Ray LaMontagne, with Leona Naess
October 21, 2008
The Uptown Theater
Better Than: Ray's #1 MySpace friend, Damien Rice
By NADIA PFLAUM
Why did Ray LaMontagne tease us so long before giving us what we wanted?
Don’t get me wrong – last night’s show at the Uptown Theater was great. It was another sit-down affair, as the chairs were still in place from David Byrne’s show two nights prior. Singer/songwriter Leona Naess kicked it off with her dreamy, Mazzy-Star-meets-Edie-Brickell thing. She sang a handful of coffeehouse-folksy songs, sometimes backed up with her own guitar playing, sometimes backed with members of LaMontagne’s band. Her voice has this vulnerable, pillow-talk quality that charmed the pants off everyone so much that when she tripped up and had to start one song twice, the audience just loved her more.
LaMontagne took the stage looking like a lumberjack playboy and said very little to the crowd. Later, someone who’s met him told me that in person, he’s very shy, and very earnest – so much so that when he popped up in 2004 as a hot, new songwriter, he was taken aback by all the attention. The sold-out Uptown audience ate up his hoarse, papery voice and longed to hear all the groovy, soulful early stuff that sounded so surprising from a lanky white dude when he first stormed the scene – the hits like “Trouble,” and “Three More Days” – but he kept us waiting.
Instead, he stacked his set with songs from his newest album, Gossip in the Grain – which is heavy on the country. The great thing about that, then, was the tour’s choice of backup: Eric Heywood, a Los Angeles-based, pedal-steel player who lent the instrument's classic heartsick, weepy sound to country tracks and rocked out on lead guitar.
At times, I grew tired of LaMontagne’s more face-petting, boyfriendy songs. I’m more partial to the doomed, strung-out guy he plays in the song “Jolene,” or the bloody bar brawler from “Henry Nearly Killed Me.” But when the super-tight band played loud and fast they were unstoppable. When the band left the stage and LaMontagne was alone with his guitar and his haunting rasp, like on “Burn,” you could almost imagine the first few intimate gigs, before the guy was famous.
When the end of the show rolled around and the band still hadn’t played the hit songs I was waiting for – “Trouble,” and “Three More Days,” specifically – I started wondering about Mr. LaMontagne. Is this the guy that, for one glorious night, fills your head with sugary words, and then fails to call the next day?
But at the end, and both encores, not only did he call -- he proposed.
Setlist:
You Are the Best Thing
Hold You in My Arms
Empty
I Still Care For You
Let It Be Me
Henry Nearly Killed Me
Roses and Cigarettes
Meg White
Burn
Winter Birds
Hey Me, Hey Mama
You Can Bring Me Flowers
A Falling Through
Trouble
Encore:
Stay With Me (Rod Stewart and the Faces cover)
Shelter
Three More Days
Encore 2:
Jolene
Critic's Notebook
Personal bias: When I first heard Ray LaMontagne’s song, “Trouble,” I pictured the singer looking a lot like Tracy Chapman.
Random Detail: After this tour, the kickass Eric Heywood is going on the road with The Pretenders.
By the way: Dammit, he never played his cover of Gnarles Barkley’s “Crazy.” Which is fine, except it was the only time Ray’s ever given anyone a clue that he might have a sense of humor.
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Aw, this was a real great article. In fact I would like to write like that too - taking time and actual effort to make an excellent posting... nevertheless what could I say... I put things off an awful lot and never manage to get things completed...
I'll gear this review to 2 types of people: current chair owners who are considering an upgrade, and people trying to decide between a chair and a recliner (There are other chairs worth considering out there, like the Scirocco, but I hope this gives you enough info to make an informed decision.
Ray, no sense of humor...are you kidding me??? Meg White is way more humerous than Ray covering Crazy. I saw his opening show in Indy, heavy college crowd. They were screaming out "Crazy" and Ray flatly said, "I'm not singing that". And he meant it too...no one asked agin.
Seeing him in Boulder Monday.
Great review. I think you're spot-on. I have been a fan of Ray's for several years now and was curious to see what his live show would be like. I thought it was a good mix of his shoe-gazing style and the more raucous "Wilco country-jam" material. The pedal-steel was a great touch and Heywood was amazing. No surprise, I guess, since he used to play with Son Volt. Leona Naess was wonderful, too. She won a new fan with that set. Perfect rainy-Sunday stuff
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