09/17/98 Whiskeytown Set list incomplete (based on fan review): Previous
Liberty Lunch Bar Lights Next
Austin, TX Today
Piss On Your Grave
Don't Wanna Know Why
Yesterday's News
What You Wanted (a.k.a. Can't Deny Me)
Not Home Anymore
Acoustic Encore
16 Days
Houses On The Hill
Full Band Encore
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Too Drunk To Dream
Midway Park
Losering
Notes:
  1. Ryan Adams (guitar); Caitlin Cary (fiddle); Mike Daly (multi); Brad Rice (guitar); Danny Kurtz (bass); Steve Terry (drums).
  2. Maki opened.
  3. Read a whiskeytownavenuer's review here.
Review:
Just got back from seeing WT's Thursday Austin show, and it was *COOL*!  There was no instrument trading or anything like what they had in Dallas (damn!), but there was *nothing* wrong with the show I saw. This is a *fine* band.

Most patrons passed on Maki and showed up for the Main Event--clearly expecting to hear SA. (One guy kept pulling out his lighter for the slow SA songs. I kept waiting for someone to yell out, "Freebird!") The crowd was big enough tho not huge, but it was attentive--and, I suspect, frustrated at not getting as much SA as they'd hoped for.

WT started at 10:30 and played till around 12:00--a set and two encores--and they looked to be having a good time from where I was. No broken guitars, monitors, or sequirity people, tho. Caitlyn and Mike could have been louder, but the band sounds great. 

(Now, I'm fuzzy on the details of the set list, so bear that in mind.) They opened with 4-5 new songs. At the end of one, Ryan turned his back to the audience and sang before gingerly twirling the microphone cord--his take on Jim Morrison, I suspect. Then, Ryan said, "Here's one from SA," so the crowd started getting excited--but WT yanked their chain and headed into "Bar Lights" (one of my new favorites. Really beautiful).

Somewhere in there, Ryan did this beer-fountain trick where he chugged a mouthful, Moby Dicked it into the air, and ran under it. (This was well received.)

The set had a nice mix of new ("Today," "Piss on Your Grave," "Wanna Know Why," "Bar Lights," and others I can't remember) and old material but closed with "Yesterday's News" which bled into "You Can't Deny Me" which bled into the "Not Home Anymore" closer where the band exited one at a time.

Ryan, Caitlyn, and Mike came back for a 2-song acoustic encore ("16 Days," "Houses on the Hill"). Very nice. 

The whole band was back for the 2nd encore with some FS stuff. (If WT were thumbing its nose at the Austin paper, this would be it. The paper's pre-show blurb, which, sarcastically, made a lot of the band's personnel changes, predicted lots of FS given its forthcoming re-release. Guess again.) This encore included "This is Nowhere," "Too Drunk to Dream," "Midway Park" (this *fabulous* rage version which they said this band had never played before), and closing of this killer hybrid-improvisation version of "Losering."

I *really* wanted to head up to Dallas for the Friday show but had an appointment I couldn't break. (I should have blown it off anyway.) 

ET AL:

--Ryan twice complimented Caitlyn's "great fuckin' hair." (She told us it was at that "growing-out stage.") Also, she recommended barbeque at the Salt Lick.

--There's a third t-shirt to add to the blue and red collection. This one's white with a brown, broken/crumbling guitar on it. ("Whiskeytown" is above the graphic; "_Strangers Almanac_ Tour" is below.) It's pretty cool-- given Ryan's recent comments on deconstruction, it is especially apt (tho I can't decide if he and Derrida are using the term in the same way--which is, I guess, consistent with the nature of deconstruction).

If anyone taped this or the Dallas show, *please* let me know privately. I've got stuff to trade. 

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