So is this show actually happening? There's a slim chance I might be in the vicinity.

Hi Bob -

You wrote, "So is this show actually happening? There's a slim chance I might be in the vicinity."

Just posted this in another thread. In case you missed it:
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Hi -

To Jim and everyone else going to the Nashville show on August 9:

The venue is The Exit/In

http://www.exitin.com/

2208 Elliston Place
Nashville, TN 37203

615-321-3340

Thanks.

Any idea when tickets are going on sale?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I gotta million questions,

OK, it's official -- I couldn't manage to see SuzyV when she was in my own back yard, but I am planning to catch the show in Nashville on Aug. 9. (The second-best phrase in the English language, after "secret burning thread," is "free airline tickets.")

So will other towies be in attendance in Music City? Are folks meeting up someplace? Any tips on cool places to stay or other things to do whilst in town? I keep hearin' about this thing called the Grand Old Oprah, which I'm guessing is some sort of mammoth talk show/book club thing ...

-- Bob, probably about to get a buttful of buckshot


"And I awoke
with my own bloodstains on the wall"
-- Cindy Wheeler, Nashville native

OK, Tennessee towies, tuxedoes, titans and what have you -- I'll be seeing ye tonight, along with the Demigoddess herself.

Are there any heretofore-unmentioned Undertow gatherings occuring before the show? If not, at least we know the music will be good.

See everyone there!

-- Bob

P.S. Three words: My Favorite Plum!

Hi Bob,

Well?

We're waiting to hear if there were any interesting folks in the audience this evening in Nashville...

Any celebrities in attendence? Perhaps a former head of state or political figure??


E

If you mean the winner of the 2000 presidential election, yes, Al and Tipper Gore showed up, met Suzanne backstage and then trapsed through the Exit/In and sat in this balcony/storage area above the bar to watch the show. Unfortunately, Tipper didn't go on stage and dance, so we didn't get to witness a repeat of her bumping and grinding to "Turn the Beat Around" at the last Democratic national convention (an image that has helped me endure many a cold and lonely night since then, believe you me).

Actually, like a dope I didn't even recognize Al. What's funny is that I had thought of speculating in my last message that the Gores might show up, but then I decided that would be silly. Who would have expected a mere politician to be this cool? (The winner of the 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision has been known to jump on stage with Ricky Martin and hobnob with Bo Derek. But really, is that even close?)

Just forget the terrorism and the undeclared war and the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction, and instead ponder this chilling thought for a moment: Did America lose out on its first chance to have a Suzanne Vega fan in the White House? Until Bluey runs, of course.

Anyway, the real celebrities in the audience were folks like Jim From Music City and The Impossibly Young And Even More Impossibly Married Julie (the latter of whom, unfortunately, I did not get to meet).

As for the show itself, all I can say is:

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Suzanne was mesmerizing on stage and incredibly kind and gracious at the mini-Towie meet & greet afterward. It was just her and Mike Visceglia up there, and the club (a cool-dive kind of place) has an open area in front of the stage that allows you to stand real close, so the sight and sound of her guitar playing was overwhelming -- just hearing the albums doesn't do justice to her.

Mike V was great as usual, both musically (could anyone else possibly pull off that solo-bass version of "Left of Center"?) and as a comic-relief foil to Suzanne: waving a towel to cool off folks in the audience, chiding Suzanne for having trouble with the chords to "Bad Wisdom," doing an entertaining clap/slap-your-thighs/squirt-water-out-of-your-mou th accompaniment to "Solitaire." ("What are you doing back there?" she asked him. "You know, just because I sing 'like an idiot savant' doesn't mean you have to act like one.")

Is there a better musical duo anywhere? For the next album, why don't they just dispense with having a band and a producer, and instead just have Glynn lock those two in a room together?

Anyway, she opened with "Marlene on the Wall," followed by "Small Blue Thing," then I believe "Widow's Walk" (an amazing song live). She came back for two encores, ending with "Song in Red and Gray."

The songs came heavily off Retrospective, of course, but I don't recall anything from Days or Nine Objects.

There were some neat thematic tie-ins between songs. TQATS was followed by its sequel, "Knight Moves" (at Mike's insistence, apparently). She introduced "Undertow" by explaining that she had played it at her sister's first wedding, where her brother questioned the propriety of its lyrics about "oral sex and cannibalism" ("it's metaphorical," she told him); the next song was "Rosemary," which has the lyrics about her sister never dreaming at night. (That song suddenly made a lot more sense to me, for reasons I hope I can explain someday.) She also followed "I'll Never Be Your Maggy May" with "Calypso" -- sort of another song about a woman letting go of a younger man.

I was going to list highlights ("In Liverpool," the aforementioned "Bad Wisdom" and SiRaG) -- but frankly, what wasn't a highlight?

At one point she asked if anyone had any questions, which prompted one guy to make these Tourettes-like exclamations of "Public radio. Radio show," which didn't quite add up to a question. She filled in the blanks and explained all about the American Maverics show, which was cool.

The crowd filled the club and sounded pretty loud and enthusiastic, at least from where I was standing. Before the doors opened the line stretched all the way down the block; one guy said he'd been going to the Exit/In for years and had never seen a line so long.

Anyway, thank you Suzanne, Mike, Jim, Mary and the sound guy (Phil?).

Glynn, get well!

-- Bob, e-mailing from cloud nine

Former Vice President Al Gore, pictured below with Suzanne:

Enjoyed reading your write-up Bob - it's good to get a feel of the atmosphere.

So President Gore is a fan! At least it wasn't Governor Arnie - now that really would have challenged my preconceptions. Or prejudices.

Too late now for the band naming competition, but Suzanne Vega and the Tourettes has a nice ring to it.

Also... sorry to disappoint you but I really can't see Glynn locking Suzanne and Mike in a room together. It just isn't going to happen.

OK, I concede, it might just happen, metaphorically speaking, and would be good to hear - they play so well together. I guess that'll be a future album...

Chris

I've just seen the photo. The question is: is Suzanne asking Al for his autograph, or is that a late voting paper in her hand? (I can't see any hanging chads.)

Ah - now I've got it - it must be a signed copy of the lyrics to 'Left of Center'.

Chris

I can’t remember being first in line very many times in my life, but my wife and I were first in line Saturday night at the Exit/In. We wanted chairs, and there weren’t very many of those to be had.

So we got there at 7:30. It was sort of weird for a few minutes being the only ones there, but then a man and woman arrived, and we spent more than an hour talking with them (doors opened at 9). Turns out she’s a singer named Diesel (I had to ask her to spell that), and he’s her manager, Josh. This only came out after a while -- they didn’t make a big show of it -- but if you do a search on the Internet, you’ll see she has her own Web site, and apparently she was big in Maui before moving to Nashville. I checked.

We got along so well with Diesel and Josh that we made a Survivor-style alliance to hold chairs for each other if we got delayed or separated when the doors opened.

We got chairs -- and we had plenty more time to talk. Josh told us he had seen Steve Martin at the Exit-In in the 70s, and he said he ended his show by taking the audience to a Krystal and buying hamburgers for everybody. We also had time to study a board on the wall where they list everyone famous who’s played at the Exit-In – REM, the Police, and Garbage were a few, along with something called Nashville P---y, who I don’t think is famous.

Although the manager told us everything would start on time, nothing did, but that wasn’t a problem because we had chairs.

We did not see Al or Tipper Gore.

I’ve seen Suzanne perform four times now, but never in what amounts to a bar, and her performance was unbelievable. In saying how great she was Saturday, I’m not saying she wasn’t great the other times, but she was even better this time. Maybe it’s because the audience is closer, maybe it’s because she works so hard with only Mike backing her up, maybe it’s both and/or even more, but something made it different. It went all the way to 11, as Spinal Tap might say. And it’s very nearly awesome to watch somebody in complete control of a room full of people holding beers. And, of course, she was funny.

Mike was good too.

We traveled 200 miles to see that show, and it was way more than worth it.

Hank

I forgot to mention the one negative part of the evening -- midway through, Katherine Harris and five Supreme Court justices marched in and demanded that Suzanne stop the concert.

Post-show, Suzanne did mention that a DVD collection of the videos is in the works, and more Retrospective-related material might be coming out in the UK because it's been so successful over there. She also said she's really itching to write songs for a new album -- the Retrospective has been a lot of fun, but she's anxious to start "looking forward."

Another great part was the opening act, Kevin Gordon -- a kind of a rootsy/bluesy solo guy, with lyrics that sounded interesting although I'd probably have to hear the songs again to say anything more than that (they kind of got washed out of my mind by the subsequent SuzyV maelstrom).

He has a web site at http://www.kevingordon.net -- there's not much on it right now, but maybe he'll add more.

Being the Adventures of Jim (in Music City) and his Significant Other, Mary, at the Musical Appearance of the Noted Chanteuse, Suzanne Vega

I was overdressed, and I knew it. I had gotten it into my head that I wanted to dress “New York Cool,” so here I was, in black shirt, black slacks, black shoes; my fiancé Mary was in her favorite Little Black Dress and low heels. Everyone else in line was in jeans and t-shirts, shorts and halter-tops. Except for the guy in dreadlocks and a kilt. (Don’t ask.)

“I shouldn’t have worn pearls,” Mary kept muttering.

“You look gorgeous,” I said, and smiled benignly.

I watched he flags whip atop the hospital two blocks down, but here on the street there wasn’t even a breeze; it was warm and close – it had rained earlier in the day, briefly, but the clouds had begun to thin and the ground was dry. We were standing in front of the Exit-In, one of Nashville’s most famous clubs, so-called because the first entrance was originally a side exit. These days you enter through the front door like every other business on the street; Elliston Place is a funky little drive just off Vanderbilt University’s campus, full of bars and shops and even a meat-and-three soda fountain unchanged since the fifties. During the school year it’s usually rocking on a Saturday night, but this evening it was relatively quiet, except for some country singer’s voice wafting in from the club up the way, and this idiot who kept gunning his jacked-up genitalia-compensating pickup truck back and forth.

We’d gotten there almost an hour before the show was to start, but there was already a line of about 30 people in front of us; by the time we were let in the door, it stretched to the end of the block. (I heard later that the club was somewhat surprised at this development.) After parking on the street, we walked up and got in place at the end, stopping for a moment to chat with the one-and-only Impossibly Young Julie, who is also the Recently Married Julie! She’s been off-list for some time now – though she checks the web page – but I made her promise to shoot me an e-mail.

After about 15 minutes waiting in line, I realized I had left our tickets in my car, so I trudged back to get them. Walking back, I noticed some cowboy-chapeaued folks leaving the country singer’s club. As I strode past, I heard one of the say, as he glanced at the Exit-In’s marquee, “Oh look. Susan Vega. You know, the girl that had that song “Luka” years ago?”

That Luka chick, I thought. But then smiled, thinking that her music had touched even this wannabe cowboy. I almost turned around and invited them up, but thought better of it.

The line got smaller once the door opened; those that had already purchased tickets were put into a separate, shorter line, and we got in to the club quickly (a reluctant thanks to TicketBastard). It had been many years since I had been here, and it wasn’t quite as I had remembered it. The stage had been raised, and instead of being full of seats, there was a mosh pit; a few tables and chairs were in the back, and Mary and I, along with Julie and Joey, took a seat, but it took only a few minutes for us to realize that the area in front of us would quickly fill up. As soon as people began making for the stage, we got up and joined them. I actually took a chair with me, but everyone looked at me like I was crazy, so I took it back thinking I should have brought the table as well.

“Sorry about this,” I said to Mary, looking at her heels and thinking that she would kill me after this was over. “Want some water?” I said brightly. She just gave me “the look”, and then smiled.

As the room crowded up, Julie, Joey, Mary and I talked, mostly about what she & Joey had been doing, and about the Exit-In. Hank, I was in the crowd the night Steve Martin took us to the Krystal! I’ve got one of Buddy Rich’s drumsticks from his appearance there, and I can remember R.E.M., the B-52’s, and quite a few others from that place. It’s a great venue.

The opening act, Kevin Gordon, was tolerable enough. He’s certainly a good guitar player, and his tunes were toe tapping, though he needs to work on his “hooks” a little more.

During the intermission I picked up a beer and began to look around for Phil, the sound guy. He came up on stage, so I leaned over (being close enough to do that) and told him who I was. He told me to meet him at the sound board after the show, so I breathed a sigh of relief to have that taken care of. After polishing off my beer, I strolled over to the trash can to toss the bottle, and when I turned around, a stream of people came out of the backstage door, so I just stood there to watch the obvious “entourage” pass. My mouth fell open when I saw Al Gore walk by, but I wasn’t so shocked that I couldn’t reach out and pat him on the back and say “nice speech, Al,” referring to the stem-winder he unleashed on Dubya for MoveOn.org the other day. He turned his head as he walked and said “thanks.” After they passed, I moved to my position up front and said to my group, “you’ll never guess who I just saw!” The Gores sat in the VIP area upstairs in the back, and I could see Tipper draped over Al. Say what you want about them, at least they seem to have a normal sex life, which you probably couldn’t say about our previous or current POTUS.

Then the show started. I won’t go into a song-by-song recitation of Suzanne’s show, since Bob has done a much better job than I could. A few observations, though. Suzanne & Mike’s connection is almost organic; they seem to anticipate each other’s moves, and are completely comfortable with each other. Mike’s clowning around and Suzanne’s reactions are totally natural, and while I’m sure they do stuff like this every night, I have no doubt that it’s a little bit different every time.

I never realized that “Gypsy” and “In Liverpool” were interconnected – very interesting, especially since “Liverpool” is one of my favorite songs. And I also find it interesting that “Gypsy” evokes the same reaction to someone in the crowd, albeit someone different, every time I’ve seen her perform it. Suzanne knows what I’m talking about.

Mary pointed out to me that the whole time she was performing, Suzanne never looked up at the “luxury box” where the Gores were sitting. She kept all her attention focused on the crowd on the floor. And you know, as many times as she’s performed, she never looked bored – she enjoys herself on stage.

When she started the song “Undertow,” I turned to Julie and said, “That’s OUR song!” Suzanne looked at me just then, and I could have sworn she heard me. It was a goose bump moment.

After the show was over, we said our goodbyes to Julie and Joey, who decided not to hang around, and made for the sound board. While waiting, we became acquainted with the one and only Bob King, who had made the long trip up from Florida. Bob’s a sweetheart of a guy, funny and outgoing, and Mary and I took to him right off; we swapped stories as we waited. I noticed a throng of people on the walkway leading up to the stage door, and I wondered if these were VIPs waiting to see Suzanne, and if we would ever get our turn. I was pleasantly surprised when the stage crew ushered these folks off the ramp, and Phil gestured for us to follow him and he led us past the waiting people.

Let me say at the outset that the Exit-In is an old place, and my first thought was that Suzanne deserved a better green room! At least with a comfortable chair for you! Be that as it may, she sat on a bench, waiting for us. You know, we’re very, very, very lucky, we of the Undertow; all artists either out of desire, or duty, do the “meet ‘n greet” with VIPs, but I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of any other artist who reaches out to their fans the way Suzanne does. Folks, she’s no different from us; she works long hours, she gets tired just like we do – it’s just that her job is a little more glamorous, and of course, she’s creating art. It says a lot that she gives a little of her time to visit with her fans. She was gracious and friendly to us; we talked about ourselves, we talked about her; I compared notes with her on rearing an obviously intelligent daughter; Bob talked about his trip up from Florida; we all talked about her music, her next CD (which may be a while), her videos (which will be sooner than that), her documentary. While I doubt she gets the same charge out of it that we do, for my part it was an immensely satisfying experience. That her music connects with me emotionally goes without saying, and meant a lot to me to finally be able to tell her how much I appreciated her.

I had stupidly left my camera at home, so I’m hoping that the photo from Bob’s camera turns out. I can’t wait to see it. As we left backstage, we walked out past the crowd that was still waiting for Suzanne; they stared at us like we were someone special. I sure felt that way. I hope the rousing reception she got will convince her to make Nashville a stop on her next new-release tour – whenever that is. Walking outside, Mary said that her feet were sore, but that she had had a good time. I looked up at the sky; the full moon was starting to peek through the clouds – I think it was smiling. I know I was.

---

We do not learn by experience
but by our capacity for experience.
- Buddha