Jude
Pistol Star
September 9, 2005 - Tractor Tavern - Seattle, WA

    
  

We arrived a little bit before the doors of the venue were supposed to open at 8. Well they didn't open up then. However I could see the opening act, Pistol Star, rehearsing. Our car was parked right in front of the door where I could get a semi view of the stage. It was about 8:45 when Jude finally arrived wondering what was up since we were all waiting outside. He made a phone call to someone inside and a bit later they finally opened up the doors.

Now we were a bit confused on who was opening up for who. Depending on what ads you saw you'd think Pistol Star would be the main act since it was basically for their cd release party. Also I'm accustomed to knowing that the opening act is always the last one to get a sound check. A little bit after we got in Jude started playing. The place was pretty empty and I wondered where everyone was. Maybe they knew that the Tractor had a history of late starts. It was kind of nice though to see Jude rehearse. I brought up the stool and watch from the back of the room through a small partion in the wall. My brother thought it looked kind of like a scary fanatic lurker thing. Probably yes. There were a few dead moments when I looked over at the guy with the guest list. He was reading "Chronicles" and I was trying to figure out where he was in the book.

Finally one of the guys from the other band moved the wall partition over and my brother and I grabbed one of 2 chairs and moved them near the front of the stage. Pistol Star decorated the hanging cattle head for good luck. They're an interesting local group. Not bad. One of those mellow rock groups with the occasional crunching electronic guitar deals. All the band members looked like they were from a different group. Interesting. They also had an encore, but their set wasn't long. At one point they had a dance competition between the funky chicken and the robot. My eyes started wandering around I guess because I was getting bored until my eyes saw Jude's. I was startled. He came out to watch the band for a bit since he was friends with the lead singer, Paul Kimble. I just perked up right there. Smiling away with his drink.

Jude came out and started off the show with "Cuba." Probably one of a good handful of tunes I was hoping he'd perform. Thing is that most of the songs he did that night were mostly new ones or ones that haven't been recorded. Unless you've come across a bootleg, you wouldn't know half the songs that the audience requested. At one point in the show Jude claimed that he did have a setlist and went to college and thought it through. I could see the setlist from where I was standing and could barely make any sense of it. His beautiful voice just brought the "Break Up Song" and "Money" to life. Some of the unfamiliar included "Your Eyes" "My Room" "Life Goes On" "Save Me" and "Married." He also finally did a song off Sarah, his EP "Perfect Plank." The crowd was definatley less rowdier than his previous visit and they wanted the slower tunes. So came along "I Do." Last time it seemed like he played everything and telling all sorts of stories, but I got the feeling he felt rushed from starting his set so late and having to be in Portland the next morning so there wasn't much audience chatter. We did get "Gay Cowboy" though. He did an amazing "Rick James" that night during the encore. Wow...that voice.

This time around Jude wasn't solo and had a bassist and drummer with him. He joked that he wasn't going to do "You Mama You" with the guys around. LOL. He switched between 2 guitars which he continuously dropped on the floor as to hurry up with the next song. He also played they keyboards left behind from the opening act. At one point one of his guitars was caught in the power chords of the piano. It happens to the best of us.

 
Bassist Craig

My brother and I didn't stay long after the show. I did manage to pick up another copy of the Sarah cd, the Pistol Star cd, and one of the old t-shirts Jude was talking about on his website that he probably had to pluck out from the back of an old box. I also ran off with one page of his setlist. Some people collect guitar picks, I collect setlists.

setlist

I was on Cloud 9! Jude certainly knows how to put up a performance. I took some pictures and short videos. Not so much as last time as I didn't think he would appreciate a living flipbook of digital photos. :)

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