speed of dark

Today we have another installment of Uncle T's Day 1 at Austin City Limits with one of his long-time favorites, Alejandro Escovedo and his band. These wonderful live MP3s are from Escovedo's performance on September 8 at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, CA, except for "Sister Lost Soul" with its irresistible violin intro, which was performed at the Troubadour in Hollywood on September 9. Susan Voelz's violin on "Everybody Loves Me" reminds me a lot of Joan Wasser's work with the Dambuilders in the 90's. Since Uncle T raves about the live version of "Real As an Animal," I was glad I was able to find it.

Alejandro Escovedo

Susan Voelz and Alejandro Escovedo
Excellent set; all killer, no filler. His band was a well-oiled machine, the songs were all great, and a lean-and-mean Alejandro put on a magnificent performance. I was perfectly positioned right by the stage in the middle. Alejandro did some brilliant guitar work, locking horns with both his lead guitar and violin players during musical interludes. This was his first appearance at the ACL festival, and he was amazing.

The band:
• Alejandro Escovedo: vocals, lead and rhythm guitar
• Brian Standefer: cello
• Susan Voelz: violin
• Josh Gravelin: bass
• David Pulkingham: lead guitar
• Hector Munoz: drums


Set list included (in this general order):

• Put You Down: Nice opener, which he opened with the last time I saw him.
• Always A Friend: Great song from his latest CD.
• Chelsea Hotel '78: Another great new down and gritty punk song about his NY 70’s days. Alejandro really sang with passion on this one.
• Sister Lost Soul: One of my favorites from his new CD. Such a good song.
• Everybody Loves Me: This was the show stopping high point. Alejandro started the song with some snarling blues laden guitar licks, and the rest of the band followed suit. Lots of stage interaction among the band members. This was a stunner.
• People (We're Only Gonna Live So Long): He slowed things down with this new song, which he introduced as simply “People.”
• Real As An Animal: He said he wrote this song from his new CD about Iggy Pop, and asked if there were any Stooges fans in the audience. When they kicked it off with an infectious danceable manic groove it sounded so much like an original Stooges song that at first I thought he was doing a Stooges cover but couldn’t figure out what it was. This live version was 1000 times better than the CD version, and I wonder why he didn’t do it that way on the CD. This song was incredible live.
• Castanets: He dedicated this great old song to Joe Strummer, and rocked the house again to end this stunning set.

MySpace | Website | Label: Back Porch Records
Buy at Alejandro Escovedo Store, Amazon.com, iTunes, and eMusic

MP3s from the Belly Up were recorded, mixed, and FLAC'd by James Bartoli; Live sound and PA mix by Debbie Murphy with special thanks to Mike Thompson and Valerie Jones.