Jay and I decided to go see The Flatlanders at The Paradise Club last night. Here are my scattered recollections.
We're walking down Comm Ave. and getting near the Paradise. On parked in front is a large, black bus, with a lasso painted on the side and Texas plates. On the sidewalk a man with long grey hair and dressed in denim is talking on a cell phone. While we're still out of earshot, Jay asks me if it's Jimmie Dale. I say it sure looks like him. Jay wants to know if he should shout "Hey, Smokey!" I reply that under no circumstances should we reference The Big Lebowski. [Later on, I'd remark how glad I was that we weren't those guys. Jay asked me what guys I meant. It was that kind of night].
Not wanting to interrupt a man on the telephone, we went up to the Paradise. Jay had been told on the phone that we needed to get there by six if we wanted a good spot in line for tickets. Well, when we got there, the line was still being set up, and there was no one ready to get in it. They guy setting up the cordons told us we'd have to wait until 7:00pm to buy tickets (it was about 6:20pm at this point). The guy was wearing a dark grey sweatshirt that said "Security" on the back and camo pants. This will become relevant later. He says Jimmie Dale is a nice guy and approachable. We see he's off the phone, and go over to talk to him.
We introduce ourselves, and shake hands. We chat him up for a bit, telling him we'd seen Joe Ely at Gruene Hall in Texas. Jay asked if they had an opening act. Jimmie told us that his son was supposed to open, but couldn't make it, and so they'd found some local guy to go on. Jay was deeply upset that he'd missed a chance to offer his services, but kept it to himself until later. We let Jimmie go, and stood at the front of the now set up line.
So we were joined by a man named Mark, who hails from just across the border in Nashua, NH. Apparently he comes down quite a bit, whenever there's a good country show. He always comes by himself, however, because none of his friends like country, and he doesn't want to drag anyone along who wouldn't enjoy themselves. We hung out with him for the rest of the night. He knows more about country music than Jay and I combined, several times over (he and I later commiserated about how the term "country" doesn't really cover the stuff we like, and is such a turn off to people).
So the scene is, for about 40 minutes, Jay, Mark and I at the front of the line. They're facing toward the door, and I'm facing away, right against the last cordon. And roadies and whatnot keep going in and out the door, and I start to notice that they're all flashing their passes at me. Now, I'm dressed like this:
People walking by would also keep coming up to me and asking questions. If I were less of an honest person, it would have been more fun. As it was, the actual bouncer knew me by sight, so it was no use trying to pretend.
So finally they let us in and we buy our tickets. Then we head to the bar, where we remain for the rest of the evening.
At 8:00pm the opening act comes on. It's one guy with an acoustic guitar. His name is Texas Bob. He plays a bunch of covers, and a few of his own. Crowd-pleasing stuff. For the finally song, his wife joined in, who was also quite good.
Afterwards, Jay went to to talk to them and schmoozed as only he can. He got Bob's number, so hopefully they'll be an opening gig in the future. What a rock star this kid's gonna be.
I think that's all for the anecdotes. The Flatlanders came out at 9:15pm and played until around 11:00pm, doing four encores. I have neither the familiarity with their music nor the recall to give you folks a set list. Maybe Jay can help us out with that. Joe Ely did turn down an early request for "The Road Goes On Forever." Oh well.
Footnote: Some guys in the balcony above us behind the bar taped up a sign that read:
LEBOWSKI
6:19
MARK IT ZERO
I was looking around for the meaning of "Lebowski 6:19" when I came upon the Lebowski Fest site and found this picture:
That looks so exactly like the sign from last night, that it may indeed be the one. If so, that's pretty fast turnaround.
Discuss.
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submitted by Steve Brady
- 8:42 AM