Graham Parker (solo) ~ 2008 May 9 ~ Shangri-La, Ellsworth, ME
Graham Parker accompanying himself on Gibson acoustic guitar, Fender electric guitar, and harmonica
Setlist (with guitars noted)
[Gibson acoustic] Watch the Moon Come Down - High Horse - Guillotine of Guadaloupe - Chopsticks - Sugaree - Next Phase - Somebody Saved Me - [Fender Electric] Vanity Press - Fools' Gold - Mighty Rivers - Release Me - Passion is No Ordinary Word - Don't Ask Me Questions - [a cappela] Someone to Watch Over Me - [Gibson acoustic] Socks 'n' Sandals - FreeCreditReport.com - Nation of Shopkeepers ... encore ... [Fender Electric] White Honey - Back to School Days - Get Started. Start a Fire - Discovering Japan
Review
It was a 6 hour drive from Cape Cod, but the directions were uncomplicated, and Concert Going Partner and I got to Ellsworth with plenty of time to get to the gig. Ellsworth turned out to be a surprisingly cool town with a small-college-town feel and a real movie theater across the street from the venue (see the pictures). The venue is on the second floor of a brick building, a former Masonic lodge. Shangri-La, a new music venue, is a very relaxed place; the venue manager, a guy named Joel, ran around without any shoes on getting everything ready.
The performance space was a freshly-painted room with high windows, a wonderfully echoey high ceiling, and rows of chairs, about 200 of them, in front of a high but small stage up a short flight of steps. Good visibility throughout, and comfortable. There was a very cute sculpture of a banana tree on each side of the stage, with real bananas hanging from the trees. There were soft drinks and snacks for sale, and beer and wine downstairs. The opening act was a folkie with an acoustic guitar named Garrett Soucy from a local band called Tree by Leaf. He had good dynamic range, and played a short and good set of twangy songs. We thought he sounded like he should be on Bloodshot Records (GP's label, they publish mostly Americana and alt-country music.) Then Shoeless Joel introduced Graham, very excited that opening night of the new venue was here, and the show began.
As is his usual custom, Graham came on stage carrying his Gibson acoustic guitar. He began with "Watch the Moon Come Down" and followed it with "High Horse." Apparently he is giving some of the Don't Tell Columbus songs a rest after intensively performing them for the last almost three years. After "High Horse" he said that he has actually eaten horse -- by mistake, he said -- when served it in Italy. Then he confessed that he'd been introducing "Guillotine of Guadaloupe" in recent gigs by saying he'd gotten the inspiration from a book by Arthur C. Clarke, but it's really a book by James Michener. At the end of this ridiculously perky song, he plays a depressing minor chord ... and tells the audience he's playing a depressing minor chord. Then he said he would have to out-obscure "Guillotine."
Geep bragged that his indoor over-30 soccer team has won its league title two years in a row, and then he said, with a straight face, that his soccer mates are very intelligent people. They say that Al Gore invented climate change in order to make money starting a company to sell carbon credits. Okay, if you say so, says Graham to his mates. But, he says, he was waaay ahead of the curve, writing a song in the 1980s about rain forest wood being used to make throw-away chopsticks ... so the song that out-obscured "Guillotine," coming as it did from a very obscure live album originally released only in Japan, was "Chopsticks."
During the lovely "Somebody Saved Me" GP played with the rhythm during the "somebody somebody somebody" bit. GP said he'd recently found a diary he had kept while touring as the opening act for Eric Clapton in 1985, and read us some very pointed comments about some of the audiences. "Kansas City, 94 degrees, heat made the audience into dullards ... but probably they are like this in any weather."
GP has a talent for choosing songs the audience might not expect, and tonight the surprise was the incredible "Mighty Rivers." When listening to the studio version of this song from Steady Nerves, one needs a pretty good imagination to hear the heartfelt, emotionally intense love song underneath all those layers of sound. But live, stripped of everything but Graham's electric guitar and emotive singing, it became a statement of hope and devotion equal in passion to anything from Real Macaw (GP's most romantic album). It was extraordinarily moving.
A master of pacing, GP followed with "Release Me," which he mentioned appears on the official bootleg Platinum Bastard (which he had for sale). I want to hear this with the Figgs, but with just Graham and his electric guitar it still manages to rock like a safari park chimp.
GP said that he wanted to take advantage of this big echoey room, put down the guitar, and sang "Someone to Watch Over Me" a capella. The audience must have been holding their breath, they listened with such attention. While probably not quite a sellout, this audience was very enthusiastic.
Again, the master of pacing jumped to the laugh-out-loud-funny "Socks 'n' Sandals," which he introduced by saying was about the "bad dress habits of English people." Geep was wearing dark sunglasses, a dark indigo blue shirt and a blue wrist band, and black Nike sneakers.
Then it was story time. Before the show, after doing his sound check and getting set up, he drove off looking for something to eat. He stopped at Jasper's Seafood on Rte. 3. Graham said he ordered some fish to go, since he had limited time, and went out into the parking lot to restring his guitar. It was the "early bird hour" at the restaurant, and some senior citizens came out of the restaurant. The seniors asked him, "Young man, are you the floor show?" GP: "I decided I would go into the restaurant and sing a song. And this is what I sang." And he broke into the singing pirates jingle from the FreeCreditReport.com ad. Everybody in the audience cracked up. "But that part was a lie," said Graham.
Next change of pace was one of my particular favorites, "Nation of Shopkeepers," which has that bit where Graham has the audience sing ("dit dit doo do doo, dit dit doo do doo, dit dit doo do doo-do doo" etc.) and GP jazzily sings "scat" over the audience accompaniment. It was just beautiful.
Geep stepped off the stage and wandered over to one of the banana tree sculptures and took a small bunch of bananas from the tree ... to more laughter from the crowd. Back on stage, the encore set of four songs followed.
After the show Graham sold CDs and mingled with the crowd. This show had everything you expect from Graham Parker: funny stories, excellent pacing, and exceptionally good song selection, with the introduction of "Mighty Rivers" and the re-introduction of "Nation of Shopkeepers" into the set list. See you tomorrow, Graham said to me, and Concert Going Partner and I went off to our motel. I should mention that by an incredible coincidence we were staying at the Jasper's motel, where Graham didn't REALLY sing the singing pirates song.
Quiz: Who can tell me what Graham Parker song mentions the coast of Maine?
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