BARCELONA 7/5
Certainly by the time I had consumed TWO gastronomique meals plus wine I was in a fairly dreamy place when I started to play at 11.30-ish. The people were all around, on the ground, on big couches, on chairs. So I had to really move to get to them all…I had a wireless mic tho! And my long guitar cables so I was able to focus in on many tables. I did my songs, old and new; a coupla Posies songs. All in all I was allowed to play til something like 1am, and people were digging it. The Steinway’s action was a little clunkier than average, so I had to press harder to play, which made my piano playing a bit more basic, but I am SURE no one noticed. After the show, I talked to folks and drank the rest of my wine (wine was not on the house, at least not the caliber I was drinking, so at the end of the night I handed my fee right back to the restaurant!). Eventually I was so tired that I went back to Nacho’s to lay down for an hour, and then got in a cab to the airport at about 4…feeling like total shit as you can imagine. Check-in line was pretty short but the security line at 5am was inexplicably huge. I had a café, and a croissant and a bottle of water…got on the plane. Arriving to CDG, there was the usual problem with the guitar—the oversize stuff won’t go on the belt, and it’s up to somebody to bring it up by hand to the baggage claim…and no one ever feels like doing that, so I had to wait an hour for my guitar. All I wanted to do was sleep and the rich food and wine was unable to digest without sleep...oof
I only took a short nap that day and that night I went to see Smokey Robinson at L’Olympia. I had purchased a cheap ticket at an online ticket service, one that was way at the back. I didn’t mind. But, when I arrived to the venue to pick it up, I was in the 11th row…as it turns out, nobody wanted to pay for the expensive seats up front and in general the show hadn’t sold well, so they scooched everyone up. In essence I got my seat for half price. Let me say that Smokey’s voice, at 67, is incredible. He sounds exactly the same. He had a huge band—drums (for the rock set, electronic tho, pretty dumb sounding –and the drummer was a great player, so what a waste), bass, two guitar players (one was a kind of Johnny Cash looking white guy who played all the leads and the other was a cool-as-fuck old black dude who barely moved and wore shades, and when you could pick out what he was playing on his black Les Paul, it was just beautiful and subtle) keyboard, a guy playing sax and flute, 3 backup vocalists, and a pianist/conductor who led the 10 piece string section. The strings were actually kind of hard to hear…oh yeah, there were two dancers who appeared now and then, which in my mind was totally embarrassing, cute as they were. He did two sets—the hits, with the full production; then the lights dropped and the PA played a pre-recorded message introducing the second set which is based on his new album of standards. A small kit is brought out in front (the drummer sounds fantastic on a real kit), the bass player switches to standup (no, not like Seinfeld), and the guitar players stick around—the white guy moves to the front and the black dude just stays exactly where he was, sort of sitting on the front of the drum riser, no lights on him. In fact, I am certain Smokey never introduced him. Werid. The hits Smokey sang were generally incredible—and he did ‘em all. The standards were hit and miss. “Fly Me To the Moon” is a little bit of a head banger to apply to Smokey’s soft as silk sound. But “Night and Day” was incredible, really—and he sang part of it in French.
Saturday I was just…home. I recovered at last from being up all night Thursday night.
It happens!
Love
KS
Paris
