Double bill with Billy Bragg

at the moore theatre, which is about five times as big as the place he usually plays in seattle. many rows of seats instead of tables and a little floor, which meant that i couldn't get very close (we had row v seats), but also meant that there wasn't a horrible miasma of smoke and beer-fumes

at eight, a tall figure carrying a guitar came on at one side of the stage and walked off the other, then reappeared a moment later. when the spotlight hit, i could see that he was wearing the usual black jeans and a black and white shirt, probably checked, and that was about all i could tell from row v. oh, and that it was an acoustic guitar

i actually scribbled a little set list on the proverbial old envelope, so here goes:

1: devil's radio
2: chinese bones
3: the same jimi hendrix cover he did last time. he asked whether jimi was buried here and someone shouted out "renton" (a nasty little place in south king county), which robyn heard as "rental", and so a monologue on how you could be buried, cremated, or rented ensued, with some stuff about how his father was hard of hearing so they thought he wanted to be rented, not buried. ie, you pretty much hd to be there
4: a new one called (i assume) "feels like 1974". i really liked it.
after that, deni bonet trotted onstage in a kind of empire-waist velvet minidress, rather silly-looking, and played with him on the next three songs
5: de chirico street
6: arms of love
7: another new one, "let's go thundering"
and then deni left, which was fine by me. her playing was ok, but she wouldn't hold even remotely still, and i found her constant hip-wiggles and occasional strange semi-kicks rather distracting. (but my male companion didn't mind)
8: is a squiggle that i simply cannot decipher, and i don't remember what it was. maybe someone else will
9: i something you
10: devil's coachman. after which he switched to electric guitar
11: i am not me
12: one that i know but whose title and exact album placement escape me, and i'm feeling too lazy to track it down. the one with "but you're not there and, i don't care and, you're not there". which he introduced by explaining that it was written as the "shadow of a heartbreak" was beginning to recede, and before he went and found another one
13: freeze

exit, clapping, a quick return wearing a multicolored untucked shirt
14: i don't know what the proper title is, but it's about cheese. lots of laughs from the audience
15: sinister but happy. after this, someone at the side of the stage apparently tried to hurry him up. joke about how he and billy were really the same person, and that's why you'd never see them on stage together
16: beautiful queen

and then an hour or so of billy

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Livia