03.25.07

Wait, did you say unicorn?

Posted in cory branan, hot live action - March 25th, 2007 at 5:15 pm by Mimi

Cric’s back home at a wedding and hitting on ROTC boys, and I missed Drag the River on Thursday because I’m a lamer. However, I beat the bushes to drag people to see Cory Branan on Saturday. New converts. It’s amusing to attend a Cory show with people who only know his studio stuff because I get to watch the cartoon hearts pop out of their eyes as he radiates that sort of folksy élan that overwhelms anyone who sees him live.

(I’m screwing something up as I post this, but I have no idea what. I am really dim, people. Cric will have to fix it when she gets near a computer.) [Fixed.--Cric]

I had cocktails before the show with Wes Charlton and Charlotte (who does him the favor of dating him) who live ‘round the way from Cric and me. I was a little worried when we got to the 3 Crow because the place was nearly deserted and I got further scared when I thought the opening-closing acts had been reversed. Having to sit through a full rock-set by a local band…oh noes! Not nearly drunk enough for that torture! But, whatever, you don’t care about my psychological issues.

As happens when I go out without Cric, I can’t ever remember anyone, and I spent most of the night confused about who people were and pretending I knew them. I need some kind of crib sheet with pictures pasted in and names written underneath in day-glo crayon or something. Thankfully, I was pretty much sober, so I didn’t actually SAY “who are you?” which is rude—ruder than a sober person is supposed to be at any rate.

I think the hipster crowd dressed in clever t-shirts, wearing clunky black-rimmed glasses and Chucks were there for the closing act, or so I will pretend (the irony that I just almost described myself is NOT lost on me, but I refuse to acknowledge these people who are so clearly not as cool as me, and I wasn’t wearing Chucks last night, damn your eyes!). At one point, there was also this strange man in a suit making out with some much younger woman quite enthusiastically, and I will pretend they weren’t Cory fans either, because their display of PDA was SO egregious that Charlotte and I were openly staring and commenting in normal speaking voices out of utter horror. If you were that dude, for the love of puppies and porn, please get your PDA issues under control because next time I might be drunk and actually say something to you. Also, you knocked into us and were obnoxious about it, therefore I hate you.

So, right. There was the usual 3 Crow crowd of scenester East Nashvillians, fat guys in too-tight plaid shirts, and older people who continue to confuse me. The bar filled up right as Cory was doing sound check but luckily no one tried to stand in my line of sight, because I didn’t feel like drawing blood last night anyway. Cory kicked off with “A Bad Man” which was the closing number the last time Cric and I saw him (my god, were we drunk that night, too. Holy hell, sorry to anyone who was sitting near us that night!). In his usual way, Cory seemed embarrassed by how well the crowd responded to him and deflected this by telling children’s jokes (“Why did the monkey fall out of the tree? Because it was dead.”) which he expounded on for a while. His aw-shucks demeanor is very endearing.

He played a lot of new songs, the first of which was “Amnesia” (I think that’s the name of it—ever professional, that’s us). You can see the video for this song on the post before this one here. More new songs followed. There was some singing into the shirt, which I assume means he thinks the lyrics are lame. I’ll have to listen to the new stuff more before I comment. He tends to be far harsher on himself than anyone who respects his music is, though. Wait, I seem to have some notes about a unicorn…maybe he’s right about that one. I assume one of the new songs is called “Sour Mash” because that was the upshot of the chorus—yes, it’s a song about drinking sour mash whiskey, go stalk his MySpace and website to get him to put that one up.

My notes get a little hyperbolic at this point because Cory finished a little story about a friend’s wedding by singing in Gaelic. YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT! This was utterly ridiculous in the way life is when someone is already *insert over the top hyperbolic commentary with lots of superlatives* and then they [redacted to save the shred of pride the author of this review has left]. I mean, honestly! Ludicrous. It was as great as you’re thinking. I thought Charlotte was going to pass out. This was a bumper to “Rosemary Brown”.

More new stuff with “The Kiss Song” wedged in the middle of it. I’m amused that he thinks this song is totally lame and yet he keeps playing it because it’s a crowd favorite. Other artists take note—you aren’t above your audience, please attempt to remember that when your ego is chewing the carpet.

Then more new stuff with “Tall Green Grass” and “Wayward and Down” and “White T Girl” interspersed in the middle of it. I suppose “White T Girl” could also be considered “new” in that it’s not on an album? I’m a little stymied by how to deal with the fact that so much of what I think of as his best stuff is actually not laid down on a regular album as of now. Oh, well, at least he seems to encourage bootlegging.

You get the idea. It was Cory Branan who is, sadly, probably the most underrated performer I know of. He’s spectacular live and you’re really screwing yourself if you don’t attend any show he plays in your area. I wish I knew how to do more than just turn my computer on and type in Word, because if I could, I would post a picture of the notes Wes Charlton wrote in my notebook—highlights include the use of the word bard unironically and the fact his handwriting is stunningly as bad as mine.

Get thee hence and see Cory. I think I’m going to actually break down and buy a t-shirt finally because I’m just that smitten.

Upcoming dates:

April 11 Kansas Cit, Mo. Davey’s Uptown

April 18 Minneapolis Fine Line

April 21 Chicago Uncommon Ground

Let’s see if I can update the website without blowing it up…

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