Willie Nile ~ 2018 June 15 ~ Café Nine ~ New Haven, CT
Willie Nile, lead vocals, acoustic Gibson guitar; Johnny Pisano, backing vocals, electric bass; The Manchurians, opening set.
Set List
Places I Have Never Been - Life on Bleecker Street - Far Green Hills - The Innocent Ones - Don't - Earth Blues - Gettin' Ugly Out There - Love Minus Zero / No Limit {Dylan} - Children of Paradise - Telling You Now - Looking for Someone - House of a Thousand Guitars - Les Champs-Élysées ... encore ... One Guitar
Video
Les Champs-Élysées
Review
Willie Nile remarked during the show tonight that he feels there is a special magic in the duo shows with Johnny Pisano. I couldn't agree with him more.
He said that Johnny doesn't just play bass, he plays "lead bass." That's exactly the way to phrase it. With the use of some clever technology that changes the pitch of the bass with the tap of a toe, Johnny is able to change the sound of his bass to make it a lead guitar. Johnny's vocals are a crucial element in a Willie Nile show and it was such fun to hear the two of them belting out some Nile classics, some old ones, and some brand, sizzling new. The new album, Children of Paradise, has a release date in July but Willie expects to have copies to sell at his next live show.
The full band would have been too much for this tiny space, anyway. Café Nine is a legendary hole in the wall club in New Haven, booking famous musicians from '60s folk legend Melanie to '80s new waver Lloyd Cole. This was my first visit to the club; I've been just itching for a Willie/Johnny duo show and here was my chance. The club is tiny, and it's long and narrow. The lighting on the stage is not very bright, and it is very weird in terms of colors; over on stage right (Willie) the light was red; over on stage left (Johnny) it was blue. You'll see what I mean if you look at the photo gallery, up and to the right. At one point Willie needed light to look at his new lyrics cheat sheet, and Johnny adjusted one of the lights with his bass to direct it more toward Willie's music stand.
After the opening band finished at about 9:30, there was about an hour pause while the audience bought drinks getting ready to enthusiastically sing along. The place is not exactly a listening room, as there were some loud conversations going on during the show, and Willie even tried to shush them a few times while he was talking.
The duo started out with a handful of Nile favorites from relatively recent albums, and then treated the crowd to six songs from the new album. Willie's writing more topical songs these days, as he reacts, as many other songwriters are doing, to the current events of the day. One of my favorites from the new record was "Don't," featuring the memorable chorus: "don't let the fuckers kill your buzz." It has a similar theme to the Nile classic "Les Champs-Élysées," also played tonight, in which the declaration is made that we "may not know why we really exist, but if we're lucky we might get to twist."
Willie has always written songs about living life to the fullest. He celebrated his 70th birthday the other day, and honestly, the guy shows no signs at all of slowing down. He played mostly rockers, with one Dylan cover and one ballad from the new record, a song called "Looking for Someone," co-written with the late Andrew Dorff. Willie told a touching story of his friendship with Andrew and his grief over Andrew's premature death by drowning. He also embarrassed his girlfriend Christina Arigoni, whose photos are featured on the cover of the new CD, by praising her work from the stage. As always, Willie sincerely praised his accompanist and the forces in music who have been his inspirations. Willie Nile has been and continues to be one of the most authentic and skilled singer/songwriters in the music world.
The show was opened by The Manchurians, a local four piece rock band with some bluesy elements. They were very good.
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