Son Volt Live

Saturday night Rick, Adam and I went over to downtown St. Petersburg to see Son Volt perform at Jannus Landing. Before we hit the show we stopped by a bar called Independent which put me right back in New York as beers were 6-8 dollars which has never seemed to phase me. It had a plethura of Belgium and Polish beers in which I had a Hobgoblin (which I would give an A) and some beer that I can not pronounce but was equally tasty. It was a winter brew so it had a little spice to it but also had similarities to a Lambic in a weird way. In any case, downtown St. Pete is WAY better than what we have in Tampa. I almost felt like a member of the human race again unlike the dehumanizing, cheap party crowd of Ybor City (minus the daylight hours). Plus I was offered drugs twice both being of the pain killer kind. Why do people get hooked on pain killers? Just curious, it's never been even slightly appealing to me although we did have a great conversation around beers about weed. My favorite line of the night would have been Adam's response to the old guy asking us if we were interested in Percocet (sp?) where he simply replied, "I'm just a guy." I cannot remember for the life of me in which context he said that line in but at the time it was very funny and right before another gentleman asked if we'd like to give him a quarter and then showed us his papers discharging him from prison. After which, he offered us drugs taking away my curiousity of how he got sent to prison in the first place.

The show was pretty good. Outdoor venues typically have subpar sound, Jannus being no exception. The music was loud which was great, but the vocals were smothered the entire night which was an insult to Jay Farrar's often monotonous but somehow melodic and inviting voice. They ended their set with Windfall, Drown and a song I don't remember ever hearing. Windfall was the highlight of the show for me. I have a hard time describing the feeling the song gives me but it just makes me want to get out on the road and drive. Son Volt played for over 2 hours which tends to make fans very quickly out of the "just along for the ride" type of people. In this venue there seemed to be plenty of those. Seemed like most people were more interested in drinking 24 ounces of urine-flavored water (Miller Lite) than watching a great show and a spectacular lead guitarist. At the end of the show I regretted my decision to not but the Percocet after having a headache from hearing the jock behind me not shut up about College Football the entire show which to me is the curse of living in the South. It is clear that Wilco got the better end of the deal in the Uncle Tupelo split but it doesn't mean Son Volt doesn't have anything that will make you want to buy a Gibson Hummingbird, some cowboy boots and start learning Willie Nelson songs either. Fun show, great weather, mediocre fans and venue.