old whiskey river

willie nelson kicked off his canadian tour last week at the john labatt centre here in london! holy shit! what the f??? willie!! WILLIE!!!

seriously...

we (brahm, rachelle, and i) decided to check the box office, night of, to see what we could get and take our chances.. showed up right near the end of the nitty gritty dirt band, needed 3 seats in a row, and hit the friggin jackpot! we were 3 rows up from the floor, perfect eye level, just off to the side of the stage on a great viewing angle - beautiful! all day when i was checking online all they had left were nosebleeds... just after we got to our seats a woman came by ranting about how her mother ordered tickets and was told she'd be in a great spot but, when they got there, they ended up way up in the rafters or something, and wouldnt you be disappointed if you came all the way from windsor and they stuck you way up there, i bet you would, she ordered these tickets for herself and i told her i would bring her, all the way from windsor, for her 81st birthday... well, wouldn't ya know, ma'am, we came from down the street 5 minutes ago and they stuck us right here. *shrugs*

great show overall, and man, i was impressed by willie - totally exceeded all my expectations. the pace of the show, the sound, loudness, i thought was great - the ease with which the band with each other.. trading off parts here and there, transitioning from songs.. it was great to see and hear. they opened with whiskey river and wound through a good 4 or 5 tunes before taking a break and addressing the crowd.. i was impressed with that. and willie's lead playing, i thought, was phenomenal the entire show. the man can play! and all on the acoustic all night, it sounded so nice.

i dont remember the setlist exactly, but i know he opened and closed with whiskey river. everything else you'd probably wanna hear was in there.. then he threw in some waylon, and hank.. then some more stuff you'd recognize but i dont know the name of. it was great.

willie nelson, baby.