The Beautiful South at the 9:30 Club 11/3/06

Cyndi and I went and saw the Smoking Popes several months ago. I meant to blog about it, but put it off for a while and never got around to it. I've found that it's hard to back-blog (take my NYC trip for example...), so I'm writing this entry now, having just gotten back from seeing The Beautiful South at the 9:30 club in DC.

We've seen TBS twice before; both times were on their last US tour several years ago. On that tour, we saw them in DC and Philly. Being our first TBS shows, we thought they were great, but others who had seen them before and after said that they were a little off at those shows. They were going through some drama with one of the members of the band who actually quit the band after the Philly show. Due to some sneakiness on Cyndi and my part, we were able to meet a couple of the band members after the Philly show.

Enough with the history, on to the now!

The show was an early show (doors open at 7) and we set out earlier than normal so that we could get right up front. We kept up our tradition of stopping at Roy Roger's (there's only one anywhere near us and it's sort-of on the way) for our pre-concert meal. This Roy's does real hand-dipped milkshakes that are as good as any I've ever had. Tonight's was particularly good--really thick.

We got to the club around 7:40 or so. The opening act was already on and actually (thankfully) almost done. They were some sort of country-rock something and they weren't great. They weren't the worst opening band I've seen, but they weren't the best, either. The band was made up of a singer/guitarist, a guy playing a stand-up bass, and a banjo player. They had moments where you really see that they could do some cool stuff, but instead they decided to make everything sound pretty much the same. They departed and we waited as the stage guys performed the flurry of final preparations before the band took the stage.

A note on the crowd: at first, we thought it was going to be pretty empty, but by the time TBS took the stage, the club was almost full. We were right up front but we weren't squished and had plenty of space to bounce around if the need so arised.

The need did so arise.

The band was incredible and played a great set. Some of the highlights for me were some of the songs I hadn't heard live before (or at least, I think I haven't heard live before): Song for Whoever, One Last Lovesong (maybe I've heard this one live...I can't remember), and Woman in the Wall. Other highlights were 36D, Your Father and I, and Love Is. Even the stuff from the new album (which I don't have and haven't heard yet) were great; I particularly enjoyed Manchester and When Romance Is Dead. The latter had some great singing by Dave Hemmingway.

This was the first I've seen or heard the new female singer, Allison (sorry, don't know her last name, or even if I'm spelling her first name right). She sounded pretty good on the older stuff and great on the new stuff. Her voice is a little deeper than the previous two female singers, so she seemed to struggle a bit on some of the higher parts in the older stuff (especially A Little Time). That's really a small nitpick, though; she's really good.

Since it was an early show, they were supposed to be off the stage at 10, but they ran a little over. They left after doing one encore and the club brought up the house lights. Usually, this stops the cheering and applause meant to bring the band out for another encore. Not tonight, though. The crowd just kept screaming for the band. After a few minutes, the lights dimmed and the band came back out. This is the first time in all the concerts I've attended (and there have been many) where the crowd actually won and forced the club to allow the band to do another encore.

They came back out and gave us a choice: Let Love Speak Up Itself or Woman in the Wall. The setlist showed Woman In The Wall/Let Love Speak Up for the second encore, but since they were out of time they could only do one. So they had us vote. Cyndi and I wanted Woman in the Wall since we had never seen it live before and it's one of the classic, definitive TBS songs. We won and they played Woman in the Wall. It was incredible, the perfect song to end on.

There was another band having a late show tonight, so after TBS, they were pretty aggressive about clearing us out of the place. Luckily, I was able to get one of the roadies to snag me a setlist, which is always a great concert keepsake. We looked briefly at the shirts but decided against getting one.

Outside of the club, we debated if we should hang around and attempt to meet the band. We went back and forth on it, and eventually decided to stay. It was pretty cold, but totally worth it. After a good while (maybe 45 minutes? I don't know), we saw a bunch of them come out of the back of the club. We had seen Allison walk past and David Rotheray shoot past into a waiting cab, but missed both (we actually chicked out of talking to Allison since she was with a couple people). We ended up meeting and getting autographs from Sean Welch (bass), David Stead (drums), Paul Heaton (singer and songwriter), and the miscellaneous percusion guy (sorry, I don't know his name and his signature is illegible). We had met Paul and Dave Hemmingway at the Philly show (thanks to the sneakiness mentioned above). We had a little awkward conversation with the guys we met. They asked if we were from around here and if we were going to the Philly show. We said we wanted to, but with kids and all the logistics make it hard. After a couple minutes, we thanked them for a great show and headed back to the car. While we were standing there Dave Hemmingway shot past. I tried to get his attention, but he seemed pretty intent on getting on the bus (or whereever he was going). As we pulled out and turned in front of the club, we saw the three horn players, one of which we met outside the Philly show and stopped to talk to them. All the guys we talked to were really cool and seemed genuinely happy to talk to us.

All in all, a great concert and a great night. If you get the chance, go see The Beautiful South; they put on a great concert.

P.S. Please pardon the crappiness of the two photos above--they were taken on my phone. The phone didn't do so hot woth the low and constantly changing lighting in the club.