Row L, Seats 101-103 – center section, on the left-center aisle
Among Mary Chapin Carpenter’s many virtues – great voice, wonderful
material, sly sense of humor – is her stage presence. Specifically, she always
seems to be having a lot of fun while performing, although she’s probably done
many of the songs hundreds of times. (It may have been my imagination, but I thought
I did notice some subtle changes in arrangement from previous shows, which
undoubtedly helps keep things fresh.) Sam Wilson’s guitar work was particularly
impressive on “I Take My Chances”, “I Feel Lucky”, and “Between The Dirt And
The Stars”, while long-time band member Jon Carroll did notable work on “Lucky”
and “Everybody’s Got Something”. Don Dixon and Nate Barnes provided sturdy
support on bass and percussion, respectively. Other high points included my
personal favorite “Stones In The Road”, which she preceded with a shout-out to
the day’s rally and march in DC on the 60th anniversary of 1963’s
historic March on Washington, and the show-closing “Down At The Twist And
Shout.” (BTW, I just learned from Wikipedia that “Alvin and the Chipmunks
recorded a cover for their 1992 album Chipmunks in Low Places.” They did
not specify whether BeauSoleil appeared on that version as well.)
Having a rock band open for Mary Chapin Carpenter, albeit a nominally
“folky” one, still seems like a somewhat odd choice to me, even if the band is
one of my favorites. Dawes did put together an excellent one-hour set – the show
kicked off at 7:30 rather than Wolf Trap’s more usual 8:00 – doing two songs
from their latest CD and seven from their earlier albums. Fortunately, the
excessive-volume issues that I found problematic the last two times I saw them
(once at XPNFest
and once at the Lincoln
Theatre) didn’t bother me Saturday night, thanks to the Filene Center’s
open sides and back and the fact that our seats were well back from the stage. This
definitely improved the presentation of the slower songs, such as “Crack The
Case”, “A Little Bit Of Everything” (one of my two all-time Dawes favorites),
and the set-closing “All Your Favorite Bands”. The closing line of the latter’s
chorus, “May all your favorite bands stay together”, was a bit ironic, as original
bassist Wylie Gelber left the group earlier this year to pursue his love of
musical instrument design and construction.
Traffic on the Maryland section of the Beltway was somewhat slow on the way there, but my trip back was much better than I had expected, given the ongoing construction on the Virginia side. After eating a small salad at Panera, I got to the venue around 6:00, and joined a couple of friends who had grabbed a picnic table. The weather was a bit on the warm side, but not enough to affect our enjoyment of the performances.
