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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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LYLE
LOVETT
AND JOHN
HIATT
The Orpheum Theatre, Memphis Tennessee, October
15th 2008
We’re
in Memphis, Tennessee, in the palatial surroundings
of the Orpheum
Theatre, where the largely deserted Main Street
intersects with Beale Street. |
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| It
was built originally as the Grand Opera House in
1890, but totally destroyed by fire in 1923, allegedly
just after a performance by the ‘legendary’
vaudevillians Blossom Seeley and Bennie Fields,
whose life story was celebrated in the 1952 film,
Somebody Loves Me (I think they might have cut out
the bit about the fire). Rebuilt in 1928 to designs
by Chicago architects Rapp and Rapp (who built theatres
throughout the United States) it later became a
movie theatre before being acquired by the Memphis
Development Foundation in the late 1970s. And whilst
the semi-derelict nature of much of Memphis (even
the modern malls) might lead you to question the
efficacy of much of the redevelopment of downtown,
when it comes to the Orpheum, the parties responsible
are beyond reproach. It’s in beautiful shape,
plush and richly-decorated in creams, reds and golds.
The urinals would put the Shepherds Bush Empire
to shame. And yet, unlike the Empire, it is somewhat
sanitised, as is the audience, who largely seem
to represent the great and the good of white middle-class
Memphis, sipping cocktails and doing appropriately
loud and facile cocktail party chit-chat in the
foyer before the gig begins. |
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Lyle
Lovett (L) and John Hiatt (R) |
| It’s
Lyle
Lovett, who after so many failures
to show (sometimes for very good reasons) in London,
we’ve managed to track down on his home territory
(well, almost). And to make it even better it’s
John Hiatt too, who’s just released
a new album, Same Old Man. The pair have been touring
together, on and off, for almost a year, in an intimate
acoustic format. It’s almost like having them
in your kitchen, as they sit, chat, and take turns
to swap songs, only towards the end singing and
playing together. During some two-and-a-half hours
in all, it’s thoroughly engrossing stuff,
albeit a little top-heavy on the chat and slightly
forced at the outset, with an earnest and nervous-looking
Lovett cast in the unlikely role of interrogator
(although subsequently, it has to be said, he throws
some wonderfully surreal curved balls at his victim).
My perfectly-groomed blonde neighbour huffs and
sighs through these early tunes, clearly impatient
with the talk, and after about fifteen minutes takes
her leave; I notice a few others do too. But everyone
else is glued to their seat apart from those who
stand to whoop and cheer – frequently in a
number of cases. |
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| Lovett
and Hiatt have got the formula perfect for tonight,
and as they swap very genuine compliments (these
are, by the way, two of the greatest living American
composers and performers) and cleverly structured
chat, they work through a list of songs that pander
to that lowest common denominator of rock and roll
audiences throughout the land: local pride and patriotism.
Hiatt was born in Indiana, but now lives in Nashville,
Tennessee. |
As
for Lovett, well, you should know where he was
born, and needless to say, we had no Texas songs
in the set list. And if I told you the evening
started with Hiatt singing ‘Riding with
the King’ (“Whoop, whoop, yeah”),
followed by Lovett’s ‘I’ve been
to Memphis’ (“Whoop,whoop, whoop”),
then you get some idea of the gig.
Of
course, the two performers couldn’t be more
different in some respects. Hiatt’s a no-nonsense
rhythm guitar player with a largely plectrum technique
which doesn’t leave a lot of room for subtlety.
His songs, though sometimes humourous, are just
as likely to be in your face, heart on his sleeve,
personal statements – like the deeply moving
‘Muddy water’. Lovett is a surprisingly
deft guitarist; mostly thumb pick and fingers
playing out gentle melodies. His songs are dry,
wry, wistful and sometimes hugely funny (‘She’s
no lady’, sung after Hiatt’s rousing
‘Have a little faith’ – “there’s
only one song to follow that, John …”).
It is almost a perfect combination, even good
enough to tolerate Hiatt’s ill-advised rush
into lead guitar work, leaving both Lovett and
the audience thoroughly bewildered (at least we
learnt that when he said “I don’t
play no fancy guitar work” he wasn’t
kidding). And the icing on the cake is the singing:
Hiatt, raspy and full of passion, Lovett, well,
when he started singing ‘I’ve been
to Memphis’, I was mesmerised – I
mean he just sounds like Lyle Lovett. The songs?
There were some lovely tunes from Lovett like
‘If I had a boat’, ‘Her first
mistake’, ‘Skinny legs’ and
‘My baby don’t tolerate’, and
from Hiatt ‘Icy blue heart’, ‘Real
fine love’, ‘Thing called love’,
and ‘Lipstick sunset’. But the important
thing for you to know is the scores from the whoopometer,
which went something like this: ‘Tennessee
plates’ (“whoop, whoop, yeah, whoop”),
“Come on, baby, let’s drive south”
(“whoop, yeah”), ‘Up in Indiana’
(“whoop”), ‘Memphis midnight/Memphis
morning’ (“whoop, whoop, whoop”),
‘Memphis in the meantime’ (“whoop,
whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop,” and a standing
ovation), possibly making Hiatt the winner if
there was a competition going on, which I somewhat
doubt. |
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And I have to add, by way of a postscript, that
just for a moment, walking out of the lovely Orpheum
Theatre into a warm Memphis night, and strolling
down a noisy tourist and music-filled Beale Street,
you might have been forgiven, just for a moment,
for thinking that there was hardly a better place
to be. - Nick Morgan (photographs by Kate)
Listen:
Lyle
Lovett
John
Hiatt |
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the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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