Marcia Ball ~ 2018 October 6 ~ Payomet Performing Arts Center ~ North Truro, MA
Set List
I am not all that familiar with Marcia's material, so a few of the song titles are guesses, in which case I have put (title?) in parens after the guess. Corrections to song titles are welcome! For the songs that were covers, I haven't put the original performer. This setlist has also been posted to setlist.fm. Songs from Marcia's new album Shine Bright are marked [SB].
Let's Have a Natural Ball - Red Beans - Just Kiss Me - Shine Bright [SB] - Somebody to Treat Me Right (title?) - Take a Little Louisiana [SB] - What Would I Do Without You [SB] - Life of the Party [SB] - Be Somebody {by guitarist Mike Schermer} - Pots and Pans [SB] - When the Mardi Gras is Over [SB] - Too Much For Me [SB] - He's the One Who Makes Me Feel Good (title?) - The Squeeze Is On - Sugar Boogie - I Heard It All - The Party's Still Going On - Louisiana 1927 - Let Me Play With Your Poodle ... encore ... Sing It - I Still Love You (title?)
Review
Marcia Ball and her four additional musicians put on a rollicking good show for close to two hours on this cool autumn evening on the Lower Cape. Commenting on the chilly weather, Marcia, in her sleeveless sundress, said maybe she had underdressed, but then she commented that it "is always summer on stage."
Despite approaching a half century in the music business, Marcia hasn't slowed a beat. She bangs out boogie woogie and Louisiana swamp rhythm and blues on the piano as if she just invented the genre last week, singing with a bright and tuneful contralto that's just right for the music. She's got a passel of stompin' originals, but she also is a magnificent interpreter of tunes by a wide variety of influences. Years ago I had the great good fortune to see the immortal Professor Longhair in concert (twice), and Marcia paid tribute to that greatest Louisiana piano buster of them all with his tune "Red Beans." She mixed a perfect number of ballads, about five total, in her 21-song set.
Marcia's band consisted of a bass player, drummer, lead guitarist, and sax player, most of whom also sang backup. The lead guitarist, Mike Schermer, is a frequent collaborator, and the set featured one of his songs, "Be Somebody."
Shine Bright is the name of Marcia's new record, and the soldout and enthusiastic audience was treated to seven numbers from the album. One of these songs is "Pots and Pans," in which Marcia namedrops the late great Molly Ivins, Texas political columnist, quoting Molly as saying "there won't be change until you get out in the street and bang on pots and pans." Halfway through the song the power to the stage went out. Marcia tried to continue the song acoustically for a few seconds, but when that didn't work, she leaped up from her piano bench and went looking for the electrical connection and fixed it herself.
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