quite surreal. He's so clear in your head still and he still sounds so much the same it's really like he's sitting in the car singing to you. It's definitely a way to take the concert experience home with you, and certainly made that long drive more enjoyable.
I am sad I didn't stay, but as sick as poor Al is, it may be for the better. Anyway, he's coming back locally in April, so it isn't like I have a terribly long wait to see him again!
Until April!