4 days, 3 shows

So, I managed to make it to three Dan Bern shows last week: Wednesday at the Birchmere, the late show at Puck in Doylestown, PA on Friday, and the East End Cafe in Newark, Delaware on Saturday. Apparently word had gotten out (though not to me) that the Birchmere show was going to be more of an opening set--as it was, it was pretty much a greatest hits set. Which I guess, for people mostly not there just to see him, is the way to do it. And the East End Cafe more than made up for any disappointment (how have I not gone there to see him before?! Oh right, I've spent most of my DB-crazy years in Minnesota. I definitely will go to East End shows from now on).

I recorded the shows straight through, and will post tracks, if I can ever figure out how to break them up into tracks...for now, set lists!:

The Birchmere (May 16)
Jerusalem
Tiger Woods
Black Tornado
God Said No
President
Breathe
Suicide Room
Past Belief
Marilyn
Blue Highway


Puck (May 18, 10 pm show)
Birdhouse in Your Soul (They Might be Giants cover--he really just played the first few lines, then decided, I think, that it was too high. He was sick, poor guy!)
Crosses
I Need You
Baby Bye Bye
Suicide Room
Too Late to Die Young
Carried Away*
Cowboy
Past Belief
Marilyn
Wasteland
Albuquerque Lullaby
Cape Town
Airplane Blues

East End Cafe (May 19)

One Thing Real
I Need You
Joe Van Gogh
Breathe
Jail
Cure for AIDS
New American Language
Baby Bye Bye
Mexican Vacation
Airplane Blues (or, the tune to Airplane Blues, with some words about whiskey and rhyming...)
Trudy
Feel Like a Man
Being Alone (how excited was I to hear this live?, ps)
Things Break Down*
Going Down to Texas*
Carried Away*
The Cold War*
Come Along*
Encore:
Black Tornado
Virginia Tech Song*
Suicide Room
Run Away
Clouds
While Circling Chicago...
House of the Rising Sun
Birdhouse in Your Soul
Marilyn

*new songs, I don't know if these are really the titles

Probably the highlight for me was Mexican Vacation--I'd requested it Friday night, to which he replied "I thought I was the only one who liked that song," and didn't play it. So when he told the story of me requesting it on Friday, and played it, on Saturday, it made my weekend. (Listen to the most beautiful version ever of Mexican Vacation from November at the Attic on the Internet Archive)

I'll make it to one more show on this stint, at Maxwell's in Hoboken. Is it Friday yet?

Pictures from: Puck, Puck and the East End.