Dar Williams: Live at the Bell House in Brooklyn
January 9th, 2011 by Mr. C
Dar Williams performed at the Bell House in Brooklyn last friday, January 6th! She was originally scheduled to play on the day after Christmas but that show was canceled due to snow AND snow we got, almost 2 feet worth! It was definitely a bummer because I wanted to catch her perform while everyone was in a festive, joyful mood! Nevertheless, it’s always a treat to watch her live! The performance space reminded me of a large barnyard stable with a cowboy rustic feel mixed in with modern commercial ductwork draped on the ceiling, a large buffalo or bull artwork hanging (I failed at identifying all the animals correctly in Noah’s ark in elementary school), exposed rafters, & monster chandeliers suspended from the heavens. The setup, configuration of the stage, & sound were pretty darn pleasing to the eyes & ears. Dar Williams’ voice sounded crisp & her rhythmic guitar playing were spot on as she hit all her chords with ninja precision! She was funny as all hell like usual as she introduced some of the songs before she played them. For instance, she mentioned the real inspiration to her song, TEEN FOR GOD…the cute boys in church during her adolescent years! She had also talked about how freaky it was when she was starting to break out in the music business around the same time that Kurt Cobain had died. Dar & Kurt shared the same birth year, 1967. It definitely was a reality check for her, although she mentioned that her lifestyle was completely different from Cobain’s of course. Dar also reminisced about the time when her management team approached her to ask if she was interested in opening up for ANI DiFranco. She was like hells yeah!
She gave some more background info to her song, BUZZER which is about a social psychological experiment commonly known as the milgram experiment. This experiment was conducted in 1963 to measure how much pain a person would inflict on another person if ordered to. Now, I get the song! “I press the buzzer…I press the buzzer!”.
Dar played a song that she does every so often called AGING WELL. It’s a tune about body image, self discovery, & maturity. Joan Baez had covered this original Dar Williams song quite a number of times. You can check out this exclusive tune above from her performance at the Bell House! (lighting was dark but the audio was good!)
She played a new song called THIS EARTH ( I think that’s the name of the song). My faves of the night included AFTER ALL, FEBRUARY, AGING WELL, IOWA, TEEN FOR GOD, & MIDNIGHT RADIO, a cover from Stephen Trask. Dar also played an inspirational song called THE HUDSON to pay homage to the Tri state area (Connecticut,New York, & New Jersey)! She ended the night with a softer tempo flow of the BABYSITTER’s HERE! Another good night, another entertaining performance by Dar Williams. GOODBYE!
OHhh, and check out Dar’s GREEN BLOG on the Huffington Post at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dar-williams
Set List
Spring Street
Easy Way
Beauty of the Rain
Teen for God
If I wrote you
buzzer
Tide falls away
aging well
Iowa
Ocean
this earth
After All
cool as i am
Mercy of the Fallen
Midnight Radio
The Hudson
February
babysitters here
Tags: aging well, bell house, dar williams, february, folk, green blog, huffington post, planet chocko, planet chocko zine
Posted in mr. c, music | Comments (0)
