On Monday night my partner Janis and I went to the David Crosby show at the Winspear Centre here in Edmonton. David Crosby being a two time member of the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame, having being inducted twice, once for his work with The Byrds and with CSN (Crosby, Stills & Nash). So this was a rock n' roll legend that was a must see has I had never seen him play live before. And at the age of seventy-four how many more chances will a person get.
When we got to the show I was surprised by how few people were there, my guess would be no more then 400-500 in attendance. This show was billed as solo acoustic performance. It was just David Crosby on acoustic guitar and his son James Raymond who has performed and recorded with such artists as Warren Zevon, Jackson Browne, James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt, to name a few.
David Crosby played for two hours with s short intermission half way through the show. Not that I was expecting a rocking show, I was definitely expecting more then I got. This was a very disappointing show for me, and from what I gathered to a lot of other people too.
The most entertaining part of the show was David's in between song banter, he was very candid in his stories and had no fear of dropping the f bomb. The stories were good, like the story of him tripping on acid trying to catch geese with a rake, that made me laugh. he didn't have anything good to say about the presidential race in the United States calling trump a fucking idiot and that if he won, Crosby was moving to Canada, probably Vancouver he figures. He went on to say that this wasn't so much a tour as it was a trip looking at real estate. So ya his chatter was funny, but his song selection for the show was terrible. The show was mellow and slow, and I didn't recognize most of the songs he was playing as they were performed very jazz like. Croz mentioned he never plays a song the same way twice, well you know what Croz, maybe you should. As most songs were unrecognizable. He did a lot of new material from his upcoming October release "Lighthouse" album, and he also did a few from an album that will be coming out early in 2017. And, those songs really weren't that strong, in my opinion. David did two Joni Mitchell songs, and a Byrds song called Triad. He also mentioned being kicked out of The Byrds years ago, why, because in his own words, "he was an asshole".
Crosby was using a teleprompter on stage, which he also used for even his between song banter, which I thought was pretty lame. He mentioned he needed the prompter as he is older then dirt, which got a good laugh from the audience. I was really hoping to hear songs such as "Almost Cut My Hair", "Eight Miles High" and "Wooden Ships" but no avail. he did close out the sow with some songs that people recognized, closing with "Deja Vu" and "Guinnevere". He then left the stage, that's when people started leaving, he came back for one more song "Cowboy Movie" from his 1971 solo album "If I Could Only Remember My Name". The house lights weren't even on, yet most of the crowd was already leaving. Most times when that happens people will stop and sit down and catch the last song, but not on this night, the people just kept leaving. I think most everyone had had enough. There couldn't be more then a hundred people still in their seats by the time the song was done.
At one point during the show Crosby thanked the crowd for the warm response and said he liked Canada and would love to come back and play for us again. The crowd gave him a nice round of applause, but all I could think was that I wanted to yell, next time bring Still, Nash and Young with you please. Another thing that drove me nuts during the show was how often Crosby was clearing his throat and it only got worse as the show went on. hey Croz, there is a drink behind you on the table, have a drink for crying out loud, that might help.
Here is something I think they should do at future David Crosby shows is have a look-a-like contest, as I saw at least four people that were sporting the Crosby look.
Anyways, this was not one of the better shows I have seen that's for sure. I left disappointed. I will say this though, Crosby still has a great voice even after the substance abuse he went through in the 80's and 90's. Good times!!!
David Crosby at The Winspear Centre.
No comments:
Post a Comment