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I went to see the Old 97’s last Friday (March 24th) at the Crocodile in downtown Seattle. If you don’t know who the Old 97’s are, they’re a little band from Texas and, no, they’re not just like that other little band from Texas, ZZ Top. They’re like ZZ Top’s smart aleck little brother. Somehow ZZ Top managed to make it in with the cool kids at school while Old 97’s were hanging out behind the bleachers. Blame MTV for this. Anyway, I imagine in a very real alternate universe Old 97’s would be playing at the roadhouse bar and grill on the outskirts of town where the majority of the crowd shows up on Harley’s and the cover charge is to show your “born to ride” tattoo. I suppose the style of music could be called alt-country but Rhett Miller (lead singer and main song writer) calls it “loud folk”. Let’s just say it’s boot stompin’ music.
This is the Old 97’s 30th anniversary tour and the four original members are still together, still look like they’re getting along and still having fun. There are shows where the band just stands there and plays like they’re at some kind of funeral for music and then there are bands that are clearly having a good time. Old 97’s fall neatly into the latter category. They chatted between songs, told stories and were generally entertaining all around. One of my favorite songs is “Champaign, Ill“, a song about what apparently must be the worst place on earth. Rhett told the story about how he stole the tune from Bob Dylan (the melody is Desolation Row) but re-wrote all the lyrics (because apparently the 47 verses of Bob Dylan’s song weren’t enough). He tried for some time to change the tune enough to avoid getting sued but finally just gave up and sent the song to Bob Dylan’s manager and asked if it was ok. Bob listened to the song and liked it enough that he said he’d let the band keep 50% of the royalties. Rhett ended the story by saying it wasn’t really that great a story because although the album shows duel writing credits for the song, they never actually got to meet Bob. It’s completely off topic but thinking of Champaign, Ill reminds me of this great little tune about how much fun (or not) Indianapolis can be.
So, great show but forever to be remembered as the concert that finally prompted me to buy musician ear plugs. To say it was loud is an understatement.
You’ll notice I specifically added Caitlin Rose to the title. I’d never heard of Caitlin prior to this show but the Old 97’s must think pretty highly of her to advertise their tour as “Old 97’s with Caitlin Rose”. I decided to listen to her the day before the show and immediately thought, “oh, this is going to be good”. She was. Her music is firmly set in the alt-country musical style but if Old 97’s are the kid brother of ZZ Top then Caitlin is more like the little sister of Emmylou Harris. Here’s an example. For the show it was just Caitlin and another guitarist, which was refreshingly stripped down. She told the crowd this was something like the tenth show on the tour and it had been a few years since she last played live. She wasn’t perfect but she didn’t have to be. She charmed her way through the set and had the whole place joining her in a full on sing-along by the end of her show.
I’ll also say that this was the first time I’ve been to the new Crocodile showroom since they moved and I was surprised by how nice it is. To start with, it’s much bigger than the old venue but it’s also just nicer all the way around. It’s still dark inside like you’d expect but everything was fresh and clean. The bathrooms in particular were noteworthy. That might be an odd highlight but the bathrooms in most music venues are some place where you would never want to touch anything. These were like airport restrooms…immediately after they’ve been cleaned and before that gross guy next to you on the plane got to them…
