Old 97's, Whiskeytown, The Hangdogs

Irving Plaza, New York, NY

My WHTG colleague Glenn Vistica urged me to come along to this show. I knew the New York alt-country band The Hangdogs (especially their song "Fools Rush In"), but neither of the other bands on the bill. But I figured, ok, why not?

The Hangdogs were good, so my night was made. Then Whiskeytown came out on stage, with their sprawling richness of sound and entrancing melodies. The lineup of the band was then Ryan Adams and Ed Crawford on guitars, Caitlin Cary on fiddle, Jenni Snyder on bass, Skillet Gilmore on drums, and Mike Daly as the multi-instrumentalist. I didn't know it then, but the band's lineup was in a state of flux. Apart from Adams and Cary, the band members on their latest album Stranger's Almanac were no longer in the group; Adams and Cary had just done a few shows as an acoustic duo amidst rumors that the band was breaking up, and this concert was one of the first with the newly recruited players (I also didn't realize at the time that new second guitarist Crawford was a.k.a. "ed fROMOHIO" of the group fIREHOSE, of whom I was a fan). I don't recall the band having any difficulties with the material, but then, I wasn't familiar with it yet myself.

After Whiskeytown concluded their set, I thought, "Wow, bonus! I have a new band to like. What a great night!" And then, Old 97s performed.

Holy crap! The Texas quartet took the stage like men possessed. Guitarist/singer Rhett Miller and bassist Murry Hammond both wore glasses on stage then, so I remember thinking they reminded me of an alt-country version of The Proclaimers on speed. I very quickly became a big fan and rushed out to buy their four-month old CD Too Far to Care soon after.

This show always reminded me of a line from a Woody Allen story, something like "Each daughter was more beautiful than the last, but only if you lined them up that way."

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