No, you won't shut us down

Sometime in the course of Park's attempt to get to the Lindsey Buckingham show at Town Hall in New York City, my sister mused about artists finding out what people went through to be at a show. In this case, they might never know why there were empty seats at a show that had been eagerly awaited since it was announced. Anyway, here's my tale.

Like a good mother's daughter, we dutifully left four hours before the show so we could meet up with another friend -- Jenna, who I met on the Stevie Nicks signing line a couple years back. And thanks to failed signals (in Newark) and a disabled train (in the tunnel just before Penn Station) that lengthened the one-hour trip, we didn't even see her before the show.

We spent a couple hours cooling our heels on the train because of all the "Trouble." We were about to "Go Insane," because they were trying to "Shut Us Down." They'd "Gone Too Far" and it felt like we were going to be there "In Our Own Time" and not Lindsey's. High "Treason," if you ask me. (OK, I'll stop now.)

As fortune would have it, a couple from Toronto had gotten on from Rahway and they were going to the show too. They were doing an ultimate road trip -- nine shows -- two of which they had seen so far. According to Bree, there was always something weird that happened en route to a show (so obviously this whole mess was HER fault), but she had not missed even the start of one yet.

In fact, the freelance filmmaker and traveling companion Rob have been making a tour diary to document the stories that others found unbelievable. Mark and I got to be part of this particular one. After one hour, everyone was still upbeat. Two hours, maybe the worry started to creep in a little. A half hour later and the unrealistic plans started to be hatched (Should we switch to the PATH? Should we try and get a cab?)



So with about 20 minutes before the show was set to start, we finally got sprung and made the quick trek over to Town Hall where ... the lights hadn't even gone down yet. We made it!

And although we rationalized on the walk over that we would survive if we missed the first few numbers, I'm sure glad we didn't. The first five were amazing acoustic performances just belted out one after the other by Lindsey. "Shut Us Down," "Go Insane," "Trouble," "Never Going Back Again" and "Big Love." One seemingly more powerful than the next.

Then we got the band, with the ever-affable and versatile Brett Tuggle (Brett Giggle, if you ever try to text his name to someone that comes up as the default even if you pick Tuggle), lean guitarist Neale Heywood and expressive drummer Walfredo Reyes. They delivered a lovely version of "Under the Skin," this song really stuck with me and was still resonating after the show ended as well as the very soothing "All My Sorrows."



Now thanks to Ticketbastard and its merchant, I didn't get the new CD (which was preordered when I bought the tickets for the show) until the day before the concert. And so I didn't get to get too comfortable with the new material, but Lindsey plucked some of the more choice titles from the effort for the show, including "In Our Own Time," "Illumination," "Stars Are Crazy" and "End of Time." My current favorite track "That's the Way Love Goes" sounded particularly strong.

My only sticking point is Lindsey's profession that the new material is the best work he's ever done and a large leap forward. I don't doubt him for believing it to be true -- he's a renowned perfectionist and there's a lot of fine guitar work in the songs. There's just got to be a better way to voice that sentiment without it coming at the expense of his other material, not just with the Mac but his other solo albums as well. There's a fire in many of those songs that has attracted the audience who came to Town Hall to see him. Many of whom, I'm sorry to say and which I would never do personally, took a lot of breaks during the new stuff.

But for me and Mark, the show seemed to go by super-fast and Lindsey was into "Second Hand News" and "Tusk" before we knew it. Mark kept saying "Already?" And special note for "I'm So Afraid," because seeing this live is Lindsey wielding a vacuum instead of a Turner guitar, he just turns it toward the audience and sucks everyone right in. It's a song of amazing power in concert and something you can't even get from the best recorded copy of the show.



Another "Already?" from Mark as the opening notes of "Go Your Own Way" were sounded. And then we went our own way ... all the way down the aisle to the stage where I stood (with Bree) as Lindsey's feet for the final three songs ("Turn It On," "Treason" and "Seeds We Sow.") Got eye contact too and kind of a "Am I supposed to know her?" look from Lindsey and a great thumbs-up from Brett.

So amazing to be standing at his feet -- and reminiscent of when Park did that for a whole Mac show at the Izod Center -- and to watch where he was looking and the way he plays the guitar. From Row P, it's all so intense and he just gives every song, every word, every note everything he has. Standing at his feet, completely exhausting -- in the best way possible.

After the show (and after finally meeting up with Jenna), I drew the comparison to the way the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan worked. An analogy Mark quickly took to. He later offered a description of Lindsey's writing style as drawing you in with the hook and then smashing you in the face with a brick with the lyrics. And it's both of these powers that seemingly will always bring us back until ... the "End of Time."