The Start of Vacation

Well, vacation finally started for me at about 5:30 yesterday. In about 7 hours, we will be getting on a plane and heading to Kauai. By this time tomorrow, we'll be listening to the ocean from our balcony. I decided to kick my vacation off yesterday like one might imagine I would do. I drove up to Denton to see Woven Hand at Rubber Gloves.

Yesterday while walking to lunch I came across a modern day self-appointed prophet (or well I guess who am I to assume, maybe he really was a prophet) telling about the end times and how America had made a deal with the devil. Last night, I got to see a guy who was much more reminiscent of an Old Testament prophet than the lunch guy would probably ever be. On their 4 albums, Woven Hand is a band made up of David Eugene Edwards and whoever else seems to be around. DEE had some minor fame with a band a little while back named Sixteen Horsepower, but since their demise, he has focused on Woven Hand. Last night, Woven Hand was one guy with just a few instruments on the stage singing and playing songs his songs that sound as if they are from another time. The songs are sparse but still just as haunting. They are old and weathered and sound like they have been sung for ages. DEE is as intense a performer as you would ever see. He knows how to command a room. I can't think of much of a better way to start a vacation than standing in the stunned silent crowd watching.

I'll be back in a week with stories of time well spent on little island in the middle of the ocean with my wonderful wife.

Sufjan Stevens in Dallas

About two months ago, I knew that September 13th would be a day that would require at least one very tough choice. Two of my favorite bands to see live would be playing Dallas on the same night. I had finally made my choice to see the Polyphonic Spree above Nickel Creek based mostly on the fact that the Gypsy Tea Room is way too loud to see Nickel Creek at again. I held off and kept dragging my feet to actually go buy tickets. The day before I was going to go down to buy my Spree tickets; I noticed that yet another great show would be happening that same night. When I saw that Sufjan Stevens would be in town, I knew that my decision was made.

In about 2001, I saw the Danielsonship perform at Cornerstone with this guy with a funny name on banjo. I thought he sounded interesting, but I neglected to go see that guy's solo show at the festival. I read a little more about him when I got home, but didn't really pay much more attention until later in 2003 when I started hearing rumblings about how good Sufjan Steven's Greeting from Michigan album was. I bought the disc and in the months following picked up A Sun Came and planned to see him live the first chance I got. That chance came at Buffalo Billiards in Austin as part of SXSW 2004. That night he very timidly played by himself with only a banjo and guitar on a big stage in a loud pool hall. The short set was great, but I couldn't help but wonder what the songs would have sounded like with a little more of the orchestration he uses on the discs. As he got more and more popular, he toured more and brought along a bigger band. I had followed his calendar closely, but he never made a trip back anywhere close enough to make a show. (I did have a close run-in in San Francisco, where he was performing two nights while I was there, but I didn't go. I guess it is important to spend time with your wife on your honeymoon.)

In between songs last night, he mentioned that show at Buffalo Billiards was, and how it was his first and only other time to perform in Texas. This time there were no antlers on the ceiling, there were seats to sit in, and he had fourteen people helping to recreate the songs. He hadn't changed much. He still was timid on stage, but the band made all the difference in the world. I expected a good show, but I had no idea how great of a show we were in for. From the opening notes of Sister to the end of That Dress Looks Nice on You, Sufjan and his band were nothing short of amazing. They delivered jaw-dropping and chill inducing renditions of song after song. The setlist sampled songs from Michigan, Illinois, Seven Swans, and The Avalanche, along with two songs about birds for a series of songs he said he was working on. Here is the list I swiped from another blog.

1. Sister
2. Casimir Pulaski Day
3. Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head
4. The Lord God Bird
5. Dear Mr. Supercomputer
6. The Transfiguration
7. Jacksonville
8. Predatory Wasp of the Palisades
9. John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
10. A Good Man is Hard to Find
11. Majesty, Snowbird
12. Seven Swans
13. Chicago
Encore
14. The Dress Looks Nice on You

There were so many highlights to the show, it would take way too much time to list them. I will say that from songs 6 to 9 on that setlist, I was convinced that I was witnessing the greatest show I had ever seen. The live interpretations of these four songs were perfect. A day later, I would probably stop short of saying it is the best show I have ever seen, but it would rank up there pretty high. It is a show that I will remember for a long time.

If you follow the My Pictures link in the right hand column, I posted a ton of pictures from the show.

The Boy Who Stopped the World

Lately I think I have victim to my tendency to view the world as a spectator rather than a participant. As I sat in front of a rather disappointing fountain thinking about all of this today, the best analogy I could come up with was the movies. I sit back and watch the movie going by in front of me without much regard to any role I might have in it. Every once in a while, I will get up and try to adjust the picture, or maybe go out to watch from a different chair with different surroundings, but that is as far as I have wanted to go. I haven't wanted to go and be a part of the world that is going on around me. When I have done something, it has been much more because of my comfort or preferences rather than anything of deeper stuff. I have let complacency win out above purpose.

If I had to describe it in movie terms, life has been like watching all of those movies that used to seem to be on some channel at any given point over a holiday weekend. You know the ones I am talking about....The Breakfast Club, The Blues Brothers, Sixteen Candles, Kindergarten Cop, Brewster's Millions, The Goonies, the list could go on for a while. All of these are movies that I will watch from time to time for some reason, be it nostalgia or even a genuine liking.....I'll leave it to you to figure out which ones I actually still like....but all in all, when I see these movies, they don't do much for me past killing time in a sometimes enjoyable way.

I'll stop the movie analogies there. I have been challenged lately to be more involved. To care. To love. To show some heart. To get inside of what is passing by me every day. To see what God has for me just a step forward. I have been mighty bullheaded to change. In all honesty, the comforts of the 42nd viewing of the Blues Brothers have sounded fine to me...ok that really is the last one.....I promise.

I woke up this morning with a longing for God to move me. As I was on the train this morning, before my normal nap, I prayed for a heart to listen and open eyes. Time after time, God uses music to speak the words to me that my mind can't seem to put together. Today the song was a very familiar one to me that has kicked my butt over and over. I'll post the lyrics and end here. I'm sure in the coming days, I'll post some more. Your prayers for courage and continually clearer vision are much appreciated.

The Boy Who Stopped the World - Aaron Sprinkle
Don't think you could stop it now
I'd like to see you try somehow
Realize that it puts it all on you
There's nothing you can do

Right now you're sick and tired
You're feeling sad, feeling uninspired
But the clock just won't slow down
Like it gets it kicks pushing you around

Maybe in the morning it won't be
Quite as bad as it seems

The fact that you can't change
The speed of sound, the rate of age
Is an understatement to
A state of mind your not used to

You'd be forever known
As the boy who stopped the world
And made it his own

Right now you're sick and tired
You're feeling sad, feeling uninspired
So I pray for you my friend
That you'll fall down
You'll give in