Yeah I realize I'm a bit late with the holiday greetings but even your Sensei has to take time off. Since we last spoke I've moved into a new place and I'm still planning a wedding so I haven't exactly been resting on my laurels. I have had the opportunity to see a couple great shows this year. Back in March I was able to catch Prince on his Welcome to America tour. As you can imagine it was mind blowing...or as Prince told us before the show "We were about to witness a miracle." Well apparently the man in purple doesn't like his tunes posted on the Internet so I'll move on to the next show.
I heard about the David Gray show about 3 months ago and I told me fiancée that we would wait till the week of the show and if we could get good seats we'd go. Like most people I started listening to David during the White Ladder craze. It was a disc that frequented my CD player between 01 and 02...during that time I also picked up the Lost Songs CD which was also in heavy rotation. After that A New Day at Midnight came out. I picked that one up and it just didn't speak to me like the other discs so that ended my David Gray collection. Well the week of the show finally came and the tickets were towards the back so I kept waiting. Finally the day of the show came around (last Friday) and I went on ole Ticketmaster and still no luck. I left for lunch and figured we'd make other plans for the evening. I decided to try one more time when I got back from lunch and I couldn't believe my eyes...there they were, two seats in the pit, row AA seats 3 and 4. Wow I couldn't believe it front row seats! I immediately sent an email to my fiancée and said, "Looks like we're going to a concert tonight."
I wasn't sure what to expect because aside from the CD's I bought almost ten years ago I'd only heard the radio hits he's had. He came out and performed the title track from his new album Foundling. After hearing the first song and seeing how tight the band was and how incredible his voice was I knew we were in for a special night. It was pretty surreal being in the front row. It almost felt like I was watching it on TV. I didn't recognize a song till about the fourth tune in but it didn't matter. Usually I don't have much fun at shows that I'm not familiar with the songs but this time I went to iTunes after the show to download them (one of the perks of sitting in the front row was getting a copy of the set list so it made it a bit easier to hunt down the songs) David alternated between the piano, pump organ, and acoustic guitar. A lot of improvisation was done at the end of the songs with the band just jamming with David free styling lyrics, repeating phrases over and over, softer and slower. It was very calming. Mix that in with the colorful images on the back drop and I was super relaxed. It was almost like slipping into meditation with David providing the mantra....or it was the effect of the giant beers I had at the Mexican restaurant before the show...but the first idea sounds more romantic.
Anyway I went into the show as a casual fan and come out a "born again fan." I honestly think he's getting better with age. If you haven't given David Gray a listen for awhile I recommend checking out his new CD and definitely getting tickets to his current "stripped down" tour. The song tonight is from his new album and was the third song from the set. It was one of the many tunes that I was hearing for the first time but it stuck out to me just a little more than some of the others. Hope you enjoy. - Gomez
Davy Jones' Locker
