Lisa Loeb opened for them, and she was certainly entertaining. Getting LL as an opener for the Girls was a special treat. She was very personable. When someone requested a song off her new album, (the song "Kickstart") she warned that she was still a little rough on live performances of that song and that its performance might constitute a "very special occasion." But she did it anyway and sounded fine.
After her performance, Lisa Loeb went out into the lobby and signed CDs during the intermission. She seemed like a very "southern" woman: both charming and classy, and sometimes playing off that for jokes (regarding having annoying neighbors for fireworks viewing the night before in Chicago she stated sweetly, "They were very special people... it was like... well God damn it!")
Then the houselights dimmed for the Indigo Girls, and it was nonstop action from the moment they stepped on stage. They played the following set list in two straight hours of sound:
| Bitterroot | Faye Tucker | Least Complicated |
| Ozziline | Watershed | Chickenman |
| You've Got to Show | Moment of Forgiveness | Virginia Woolf |
| Shame on You | Closer to Fine** | Starkville |
| Power of Two | Yield | Galileo |
| Become You | Collecting You | Encore: Saving me |
| Get Out the Map | Laramie*** | Encore: Go |
The highlight of the concert had to be Amy Ray's absolutely intense energy. She was grinning like a fool almost constantly, and practically glowing. Emily definitely took a back seat during this concert, and on the songs featuring her voice she sounded a little scratchy, so possibly Amy was doing fill-in duty. If so, she did an exceptional job, really burning a hole in the stage.
As usual their costuming was eclectic: Emily was wearing jeans with a T-shirt underneath an open denim buttondown. It took about half the concert before enough of the T-shirt was exposed to read its block- lettering logo: "Don't Ruin This With Words". Amy was wearing a simple black tank-top with an odd pair of tartan kilt-pants: regular tartan-patterned bellbottoms with tartan flaps hanging down in front and back making a skirt over the pants. Topping off the oddness, a matching tartan belt was tied like a hobble across her legs, one end tied just below each knee. I have no idea what any of this meant.
I can't say that I was a fan of the acoustics of this performance. It was the first time I've seen them in the State Theater, and the sound was very "messy" to my untrained ear. There were also points during a couple of songs where I couldn't hear the vocalist's words due to the sound of the instruments. Additionally it was just damned LOUD. We were in main floor row O, center, so we weren't right UNDER the speakers, but it was astonishingly loud. It was so loud in fact that after the concert ended my wife and I were talking to another couple, and we all commented that we sounded like the Chipmunks to each other: we couldn't hear any sounds in the lower register!
The music, as mentioned, was nonstop, with instruments for the next song arriving as soon as the last song ended. Despite its nonstop nature, the Girls performed for two solid hours. During one of the conversational breaks between songs Amy Ray revealed that she'd spent the afternoon in Minneapolis bicycling along the paths next to the Mississippi river. This meant that at some point she passed within two blocks of our house! I can't imagine what my reaction would be if I were strolling down the River Road and saw Amy Ray ride past me... Probably something embarassingly fannish, such as attempting to keep pace with her bicycle while asking for an autograph!
One big upside: at the last TWO concerts we've stood just behind the
same woman. This wouldn't have
been such an issue except that she stands about six-foot-two and
enjoys the music by rocking side to side with such vigor that it was
impossible to see the stage from our vantage point. This time she'd
scored third-row tickets somehow and wasn't blocking our view.
As much as I love the Girls, by the time the concert was over I was
ready for it to be over. My ears were ringing and I was tired from
two hours on my feet (which doesn't begin to compare with the last concert,
their album debut at First Avenue, where we stood for two hours before
the concert even began.) Hopefully their next concert will have better acoustics!
Unless they make a special promotion for a
cause like Honor the Earth it will probably be a few years till they
come back, but when it happens we'll be waiting!
*My wife reminded me about the Buddhist proverb where snarling tigers
chase a man off a cliff. He falls and grabs a protruding branch that
begins to break. Looking down he sees sharp, deadly rocks below;
looking up are tigers and a breaking branch. Then in front of his
nose he notices a strawberry growing out of the cliff. He eats it
and it's delicious.
**Lisa Loeb joined the Girls on Closer to Fine and sang the third
verse. At times she seemed a little overwhelmed by the energy of
both the audience and the other performers.
***Off Amy Ray's solo album, 'Stag'. While the entire concert was an
Amy performance and therefore almost punk in its intensity, this song
was right over the top and not as well received. A lot of people
took their seats during this one.