edpaffjr.comLast night, Kim and I headed downtown to see Ray LaMontagne play a solo show at the Ellie Caulkin Opera House. I’ve seen him a couple of times before, but I believe that he had always had at least one person playing with him. Playing solo last night definitely subdued the overall feel, but allowed for his wonderful voice to really shine. With that said, I still think that I’d prefer to see him play with other musicians included.
Prior to last night, I had always thought that Ray was sort of introverted. And though he admitted that he doesn’t really like to be in the spotlight, he opened up last night telling stories and laughing along with the crowd. That definitely helped lighten the load of rather somber music. In the room normally reserved for opera performances, the crowd remained seated the entire show. Pictures were not allowed at all, and the tuxedoed ushers made sure to enforce the rule. I still managed to grab a couple of quick photos with my iPhone from our seventh row seats.
I realize that those pictures leave a lot to be desired. Fortunately, I found a small collection of photos from his concert the night before, also at the same venue. The Denver Post also has this review of the same performance posted online. The setlist last night had many similarities to this one at the bottom of the review, including the same covers. I’m not sure if our main set was shorter than the night before or not, but we actually had a four song encore instead of two. Either way the hour and half performance was easily worth the price of our tickets. I just hope that he brings along some additional musicians in the future.
Entries for the last two times I’ve seen Ray LaMontagne: