So we'll have to make due with the dvds of seasons 1 & 2 until then, and the Dr. John residency these last three weeks at BAM.
The show last night was beyond spectacular -- it was, as Mac said, Insides Out Funky But Its Nu Awlins. Partly it was as the performers danced down the aisle of the orchestra to the stage to Dirty Dozen -- and Bonnie Raitt, who is town to do promo for her new album, Slip Stream, danced with them! When she called on Mac earlier he said she had to do it, though she wasn't part of the show. So she hung out in the Green Room and watched from back stage. By the way, have you read her reasons why she says, "Thank God for Occupy," earlier this month on salon.com? Slipstream is a beautiful album, by the way. Her voice is at least as good if not better than at any other time in her career.
Part of the spectacularness was Davell Crawford who dominated two numbers back-to-back that he introduced as "Remember the Nighttripper?" And it was horrible and wonderful, dangerous and terrifying, was like some of the nights in the Funky Butt, seeing the branches in Louis Armstrong park dancing, struggling, yearning, tossing, struggling along with the music, and you KNEW you were in a swamp and things aren't the same here, where the vegetation is sentient, as somewhere anywhere else. He took one number right down to Angola and the war on young black men that has been escalating in the last year, and yet it was strong, it was deep, it was wild, and nobody except a New Orleans musician could do this. The entire show brought out goosebumps over and over, and yet we all danced too, even in that classic nineteenth century recital theater.
They were all wonderful, not a clunker among them. It just snapped and sizzled. From what we can tell, since we were there only one night each of the three weekends, it was almost a sold-out gig each weekend of Thurs., Fri. and Sat. Not much can pull that of these days. That theater is a large capacity theater, and the show, featuring a different orientation with different artists each weekend, was not an inexpensive production by any means. Dr. John does it again.
We hung out a bit afterwards backstage since we had invitations, so we chatted some with the band members we know, and with Mac and Bonnie and Donald. Then headed home on the train with LK, who made Tootie's Last Suit and is in town working on her current project which is documenting the health problems of those who experienced 9/11 and BP.
The lobby was quite a schmooze-fest. El V said, "It's only at New Orleans events I get recognized by complete strangers from a book jacket photo." Ay-up, it was like that. The people in those seats grooving to the music these last three weekends all love New Orleans, even if they live here.
So we ended the night nicely in our local French bistro, el V with a beer and me with water as I'm taking pain medication, and discussed over and over the highlights of the show.
O, and one more thing that gives us a hit of New Orleans as we wait for Treme season 3, is the new Jon Boutté joint, which includes a cut of something el V suggested and translated from the Portuguese, and is also the title cut!
ETA: Got an e-mail last night from a friend who took one of his classes to NO for spring break, coming live from DBA, where JB was onstage, singing the title cut, and shouting out el V credit! Title in Portuguese is sobre todas as coisas. Chico Buarque's version:
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