Tour Dates

11/06/10 White River Junction, VT – Tupelo Music Hall
11/14/10 Seattle, WA –Triple Door
11/15/10 Seattle, WA –Triple Door
11/18/10 Arcata, CA – The Jambalaya
11/19/10 Crystal Bay, NV – Crystal Bay Club
11/20/10 Livermore, CA – Livermore Valley Performing Arts
11/21/10 Los Angeles, CA – Hotel Café
11/22/10 Los Angeles, CA – Hotel Café
12/26/10 Brooklyn, NY – The Bell House
12/29/10 Norfolk, CT – Infinity Hall

Dar Williams, not only sing and play music, but she’s also quite the storyteller. Each of her twelve songs that she played the night of October 30^th at the Dowling Studio (inside the Guthrie Theater), she had a story about it. So in that tradition, I thought I’d open this with a little history about the Guthrie.

The Guthrie Theater, in Minneapolis, started its original building near the Walker Art Center, but it was apparent that by 2000 that its “boxing style” seating was too restrictive, in terms of the kind of show they can do. For instance, they really couldn’t do a “small” show, otherwise the 1,000+ empty seats would look too embarrassing. With the new Guthrie building, designed by Jean Nouvel, it contain three stages: the papa bear Wurtele Thrust (1,100 seats), the mama bear McGuire Proscenium (700 seats), and the baby bear Dowling Studio (199 seats).

Since this was the first time I’ve been to the Dowling, I was surprised how small the room was, which is great to see really intimate shows.

Dar Williams started right away by announcing that she felt the second night was much better since she got hairspray. Her stories usually revolves around her songs that she played. Stories range from shaving her armpits to “High Times” owner to her architect husband in New York.

As for the music, they were mostly from her greatest hits compilation, Many Great Companions, including “If I Wrote You” and “Summerday” (which at this song, her keyboardist Bryn Roberts left the stage). Williams continues on for a few more songs until her intermission.

The second part of the show went off strong with my favorite track, “It’s Alright”, followed by “The Beauty Of The Rain”.
As for the encore, it was “When I Was a Boy”.

PS, since Dar Williams tells so many great stories, I reckon it was 50% music, 49% talking and 1% laughter, I do have a personal story to tell: Dave and I went to this show, and we got in just minutes before the 7:30pm because of a mixup before the show. Anyway, we just pick a spot on stage left, and the next thing we knew but who were sitting in front of us: Dave’s brother and his wife. It was too unreal, it’s one of best show all year because of this.