January 18, 2013: Rhett Miller

Concert Details:
Bands: Rhett Miller, Black Prairie
Location: Jammin' Java, Vienna, VA

Setlist: Includes a mix of Rhett Miller and Rhett Miller's band, the Old '97s songs.  

1. Lost Without You
2. Melt Show (Old '97s)
3. My Valentine
4. Sleepwalkin'
5. The Grand Theatre (Old '97s)
6. Buick City Complex (Old '97s)
7. I Need to Know Where I Stand
8. Barrier Reef (Old '97s)
9. This is What I Do
10. The Other Shoe (Old '97s)
11. Singular Girl
12. Out of Love
13. Doreen (Old '97s)
14. Stoned (Old '97s)
15. Question
16. The Summer Lie
17. Lonely Holiday (Old '97s)
18. Come Around
19. Big Brown Eyes (Old '97s)
20. Sweet Dreams
21. Every Night is Friday Night (Without You)
22. You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Bob Dylan cover)
23. Broadway (Old '97s) with Black Prairie
24. California Stars (Woodie Guthrie cover) with Black Prairie
25. Wreck of the Old '97 (Johnny Cash cover)  with Black Prairie
26. Our Love with Black Prairie

Encore:
27. The El

28. Timebomb (Old '97s)

So let's start with the opener.  Black Prairie is a five piece folk band featuring the dobro and bass players from the Portland based indie folk band The Decemberists.  They were a really fun band who played quite the myriad of instruments including the stroh violin (seen in the picture below), which has the sound of a violin with the feel of sound you would hear from a gramophone.  A seriously fun set and a band that I would see again in a similar type of venue.  They made it especially fun by closing with a cover of Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same.  

So Rhett Miller.  I hate to use this phrase, because I've used it before on this blog, but the man is the definition of a tour de force.  Rhett Miller is an singer-songwriter who in addition to having a slew of solo albums is also the lead singer of the alt-country the Old '97s, I'll have a little more on them later.  Rhett Miller first came to my attention like most of my music seems to, through TV.  The songs Question (Old '97s), Our Love, Come Around were all featured in early seasons of Scrubs.  I liked the songs a lot and as a result I ended up buying his album The Instigator.

Back to the show.  The first 22 song Rhett Miller played by himself mixing in his solo songs with Old '97s songs.  As a live performer Rhett Miller is clearly a pro, having been active since 1989.  It was just him and his guitar on the stage and we the audience wanted for nothing more.  He put more energy into the songs than I imagined him capable of, keeping it up the whole time.  Predictably for me my favorite songs of the first part of the set were Question, a song which I'm fairly certain is about a marriage proposal "someday somebodies gonna ask you, a question that you should say yes to once in your life", Come Around, which in some ways to me is an anthem to the fear of always being alone "I'm gonna be lonely for the rest of my life, unless you come around, so come around".  Another particular highlight was a Bob Dylan cover, the first of three covers which I think showed his clear connection to musical roots whether intentional or not, something that I think shows both self-awareness and a level of musical respect and integrity.

There wasn't a weak song in the first part of the set.  For what I'm calling the second part of the set, Black Prairie joined him on the stage (see the pictures below) for four songs including a cover of Johnny Cash's cover of the 1920's ballad Wreck of the Old '97 which is where the band gets its name, and Woodie Guthrie's California Stars.  The impromptu supergroup was quite a treat and I honestly cannot tell you if we were having more fun watching them play or if they were having more fun playing together.  The closing song of the second part of the set was Our Love, a song which is about love, both forbidden in his reference to Richard Wagner's love for Mathilde and not as forbidden with his reference of Kafka and letters he wrote to Melina.  It is a thoroughly entertaining song and I was fortunate enough to be sitting in the lobby during the sound check and was able to hear them play it earlier and watch it on the screens their.  Rhett Miller playing with this "back-up", for want of a better word, band was quite a treat I was not expecting.

For his encore he came out an opened his set with the fast and fun song The El, and finished up his fantastic 27 song set with another Old '97s song, but I would have loved another 27.  This was one of the move fun shows I have ever attended.  I wanted to see the Old '97s open for Drive-By Truckers on March 17 but that didn't work out.  Thankfully Rhett Miller is coming to The Hamilton in April and I've already got my ticket.  I think Rhett Miller no has one of the 5 coveted spots on my must-see list.