|
|
|
The Jayhawks at the Bearsville Theatre
Friday, October 25 2024
location: rural Hurley Township, Ulster County, NY
[REDACTED]
This morning on her walk with Charlotte, Gretchen randomly ran into one of the absentee landlords of one of the parcels back in the woods south of the end of the Chamomile Headwaters Trail. The woman was a fairly unpleasant scion of the old Esopus Valley farming families. Her name is Karen and she's something of a "karen." And one thing she specifically mentioned not liking is cairns. But I'm getting ahead of myself. She saw Gretchen and called out, "Hey!" and "This is my property." Karen was with another woman who immediately recognized Gretchen (since she's well-known in this area), so that was good. Gretchen said she walks in that forest all the time and had permission from other landowners but wasn't aware that Karen is among them. Anyway, Karen wasn't too unpleasant after that, although she did express irritation at having seen cairns (likely ones I'd made). The negative of all this is that Karen is looking to sell her parcel, which could lead to someone hacking a huge clearing into the forest and dropping an ugly McMansion back there. But it's pretty unlikely, given how remote her parcels are.
Later in the afternoon, I took Charlotte for another walk, this time mostly west of the Farm Road.
At 5:00pm we got a visit from A's kid next door. She came with her babysitter just on a social mission to pet the dogs and cats. Gretchen has started liking that kid, something I would've never predicted. But while the kid was running around doing her thing, Gretchen mostly just talked to the babysitter. (A's daughter also occasionally comes over to feed the cats while we're off in the Adirondacks or whatever.)
This evening Gretchen and I would be seeing the Jayhawks at the Bearsville Theatre, so of course we first went to the Bear Cantina nearby for dinner. When we got there, there was a bit of a line and the place seemed short-staffed. Gretchen went into the dining room and came back with a story about how slow things were going, which had the desired effect of making one couple in line in front of us decided to go elsewhere. But then we continued waiting even after diners left, their tables were cleaned, and sat there empty. As we were waiting, our friend Greg (of Lynne and Greg) randomly and unexpectedly arrived. Unbeknownst to us, he's a big Jayhawks fan and was there to see the show. Unlike us, he'd actually gotten a reservation for him and Lynne at the Cantina. But fulfilling that was going slowly and our place in line came up first, so he and Lynne joined us at our table. Dinner conversation bounced around various topics, including Greg & Lynne's daughters' lack of success getting a software development job after graduating from an expensive bootcamp. I of course mentioned that I am going to be getting unemployment again soon, and Lynne suggested that if her daughter ever gets a job, she can pay me money to help her do her job, since she probably won't be all that great at it initially.
Over at the Bearsville Theatre, the opening act was Tommy Stinson, whom Greg thought might be good. But when he started, we listened to one of his songs, which he played without a band, and it was kind of dull, so we decided to hangout in the lounge for his act, sitting in each others' laps when there weren't enough seats. I couldn't really hear much of what was being discussed between Greg, Lynne, and Gretchen, but it was mostly Lynne and Greg telling horror stories about renting their Woodstock house out via AirBnB. Gretchen also had a few horror stories from our experience renting houses to long-term tenants, but the advantage there is that once you have a good tenant you can keep them for awhile.
Lynne and Greg did not have balcony seats, so they had to watch the Jayhawks while standing on the floor. Gretchen and I had a great spot in the back corner of the balcony, where we could drink our smuggled-in adult beverages undetected (neither of us bought anything from the bar).
Gretchen has seen the Jayhawks several times, starting with seeing them opening for Bob Dylan in the early 1990s in Minneapolis. I was unfamiliar with them before getting back together with Gretchen but have really liked their 1990s albums Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow the Green Grass. I'm not a big fan of roots-rock, but I generally like alternative country, especially when bands take interesting liberties with what might otherwise be well-worn tropes, as the Jayhawks do. I'd seen the Jayhawks nearly 23 years ago with Gretchen at the Bowery Ballroom and had a good time, and expected to tonight. The crowd was decidedly old even for a Woodstock crowd; I don't think I saw anyone who would pass for a thirty-something, not even among the occasional trophy wives (yes, you see those even in Bearsville; one tonight looked a little like Melania Trump, but with weirder plastic surgery on her lips).
The bulk of the show was done mostly acoustically, and featured some newer songs that the band is still working on. Somewhat surprisingly, these were pretty good, especially when Gary Louris leaned into the amazing upper-Midwestern bleakness he can coax from his voice (something the drummer can also do). For the final third or so of the show, Louris busted out his electric guitar, which was initially so loud and overwhelming that it reminded me what it must've been like when humans first discovered fire. Louris had to play it sedately so as not to drown everything else out. Fortunately, the balanced was fixed for later songs, and it was amazing. Electrified Jayhawks produce music very close to the center of what I like.
Lynne (who had come in a separate car) left before the encores, but Greg joined us in a now-empty seat in the balcony. At the end of the show, the house lights came up and "Wichita Lineman" wafted gently from the sound system. It's a great song, and Gretchen, Greg and I all sang along, though only I really remembered many of the lyrics.
A terrible picture of Gary Louris from the Bearsville Theatre balcony.
Don't bother to enlarge.
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?241025 feedback
previous | next |
