Marlon Brando, Pochahontas, and Me (SON VOLT show review)

What do you do when your favorite band plays your favorite Neil Young song?
a. Try not to pee yourself
b. Hoot and hollar
c. Sing along unabashedly
d. All of the above

Ever happen to you? OK, just me. Arright, so I thought I'd sit down and blog about the show the other night.

So I went to see Son Volt and Magnolia Electric Co. in Petaluma with my friend Peter Stanley and a friend of his on Saturday (the friend hated Son Volt! OMG!). Magnolia's set was forgetable- the band was missing members and lacked the energy of their shows (of course, the friend loved it).

When Son Volt came on, they crunched through almost their entire new album straight away, which was energetic and full and fresh. By the way, I've come to love the new album.

Their reworkings of old songs fell a little flat. You see, Son Volt's original members (the guys that did the first three albums) were multi-instrumentalists and there was lap steel, pedal steel, banjo, and violin when they played. This version of Son Volt is totally rocking and electric and they even turn the slow violin/acoustic songs into elaborate rockers with big flashy guitar solos and the like. I'm not so much into that.

But when they played "Drown", the song that made me fall in love with son Volt back in like 96, it was pretty dope! Then their encore was ah'ight, and I thought I might leave semi-disappointed, but then they started playing "Pochahontas" (by Neil Young- and that's the song that made me fall in love with Neil). I was floored and I probably embarassed myself with my behavior (ever see that footage of the crowd at the Ed Sullivan show where the Beatles played and the girls are like screaming and pulling their hair out and crying?)

So, not as good as when Jill and I saw 'em last year. But I've said this before: Even Jay Farrar's worst is still better than most peoples' best. And it wasn't his worst, it was just ah'ight.

Listening to: Mates of State "Bring it Back", Paul Simon "Surprise", This American Life, and a couple CDs that a co-worker lent me that I don't like so much.