I am not usually a concert report person, but tonight I had an Experience.
To begin with, I thought I was going to see Dar Williams in concert tomorrow. I learned otherwise when an alert popped up on my phone 30 minutes before the concert.
I was showered and in a Lyft 20 minutes later . . .
and arrived at the Old Town School of Folk Music only 20 minutes late for the show, which I am very pleased about. I had to take a detour to the bathroom, and then I had to wait for the opener to finish the song she was singing. That wasn't a problem for me, especially because who should meander up behind me, drinks in hand, but Susan Werner, the queer folk singer I saw last time I was at the Old Town School. I looked at her and said, "Susan Werner! I saw you in concert last time I was here!"
And then the song was over so the usher showed me to my seat, smack dab in the middle of the third row. Sorry to everyone I had to maneuver around to get to my seat.
I did catch the last two songs of the opener's set, which were great. I can recommend Joy Clark to anyone who enjoys queer folk-country.
During the break before Dar came on, I kept trying to see if I could spot where Susan Werner was sitting, but I couldn't see her from my seat and I definitely didn't want to try to get by all ten people between my seat and the aisle and back again.
Dar was excellent, of course. I have never seen her live before, after being a fan of hers for 25? years, and I teared up a bit during the first couple of songs. Dar's voice is still great, I didn't hear any effects of aging at all.
She played a lot of songs from her latest album, Hummingbird Highway, some of which I knew a bit and some which were new to me, and most of which I really enjoyed. Of course, the crowd-pleasers were the old songs - If I Wrote You, What Do You Hear In These Sounds, and The Babysitter's Here.
Then she brought up Joy Clark and Susan Werner for her closing song, Iowa, an all-time favorite of mine, and also invited the audience to sing along, which is one of my favorite things to do at a concert (I had been mouthing along without actually making any sounds to the songs I knew, and it was such a relief to actually sing).
Susan was not a planned invitation, from what I could tell - Dar said, "I know sometimes we go to a concert in our audience-pants instead of our performer-pants," and then when Susan sat right down at the piano Dar was a little taken aback. But Susan definitely COULD play the piano part to Iowa and demonstrated it by playing it (without singing) while we were waiting for Dar to come back for the encore.
The encore was the always-fun As Cool As I Am, again with Joy and Susan, and again with audience participation.
I love seeing concerts at the Old Town School, even if it's a pain to get to on public transit. And even when I have to go from couch-lazing to clean and in a Lyft in 20 minutes flat.
