They came on after the Mark Allen band. (Mark had changed his
shirt during the break, and had become The High Lonesome
bassist. After they checked their sound, and sang a snippet of
"Mr. Sandman", they launched into the first song of the set,
"Cadillac Jack's". After that they went straight into "Pauline",
which, of course, featured a wonderful perfomance by Phil
Ward. "I'm kind of HOT!" Dex exclaimed during the song,
followed by screams of appreciation from the crowd.
"Thank you very much," said Dex. Thank you very much for
coming out. It's nice to see some friends here tonight. I appreciate
you coming out. I know we got a big party of people who came a
long way to see us. Thank you very much. This is a song that's not
on the album." And they started on "Everything Changes", fast
becoming one of our favorites, with a stunning conga performance
by Gary.
"Thank you. Let's just take a second to get the sound problem
worked out... here for a moment So, are we okay now? Because
we're getting that boom thing happening. The monitor's fine. The
crowd's great," said Dex and the crowd shouted its agreement.
"Just having a room tone thing happening here."
"Is that what's happening?" Gary asked.
"It's a room thing , man," Mark agreed.
"I can use a little more monitor, please" Phil put in.
"Check one two, check one TWO," said Dex and was then satisfied
that the sound was sufficient to continue. "We haven't played this
song in a long time. I'm kind of excited"
"One, two, three, four," Dex counted down, to "Lone Star", perhaps
in honor of McAmy being there from Texas. The sound wasn't
really quite fixed so it was difficult to hear Gary's harmonica solo.
Nevertheless, the crowd appreciated the song.
"Thank you very much," Dex repeated. "Thank you. Okay this is
a very brand new tune. Played this one for the first time last night."
"Last night!" agreed Mark.
"Wanna first of all thank Mark Allen and his band for opening up
for us tonight." said Dex.
"Thanks to everybody who came to see us last night who is here
again," said Gary.
"What's that first line?" asked Dex and the group discussed it.
"Round, sound?"
"All right, here we go. Ready?" said Dex, and they began their new
song, "Turn it Up", a rockin' tune with a country swing touch.
"Thank you. Kind of a fun thing to do. Gary how you doin' there?"
Dex asked, maybe noticing the still malfunctioning mike.
"Good just preparing to get on the road together. We've got
everything... sweat.. " said Gary.
"I'm looking foward to sharing a motel room," said Dex, "with all
five of you." The crowd is appreciative, so Dex continues. "And
possibly any young woman who wants to help." The crowd
responds predictably, screaming and deciding amongst themselves
who the volunteer will be. "This is our ballad tune." said Dex
introducing the next song, "Velvet Glove". For this song the
crowd was not as quiet as they should have been, but midway
through they settled down.
They started with "True Believer" and then stopped. Dex said, "You
know what, I should stop. My friend Kyle is here, somewhere in
the audience. And I wrote this song for him a long time ago. It's
one of the first songs the band ever did. So I'm really glad he's
here. Don't make a big thing about it, okay?" And they returned
to the song. It was different from the album version. This one
started out in a slow acoustic way and then went rockin'.
People were starting to get up and dance, by this time.
"That damn near killed me," Dex declared. "Thank you. We're
gonna slow things down a bit. Thanks for dancin'. I wish we were
still gonna do more dance stuff, but now we're gonna do acoustic
stuff for a little while. "
"Hello everybody," said Gary, "Please sign our mailing list if
you're not on it. Do we have a mailing list tonight?"
Razz shouted back, "Yes!"
"Okay, good, that woman waving her arms knows where the
mailing list is," said Gary. "Just find her."
They begin their first acoustic song, "Brakeman's Prayer."
The sound had improved so you could now hear the harmonica,
and the whole thing was nearly as loud as their non-acoustic
songs had been.
"It's the anniversary of Elvis' death... in about a month, and
I'm celebrating it early." Dex said, with little relevance. "Ready
Mark?" Mark is taking a drink of bottled water. "Oh getting
some sustenance," Dex comments.
"Putting in more liquids so I can sweat it out again," explains Mark.
They played "Bed of Roses", featuring a guitar solo by Dex.
They then did an excellent performance of "Black and Blue", The
best we've heard them do it so far... and it's the one song missing
from our tape. Any help would be appreciated. Dex handed the
egg he was shaking to a young lady in front and had her do it for
him. After the song he asked us to remember to tip the waiters
and bartenders.
Top Ten High Lonesome Fan Traditions
10) Tipping lightly
9) Spreading rumor that Mark is his evil twin
8) Screaming extra loud when Gary's name is mentioned
7) Bringing some form of chocolate
6) Saying "Larry" instead of "cheese" when posing for a picture
5) Ignoring that two drink minimum
4) Admiring Phil's Concertina
3) Forcing everyone to sing-a-long with that "Na, na, na." chorus
2) Guessing Stanny's age
And the number one High Lonesome fan Traditoin:
1) Shaking things
"Thank you very much for the help with the shakers," said Dex,
and then went on about the girl, who had shook the egg for him.
"She was making fun of me the whole time. She's like lookin' at
me going, yeah, that's pretty cool you've got a pink egg in your
hand. And now you know how it feels, don't ya, Missy."
"This song is also off that album," Gary said introducing the
next song, "and we've been fortunate enough to have it picked up
for use in an upcoming film called "Possession", produced by the
same production company that produced "Slingblade". It's called
"World Fall Apart".
It's a good song, more rocking than some, and with some rather
good lyrics. (It's also great to drive to.) It should go really well
on a soundtrack. This night though they were still having some
problem with the sound, but we could still hear Phil's great
keyboards.
"Oh yeah, I think it's time for some Country Music, don't you?
Yee ha!" said Dex as an introduction to the next song, "Some Kinda
Lonesome". This is a very country song. It has the usual
"broken-heart" theme. It's a catchy tune and you may find yourself
humming it.
"Something Wild" was their next song, again more on the rock
side. (An extremely good song to drive to at about eighty or
ninety miles an hour.) Phil on the tambourine, and Stanny doing
some good drumming. "I'd like to introduce the members of the
band right now," said Dex, "because we're only going to do one
more song after this one." That didn't make the crowd happy.
"On my right playing keyboards, rainstick, accordion, and
everything else under the sun, Mr. Phil Ward. I'm sorry, I just got
a little carried away there. To my immediate left, Mr. Mark Allen.
Holding us all together, the youngest member of the band, Stanny
the manny. All the way over to the left, my best friend since Junior
High School, playing congas till his hands hurt, Mr. Gary "Gig"
Grantham." The crowd erupted in screams.
"On the center microphone," said Gary. ("Is this on?" He asked
about his own mircophone, which still wasn't working correctly)
"On the center microphone," he said more loudly, "My best friend
from Junior High School, Larry, "Dex", Poindexter." And the
crowd screams, like Dex was Ingo Rademacher. Then they
finished "Something Wild".
Next they started with "Cigarettes Whiskey and Wild Wild
Women", their opening to "Big Bad Love". "Just stay right
here," said Dex, "Don't even try to leave the dance floor.
And you three, you have to get up and dance on this song." he
said to the three girls at the front table he had flirted with
earlier. "We want active participants." They finished up
"Cigarettes" and Dex said. "I have no idea whether we were on
pitch or not."
"Who cares?" said Mark, "It sounded great."
They began singing "Big Bad Love". After the song was over
they said they'd be taking a fifteen minute break before the
next set. Very few people heard that, however, so Gary came
back on stage and said, "The announcement was, that we
would be back in fifteen minutes." The crowd cheered.
Fifteen minutes later they came back (Mark had changed his
shirt for the fourth time) and played, "Dream a Little Longer."
a lovely, cynical song, that's relatively new.
"Aaah," said Dex.
"Eric if we could have more keys on the monitor that'd be great."
Phil suggested.
Next they did their fifties rock kind of song, "Angel."
"Mary, Mary," someone in the crowd shouted. "What?" asked
Dex. "Mary, Mary", others in the crowd shouted. Dex said, "Oh,
Okay." Like it wasn't the next thing on their play list. People
screamed and sang along. Gary gave that kind of trilling-south-
american-call-thing, that he does so well."That was very good Gar,
I'd like to hear it again." said Dex. Gary does it again. "Gary
Grantham" Dex announces.
"Thank you. The years of lessons paid off." Gary joked. They
continue with the song. Then Dex did the sound, and said
"Two can play at that game, my friend." The crowd laughed
and the song continued. As usual during the pause, applause
started, but old fans knew enough to wait. They paused extra
long just to torture us.
They then went right on to "Standing", that's the song where
the guy wonders what it means when his girl is sleeping with
another guy. It was played on the jukebok in "Kelly's" on
General Hospital, during a Justus and Dara scene.
After that they immediately began "Cruel, Cruel Love". Which
people also got up to dance to. It's a cool song, sort of a
ZZ Top sound to it.
"Thank you, we're The High Lonesome. Very similar to my love
life. I've wanted to do that joke for a long time." said Dex.
Then they played, "Get Rythmn", a rock, bit of country, fifties,
kind of song. Get rhythm when you get the blues. It's cute.
Everyone was up and dancing by then. ( Cept us. Can't dance,
don't ask us.)
Again no banter, just right into "Surrender". During the talking
portion of that song, Dex does the bit where he shouts, "Can
I get a witness," but the third repetition was "Can I get a sandwich."
And the crowd laughed at him.
"Thank you very much," said Dex. "This is gonna be our last song.
It's almost twelve thirty and we've been playing a long time. You
can dance to this though and I suggest you dance because this is the
last chance you'll get. Smokey Robinson."
They did what is now usually the last song of their set, "Tears of a
Clown"
"Thank you. Good night. Thank you very much, from the High
Lonesome." Dex thought he was going to get to leave.
"Thank you very much. Please sign our mailing lists." Gary
thought it might be over.
"Encore, encore" The shouts went up. Usually Tears is their Encore,
but the crowd had just gotten warmed up and wasn't about to let
them leave.
They gave in. "Last one," said Dex
"You mind if we do one we've already played?" Gary asked. "It's
got a good dancing groove." The crowd didn't mind when they
played "Everything Changes" again. During the song Dex told
everyone to sit down at the dance floor. Most people cooperated.
And then Dex asked them to rise again. Sort of going for that wave
effect.
They finally got to do their final song. Really this time. "This is
something to send you out with a good feeling. This is just a
nice easy ballad. Sandy'll like it." and they sang "Strawberry Girl"
That ended the concert portion of the evening. We bought a
High Lonesome CD from Razz, because our tape is starting to
wear out. We also got two black and white photos of the band.
One of them pre-signed by Jon Lindstrom. So our mission the
rest of the night was to get all the guys to sign our photos. We
gave Gary his birthday card and he seemed to like that. Gary
said they might be playing in Arizona again soon, but we won't
get our hopes up yet. Phil said that he had placed his birthday
present, the toy keyboard, in a place of honor in his home, but
as we suspected, was not about to incorporate it in the act.
(The world isn't ready.) And I gave Phil our new e-mail address,
which we had chosen in his honor. (twinsofevil@geocities.com).
We heard that Dex had been away overseas in the past few months.
At somewhere around one fifteen in the morning, things had wound
down. Exhausted, (the only way to do a THL concert) we headed
back to our hotel, and prepared ourselves to go scrounging for GH
Fan Luncheon tickets, the following day.
Adventure Menu |
Before The Luncheon |
The Alternate Altercation |
GH Weekend Menu