LIVE CHANGES EVERYTHING

The Sam Phillips concert last night was fan-dance-tastic!

The tiny, nuevo-dive Paradise Lounge was a perfect venue for her. As expected, she performed songs almost exclusively from her last two like-minded records, Fan Dance and A Boot and A Shoe. She opened with a succinct a capella version of a standard I didn't recognize. She also reprised her tape-recorder-and-voice version of "Animals on Wheels" from The End of Violence, and sang one new song inspired by an episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood (!) but sounding much darker and more cathartic than most of her recent work.

She recited a sweet, slightly twisted open letter to Stephin Merritt and his "man-parts", and alluded to having her heart broken recently (by longtime husband/producer T-Bone Burnett, which I had not known about). Whilst singing, she occasionally broke into this wonderfully creepy, wide-eyed expression of an Edward Gorey-esque seven year old girl. She kept her cool as a mysterious chanteuese, although you could tell she was very enamored of the audience's fervent, warm reception of her.

She still sounds like nobody else, and now I can say that she sounds even better live.

More on A Boot and A Shoe hopefully soon.

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I'm heading to Provincetown after work tomorrow for its Film Festival, the beach, the sun, and Rick. I'm going to recapture my sanity, whip out a big ol' lasso around it and bring it on home, baby.

As for Everyday People, well, it was a little disappointing. Director Jim McKay has made a competent but frankly conventional film with a few good performances and a few embarrassing ones. It eschews the naturalism of Our Song for something a little more recognizable and thus less interesting. It should fit right in on HBO. At least it's honest about gentrification, less so about how some of its characters either accept or reject it.