Waco City DJs on AccessWaco
Be sure to check out AccessWaco.com to read my interview with the Waco City DJs. While you’re there, check the other entertainment news items and entertainment blogs run by the WacoTrib staff.
I also wanted to publicly thank commenter Mary for posting the schedule for posting the Zack and Jim’s Hog Creek Icehouse schedule. Thanks for reading, Mary.
If anybody else knows of live, local music playing in your neck of the woods, post it here at WacoLive.
Home > WacoLive > Archives > 2008 > March > 15
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Worth. Every. Penny.
SLIDE SHOW
- gallery: Willie's Waco concert
I managed to forget the whole first chapter of Rookie Mistakes for Music Journalists on the way to see Willie Nelson on Thursday and left my notepad and pen and home.
So these are my re-created memories of the evening.
Let me first say that Willie Nelson was everything that Bob Dylan isn’t. I saw Dylan last summer at Austin City Limits and the event still stands out in my mind as one of the biggest let-downs (and most depressing concerts) I’ve ever seen. Dylan is a shell of his former self: his already-shaky voice was cracked and strained; his guitar playing, passable; his stage presence, nil.
Willie on the other hand, took the stage like the consummate pro his is. His voice was strong and clear and his fret work — oh, can that man play the guitar. With the opening notes of “Whiskey River” ringing through the HOT Coliseum (hats off, by the way, to the sound crews for rightly putting Willie’s voice and guitar at the front of the mix — the Coliseum is essentially a giant metal box and has some of THE WORST acoustics in Waco) Willie and his band launched into a set that tore through all of the favorites with a few surprises in between. Medleys, extended jams, off-the-cuff banter and production — Willie and co. put on a show that should have every musician ANYWHERE taking notes.
It must be hard to play behind Willie; between his syncopated vocal delivery and quirky guitar phrasing, even battle-hardened vets like Paul English (Willie’s long-time drummer and the Paul of “Me and Paul”) looked like they were having a hard time — and a blast — keeping up with Willie’s iconic, truncated expressionism. A true shaman on stage, Willie knows how to lead a band. So when his band let their hair down (so to speak) to jam, Willie let them. He knows when to let a song breathe and when to clip its feathers.
Let me say, here and now, that Willie is about as good as it gets. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT MISS the next concert he throws. Go out of your way. Take the kids (they’ll thank you later, even if they don’t get it now.) Spend the money.
One gripe: BOO to the sheriff’s deputy who kept coming over and shush-ing some of the tipsy, middle-aged women dancing in the aisles. This is a Willie Nelson concert, for crying out loud, not the symphony. I kept wanting to ask the mustachioed hardass if he even knew who was on stage, much less why he was hassling these women instead of WATCHING THE SHOW, but I held my tongue.
I figured it just left more of the greatness for the rest of us.
