12/9 Date Night
We met 20 years ago. I introduced her to Old 97's, we've been to a number of Old 97's shows together. We took our month old infant to her first show, Old 97's at Baltimore Artscape. Long ago, one of her old friends used to be the executive chef at City Winery NYC. We once visited him there and were given the royal treatment. So it seemed like a solo Rhett Miller show for our first DC City Winery show was a good idea.
But of course, we're beer people, and Other Half is a two minute walk from City Winery DC. So after an hour in traffic, we made it to Union Market, grabbed some takeaway, and high tailed it to Other Half. It's always kind of sad how empty the place seems to be. Come on DC, support a great brewery taproom...I think at least one of the owners is a local boy, even if it is an NYC brewery.
After dinner and a couple of beers, we headed over the City Winery. First though upon entry was they seemed to have a lot of people working for such a small place and show. Nice place. Cookie cutter swanky (no that there's anything wrong with cookies, we had small pours of the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough stout at OH.) We were served complimentary glasses of champaign along with the glass of wine and app that she ordered (did they telepathically know about that connection with their former chef? Did i sign up for something that told them it was our first time there? Anyway, nice touch.)
Rhett came on at 9pm and played a mix of Old 97's songs, solo songs, and a couple of self-penned Christmas songs. He was funny and charming and dorky, serving up several stories. He waxed nostalgic about how 20 years ago DC (the Black Cat) was the first place outside of LA and NYC where he played solo acoustic after having toured with the band for years. He mentioned that before the Black Cat, he had only played solo in front of hipsters in LA and NYC. I guess the implication was that the 800 people at the Black Cat (we two included, along with some other early boardies) were decidedly not hipsters.
He was also noticeably thinner than more recent years, so not everyone gained pandemic weight. Perhaps giving up alcohol helped in that department. And of course, he never ages. Though at 51, one has to wonder if he now has the help of hair dye.
The crowd, at least what I could see of it, were old. Like senior citizen old. Most without hair dye. I hope they weren't offended by all of his cussing. I wish the Old 97's April show was at the 9:30 and not the Hamiliton, but perhaps their popularity is waning, and Rhett Miller is not Jonathan Richman. At least the Hamilton will have seating for the seniors.
After a good night kiss in the car, we headed indoors, I blasted the Cranberries "Zombie" (a cd pickup at the $5 library bag sale), and I danced with my dog.
Maybe my last show for 2021, unless a Stubhub steal pops up on something.
