Row J, Seat
33 (almost dead center)
It was
encouraging to see Mary Chapin Carpenter come on to the stage Saturday evening
with four bandmates, including longtime mainstays Jon Carroll and Don Dixon.
She quickly confirmed that the energetic Chapin of yesteryear was back,
starting with the two most upbeat songs from her latest album (“Map Of My Heart”
and “Something Tamed Something Wild”) and following those with “Passionate
Kisses” and “Shut Up And Kiss Me”. My personal favorite “Stones In The Road”
followed. The stretch of more contemplative material that came next was a little
long and might have been better broken into two pieces, but she picked things
up again with “I Feel Lucky” and “The Bug” (which I don’t recall her performing
in quite a while), before concluding the main set with “The Hard Way”.
The crowd
seemed to fill most of the lower level at least of the house, although its energy
level didn’t match that of the headliner; almost no one rose for the initial
encore (“He Thinks He’ll Keep Her”), and she had to coax everyone to stand for “Down
At The Twist And Shout”. Perhaps getting the message, she decided to do a solo
acoustic version of the title track from her 2016 CD The Things That We Are Made Of to send everyone home.
The Milk
Carton Kids, a new personal favorite of mine, contributed an equally fine
45-minute opening set. With two guys, two acoustic guitars, and one microphone,
the comparisons to early (pre-electric) Simon & Garfunkel are quite apt,
with some great between-songs banter (particularly prior to “Charlie”) that does
bring to mind the Smothers Brothers. I especially enjoyed “Monterey”, “The Ash
& Clay”, and “The City Of Our Lady”, but there really wasn’t a weak spot in
the entire 9-song set, and the vast majority of the crowd was both attentive
and appreciative throughout.
