File this with Damon and Naomi's Song to the Siren, another live album packaged with self-produced DVD tour diary. In the States they call these operations Mom and Pop businesses, though D&N are Husband and Wife, and Cowboy Junkies are Brother and Sister (and Brother, and a few friends). It's not the first time the Junkies did something like this either, but it's a step on from the defunct CD-ROM segment I reported for you on Waltz Across America.
D and I saw this tour — I think it was the first time either of us had seen the band. D felt the number of sad songs was almost overwhelming, but I really enjoyed it — more than I enjoy this recording, which, as with Waltz, fails to capture the presence of an audience and focuses more on the rockier end of the repertoire. My recollection of the show itself was that it had more variety. Aha, just found this on the tour diary:
The gig tonight was a very unusual one. Located in the old City Hall in what looked like an old council chamber room [it was actually in the Memorial Hall, round the back of the City Hall]. Lots of granite, stained glass and ceiling ornamentation: a tiny room (500 seats) and a tiny stage and not much of a PA system. The only way to play tonight was very quietly. So we put together a very different show and played one of the most hushed sets of music that we have played since the very early Trinity Session days. It was kind of refreshing and a nice change of pace from last night's major rock show.
There's a photo of the inside of the Memorial Hall (and the front entrance to the City Hall) in the 55-minute documentary that is the longest feature on the DVD, along with video footage of full band and duo performances. The doc is a montage of stills — partly folksy, partly avant-garde — interspersed with short video of performances. The cover promises a "behind the scenes look," but if this creates expectations of the rancour of sibling bust-ups or intimate exposés of minor celebrities, well, it shouldn't. With the new media savvy we've accrued over the the seven years since this release, I reckon that you could give a geek the tour itinerary and the right tags, and he could probably recreate the film by mashing up a Flickr slideshow, Google Maps and a little bit of YouTube footage. That's how impersonal the reportage is. Not even a voiceover. Oh, and during the tour the World Trade Center is attacked and collapses — that gets about 15 seconds. Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticising, and I don't have a prurient interest in the peccadillos of the personalities in the band, or their politics; I'm fine with it as it is. The production values may be better than on the Damon & Naomi DVD, but I think I prefer their style.
…
Later that day. OK, I had a root through my old mini-discs and turned up my recording of the Memorial Hall show. It's one of my better bootleg recordings, thanks to the seated, quiet audience, the venue acoustics, and the dynamics of the music, which don't show up the limitations of my microphone as much as 'rock' shows do. (So if the Cowboy Junkies ever do one of those 'Official Bootleg' amnesty series, I'll offer this one.) Here's the setlist:
Powderfinger
Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning
Where Are You Tonight?
Sad to See the Seasons Go
If You Were the Woman and I Was the Man
Close My Eyes
A Thousand Year Prayer
Hard to Explain
This Street, That Man, This Life
Lay it Down
Anniversary Song
Escape is So Simple
Ring on the Sill
Blue Guitar
--
Misguided Angel
Blue Moon Revisited
Lots of protesting from Margo between the songs about how they're not as sad as they seem, which provides a context for D's comments. The last song was at the request of the promoter (mentioned before). It must be kind of sad to see that, 20+ years into their career, the tracks that people listen to most are still those cover versions from 1989.
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