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M. Ward

Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA

4-26-03



The opening act was Laura Veirs. She had a very unique style with both her guitar and her vocals. There was a mixed reaction from the crowd. She had good lyrics and played well.

Ward walked onto the stage, clutching his guitar in his left hand. He meticulously worked on his tuning and a footpedal for a while, and then asked the sound man if he “could turn up the vocals in the back, and on the left side if you’re feeling risky,” and then thanked him. There was, of course, his low, gravely voice coming out of the speakers, which continued throughout his performance, and his lower range impressed me many times.

He was very intent on his music, and didn’t look at the audience much. In the beginning, he started playing Color of Water, or the intro part of that song, but transitioned into O’brien very smoothly after about 45 seconds. It was hard to tell if he’d planned that or if he’d changed his mind, but O’Brien was beautiful.

People familiar with David Bowie (but obviously not familiar with Ward’s music) got a kick out of hearing Let’s Dance. There was laughter throughout the first third of the song that subsided into a quiet awe from quite a few of them (though there was the regular, inevitable, and invincible collection of conversationalists in the back of the tavern), as the track was truly gorgeous. It may not be the greatest song, but Ward lends a certain tone to it that is much more captivating in real life than it is recorded. The harmonica was amazing, which is not something you can say about many songs by any artists. He was so fluent with it that it sounded like it played itself – not strained like most musicians.

Setlist

O’Brien

Let’s Dance

(Gibson recollection)

Flaming Heart

Unknown Instrumental

Undertaker

Sad, Sad Song

The Crooked Spine


Encore


Carolina


West of Rome with Vic Chesnutt

Another song with Chesnutt and his band



After Let’s Dance, Ward asked the audience if anyone had ever heard of a 1973 Blue Ridge Gibson guitar. It was pretty quiet, except for one girl who said “yeeeeaaaahhhh” real knowingly (but I think she was just trying to look cool, personally). Then he paused, and it looked as if he was going to start the next song, but he hesitated and said “I was in Vancouver last night, and a DJ dropped a box of vinyl on my guitar and completely smashed it.” The crowd was horrified. “So this is my first night with this guitar; please forgive me.” The guitar sounded pretty good to me. But I still want to find that DJ and kick his ass.

After that break, Ward played Flaming Heart. The vocals were strained at a few points, but that sort of lends itself to this song. There was supposed to be a band with him, but he was solo this night.

Then he started playing an instrumental I am not familiar with. This is where (like a naïve, inexperienced concertgoer) I actually had to go to the bathroom, as I’d been holding it for 45 minutes. So I listened from the urinal, waiting in frustration to be able to get back out to the concert. It sounded like a nice instrumental.

Undertaker was next. We had to lean waaaay over to the left for most of the concert so we could see him. Almost everybody in front was sitting down so it was pretty clear viewing. Almost everyone. Everyone except for the fat asshole in the green polo who stood directly in front of about 20 people trying to see from our side of the tavern. He was a writher, too, rocking in a kind of jello motion from the waist up. Truly shitty experience, having this fat dude in the way, but at least the music was wonderful. After Undertaker, Ward played Sad, Sad Song. He sounded like Tom Waits (I hate it when people say that, but there you go…). It was an astounding performance of that song. All of the songs were very heartfelt.

The most amazing performance of the night was a drawn-out version of The Crooked Spine. Ward played furiously when the song picked up, so furiously that I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a live performer get into an acoustic guitar as much as he did during that song. People were enraptured, and I think quite a few people that went to see Vic Chesnutt were quite involved in Ward’s performance at this point. There was furious applause after he finished. Ward told the audience at one point, “This is the loudest it’s been [on the tour],” which wasn’t bitter but more that he seemed surprised at the response at this concert.

Much to our delight there was an encore. I don’t know if he usually does one (probably), but the crowd kept clapping and he came back out and, again to our delight, played Carolina. I suppose nothing can really describe the beauty of this song, so I won’t try. He strained for the high notes, but the vocals were very nice and the guitar-playing was impeccable (time).

I haven’t heard of Vic Chesnutt, and I only stayed for the two songs that M. Ward performed with him, but the first song they sang together was gorgeous. It was Chesnutt’s West of Rome, and they harmonized beautifully. The predominantly Chesnutt-payin’ fans went nuts. It was a very beautiful performance and both vocals were tremendous. Chesnutt’s band then mounted the stage, and Ward played one more song with them. It appeared he hadn’t done this before, as they started slow, and Chesnutt seemed to be giving him instructions and signals between and throughout the two songs. They were both fairly fluent performances, and the concert on the whole was excellent. I think Ward was relieved to leave the stage after the second song, and Chesnutt thanked him. Then we left. We met a couple of girls in the Ballard Denny’s restaurant after the show (actually during Chesnutt’s performance), who were there to see Matt Ward. So, there were at least 4 people there only to see him.



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