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... by Joanne Corsano ... joanne@picturelake.com

Willie Nile and band
click thumbnail to see a photo gallery
of the concert

Willie Nile (vocals, guitar), Johnny Pisano (bass, vocals), Jimi K Bones (guitar, vocals), Jon Weber (drums).

This Is Our Time - Black Magic & White Lies - Run - We Are, We Are - Lost and Lonely World - Trouble In Diamond Town - You've Got To Be a Buddha In a Place Like This - An Irish Goodbye - Shoulders - Heaven Help the Lonely - New York At Night - All Dressed Up and No Place To Go - Give Me Tomorrow - Sweet Jane {Lou Reed} - House of 1000 Guitars - Run Free ... encore ... Vagabond Moon - One Guitar - All the Way from Moscow {Jesse Malin}

Scroll to below videos for a review of the show.

Run

New York at Night

Give Me Tomorrow

This show was dynamite on a lot of levels. We had bought the tickets as soon as they went on sale a few months ago and sat in the front row of this vintage music hall that not only had a big stage and great acoustics, but had an incredible light show. I wish I got more and better pictures but really, I was busy soaking up the total joy of watching Willie and the fellas perform, after they hadn't come anywhere near me in just about a year. What about eastern New England, guys? You have enthusiastic fans here, not just in New York!

The slide show started with a display of the covers of all the albums Willie has recorded over his long career, and man, has he recorded a lot! Then during the show it often displayed his name, with changing graphics, sometimes of just colors, then sometimes patterns. Often Willie remarked on how much this enhanced the show and how much he enjoyed it! A few times the light show dude responded to Willie's kidding around with adding a psychedelic color scheme or two. Watch the above videos to see what I mean!

I've been seeing a lot of folk and folk-leaning music lately, but Willie Nile and his guys are straight rock 'n roll. Not loud enough to need ear plugs, but definitely energetic. A fabulous ensemble of rock musicians -- Jimi is a talented lead guitarist who, unlike some other guitarists, declines to hog the spotlight with extensive soloing, Jon is just the right drummer for Willie's tunes, and Johnny -- well, he's Johnny Pi! What can I say? He gets to do some soloing too, especially on their cover of Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane" -- puts his foot up on the monitor and wails away -- love it.

Some singing along, just one song on the piano. There were songs from all phases of his career, going back to the first album (1980), songs from albums all the way in between, then a few new numbers to be featured on a new album, estimated release date around June next year, some of which were co-written with longtime collaborator Frankie Lee.

One very touching new ballad is "Irish Goodbye," written thinking of Willie's now 107 year old father, still very much on this earthly plane. (You read that right -- 107 years old!) Willie was just at the Noonan patriarch's birthday party -- still living at home in Buffalo with at-home care from a family member, very much a practicing Catholic, and, according to Willie, still very witty and enjoying the company of generations of Noonans.

Tonight's encore set consisted of that song from Willie's first album, "Vagabond Moon," leading into his most-loved anthem, "One Guitar," and leading to a song he has sung with Jesse Malin, "All the Way From Moscow." A well-balanced set drawing from all segments of his career and bringing some much needed hope into these dark days. After the show Johnny and Willie both hung out in the theater and in the lobby to converse with fans. I had sat next to a concert goer named Scott who had come up from Connecticut to see his very first Willie concert, although he said he had just about all of Willie's recordings! Speaking of Willie's recordings, I was actually able to obtain one I didn't already have from merch girl Cathy, since Willie has recently released a "Live at the Bottom Line" live album. Concert Going Partner and I listened to it the next day driving home to Cape Cod after a night in a local motel. Let's hope we don't have to wait for another year to go by before we get to see Willie and the guys perform again!

Here is a page with a handy list of links to all pages on this website with content relating to Willie Nile.