Paul

Just got back from seeing Paul Westerberg. A couple of immediate thoughts:

1. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
2. It turned bad faster than I thought it would.
3. Some of the people were as obnoxious as I figured they would be.
4. It’s definitely weird to see a man in his 40s rock out on electric guitar by himself in front of a room of 800 people.
5. A man playing a tour with no backing band and selling 800 tickets at $22.50 a pop probably makes a pretty decent living. But, the fact that he has to do this probably means he needs the money pretty bad because he didn’t seem to be particularly enjoying himself.
6. “Skyway” is a good song.
7. He completely butchered “Waitress in the Sky.”
8. Paul played 2 Rolling Stones songs. As he started to play the second one of the evening, someone yelled out “hey, Keith!” and he abruptly stopped playing, knocked the mic stand over and proceeded to yell at the kid, completely stopping the show. He recovered, though, and invited the kid to join him on the couch (yes, couch) as he serenaded the kid and about 10 other people he invited onstage.
9. He ended the show by smashing a perfectly good Stratocaster. I’ve never understood that.
10. Did I mention I got in free? Yeah, that was cool.