the exile follies show
the exile follies show last night was fantastic! made it over to the club around 6:20 (friggin' traffic!), and the Special Lady Friend and i got a table right in front of the stage... almost too in front. our friend leslie from Up the Sandbox snagged the table next to us, and was probably even more geeked out than we were. she opened for kristin last time she was in town, which i unfortunately missed because i was out climbing in colorado.
BillyO was setting up the schwag table, so i ambled over to say hi and give him the little shirt thing. he was as warm and friendly as always; recognized me from previous shows, and talked about how great kristin's pregnancy is going. her due date is early december, but he thinks that it'll actually probably happen around thanksgiving.
john doe was up first, and came out and played a really good set. i hadn't heard his music before, but lots of melancholy songs, with funny lyrics about fluffy tigers trying to kill him. he played maybe 5-6 songs, and then invited kristin up on stage to join him. they only did two songs before he left:
white girl (one of his)
trouble (one of cat stevens)
kristin and john chatted a little bit back and forth... he commented on the trippy stage set (see pictures below), and he said he must be high or something.
kristin: unless you smell burnt toast.
john: why? what does that mean?
kristin: it means you're schizophrenic...unless you're actually burning toast.
then kristin was left solo. she looks great for being 6-ish months pregnant. the Special Lady Friend commented that she's carrying very high and round, and looks fantastic.
she sat down and got ready to start, but couldn't find her setlist. crisis! oh, wait... it was on the floor in front of the stage (i had already copied everything off of it). matt to the rescue! here you go! setlist (or "security blanket", as she called it) in hand, she started playing.
here is her setlist:
your dirty answer
37 hours
gazebo tree
tar kissers
spain
cuckoo
hook in her head (?!?!)
a few songs into her set, this total cock-knob (who came in too late to get a seat, so he just sat on the floor right in front of the stage and kristin) lights up a cigarette. i was actually sort of suprised that they hadn't made an announcement about it being a non-smoking show, as kristin has done in the past when she was pregnant. the ashtrays were out on the tables and everything... maybe it was the club's refusal. anyway, i caught the fucknugget's attention and motioned for him to put it out. blank stare. i moved my hands over my stomach like *i* was pregnant, pointed to kristin, and made a "grinding-out-in-the-ashtray" motion, figuring he couldn't possibly be that stupid. oh, but he was. i didn't want to disturb the people around us during the song any more than i already had, so i just sat back. at the end of her song, kristin asked him as nicely as she could if he would mind not smoking right in front of her! it was her baby, not her, that was the prima donna, she said. ha!
at the end of her solo set, she called out grant lee phillips. they did a few songs together:
panic pure
your ghost
heavenly (jeff buckley!!!)
after "your ghost", grant commented that he was worried about screwing up and putting plurals where there shouldn't be, or leaving them off where they should.. "you were driving circle around me". kristin then commented that people on her website were getting on grant's case for screwing that up at an earlier show. but he was really good! we're not lunatics, i swear!
i couldn't quite make it through the jeff buckley song; i had to pee so bad that i got up and ran to the bathroom and peed for a good minute and a half, solid.
grant did his solo set, and he was fantastic! really strong, great voice, and completely hilarious! he called john doe back out, and then only did one song before they started calling for "little sister" to come back on stage and join them.
the chemistry between the three of them was amazing. they were picking on kristin because this tour was supposed to be only for tv stars. then john commented that this tour was getting like "hee-haw", complete with "two guys in denim shirts and a pregnant white girl".
they started out with a verse or two from a merle haggard song... they were going to have a "hagg-off"; trade verses back and forth, but only really did one.
all 3 again remarked about the psychadelic background, and john was lamenting that he had left this amazing record of johnny cash reciting the intro to star trek. grant then busted out a perfect johnny cash impression, complete with musical background... "space, the final frontier.... i fell into a burning ring of saturn..", etc. i think i actually soiled myself.
here's a setlist from all 3:
the merle haggard song
the funny-as-fuck johnny cash song
see how we are
sugar mountain
when the levee breaks
afterwords, the SLF and i got a chance to chat with grant a little bit; he was a very nice and funny guy, very low key. we each bought his two cds, and he asked if he could sign them. i found that funny for some reason. hope he'll come back to pgh next time he's on tour. also saw BillyO again; he said that everyone loved the "onesie".
here's some pictures:
full list of pictures here.
thanks again to kristin and BillyO for visting us once again!