Patty Griffin - The Egg, Albany NY 4-23-07
You hear people describe some venues saying, “There’s not a bad seat in the place. That’s a perfect description for the Egg in Albany, NY. It’s all about the sound. The theater is like being inside the surface of a steel drum. As Patty Griffin herself said, it really doesn’t look like an egg. It looks like an egg cup.
It’s a weird looking place, but acoustically, there couldn’t be a better place to see Patty Griffin. The band’s arrangements and the egg’s near perfect acoustics complimented both her softer acoustic numbers as well as some of the more rocking numbers.
This was the first time I’ve seen Patty Griffin live in concert. She opened the show with a slow song in French, accompanying herself on piano, and had me firmly wrapped around her finger for the rest of the evening. From there, most of the songs she played were from the new CD “Children Running Through.”
The live performances of the new songs were everything I’d hoped for and more. “Stay on the Ride,” “Getting Ready,” and “No Bad News” rocked the house. The intimate setting, and what Griffin described to the audience as a “Monday night” atmosphere highlighted “Burgundy Shoes,” “I Don’t Ever Give Up” and “Heavenly Day,” which Griffin described as a love song for her dog.
She also did a few older staples like “Mary”, “Rain” and others. She also did a sparse, acoustic blues number I’d never heard before. When she played the ballads, you could have heard a pin drop in the auditorium. During a few “solo” numbers guitarist Doug Lancio chimed in on electric and acoustic guitar, complimenting her quiet vocals perfectly. One of the last songs in the show was “Truth #2″, a song the Dixie Chicks did that I didn’t know Patty Griffin wrote. Of course, Patty’s version was better.
My only critique of the show wasn’t the music, but the hopelessly lethargic crowd. It’s just wrong NOT to dance to some of her songs, especially newer songs, although “No Bad News” inspired some polite clapping. It was all I could do not to flail around in the aisles like a crazed Pentecostal. I wanted to dance, and so did at least three other people. There were a lot of cool people at the show, but I guess they were rendered motionless by the Egg.
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that’s funny you mentioned that about the Egg. Last year, we went to the Egg to see Lyle Lovett do his acoustic solo tour. One of the people I was sitting near was clapping along with some songs, and other people were very annoyed by it. The clapper (who I know) said that he goes to a lot of shows at the Egg and is always surprised by the downbeat attitude of the audience. It’s great for being able to hear the performers, but it seems that the Egg creates a low energy.