Row H, Seats 32-33
It was certainly not a night to be on the Filene Center lawn, as
shortly after Lucinda Williams started her set at 7:30 the skies opened up,
with torrential rain and enough wind that we felt a few drops, although we were
sitting right in the middle of our row. Despite the weather, the two women (and
their excellent bands) combined for almost three hours of top-notch musical
entertainment.
Williams referenced the violence in Charlottesville earlier in the day
both in her intro to “World Without Tears” and with “We’ve Come To Far To Turn
Around”, which despite being a new song has a chorus that makes it sound like a
classic from the early 1960s Civil Rights movement. Other than that, she ranged
from previous-century classics such as “Joy” (her finale), “Drunken Angel”, and
“Lake Charles” to “Protection”, “West Memphis”, and “Foolishness” from 2014’s Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone.
The not-unexpected high point, of course, came midway through her set, when she
brought Mary Chapin out to duet with her on “Passionate Kisses”.
Carpenter also had her share of topicality, opening with a one-two
punch of “The Times They Are A-Changin'” and “Stones In The Road” (with a
clever lyrical alteration referencing tweets), and then including “The Age Of
Miracles” a few songs later. Most of the highlights came from her longtime
uptempo favorites, most notably with a blistering version of “The Bug” that let her
bandmembers stretch out, and her first two encores, “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her”
and “Down At The Twist And Shout”. Following that, she thanked the crowd for
continuing to support live music and general and her in particular, mentioning
that once again she was ending her summer tour at Wolf Trap. She then noted
that this was the 30th anniversary of her first album, Hometown Girl, and concluded by
performing the title track. There couldn’t have been a better way to end the
evening.
Setlist (Lucinda Williams)
Setlist (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
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