Shows in Boise

Moving to Boise, while it has not been perfect in every way, has a large number of advantages. Many of those advantages I’ve written about are the things I use to make myself feel better when I long for more and diverse restaurants, a greater number of eligible single young educated women, or diverse viewpoints. One further advantage to living here in Boise, which never ceases to delight me, is that Boise is infrequently visited by big national touring acts.

I know – I know, that is counter-intuitive, e.g. Matt, if you love music, you had to love the music scene in Chicago. Big bands played there all the time. Boise is small enough acts don’t play there very often. That’s what one would think, but evidence thus far has proved to be the contrary. Case and point, the last two shows I’ve seen in Boise, Robert Earl Keen and Wilco.

I saw Wilco play the neatest show I’ve seen them play, perhaps ever. That is no exaggeration. They played two encores, and had a great amount of fun. Of course, the venue was a winery converted into an outdoor venue. The stage was at a rather low height for an outdoor venue, with a flat gallery from which to watch the band. Jeff Tweedy commented he could “die” playing in Boise, on that stage, because of how comfortable he felt in the weather.

Prior the show, I’d not bothered to do any research about past Wilco shows in Boise, but Tweedy announced during the show that they’d not been in Idaho since “this small band for REM opened for us. We helped them get their start.” Of course, I could go into further detail on the set list, but that is unimportant. The only important thing to know was that I had more fun and enjoyment listening to Wilco in this beautiful setting, and Wilco was having a lot of fun playing for folks they’d assumed hadn’t heard them live for ten-plus years. As such, they dug into their back catalog, and played a few songs from “Mermaid Avenue,” etc…

Were I a bigger Robert Earl Keen, I could note the same sort of well loved seldom played “rarities,” but I’ve not seen enough of his shows to know better. Seeing Keen, however, proved a wonderful experience. Again, like Wilco, Boise not being a place he plays often, removed any apprehension he might have with him in Austin, or something.
The point is simple, while iterations are less frequent, when we get them, the shows are all the better. Apathy is lost in the beautiful setting with the enthusiastic crowd, leaving bands no choice but to put on an amazing show. Needless to say, I am most looking forward to seeing the Hold Steady in November!