Flashes of Panic

Once we worked out that we would be here this weekend (that happened on Thursday night) I scanned the IHEG schedule, and there was Catie Curtis at the Iron Horse tonight. So off we went.

This is the fourth time we’ve seen Catie, and the third time at the Horse; I think the first time might have been the first or second time I’d been to there. There’s been, I think, two albums and a daughter since then, and it feels like she’s shifted away from some of the songs about the world doin’ somebody wrong, and more towards some really soul-baring love songs. (The critics have been lagging a bit behind; at one of the other shows she introduced a song by explaining that she’d read a review describing one of her albums as “lesbian anthems,” so she decided she’d better write one.)

• Catie grew up in Maine, though there’s a bit of lingering resentment there; one of her songs is called, “What’s The Matter,” and the line is, “This town was my biggest fan, until I was who I am.” Am I disappointed, yes; surprised, no.
• There’s no doubt about your baseball allegiances when you grow up in Maine. We were getting updates on the Sox game throughout the show.
• One of the best things about watching her shows is that she clearly enjoys performing. The songs are well-done, but there’s something about the way she performs them, and that irrepressible grin she just can’t shut off, that makes it worth going to the shows.
• She joked (she jokes a lot) about an internet discussion of the “secret lesbian subtext” to her songs. I thought the obvious joke was that it wasn’t much of a secret, but that wasn’t mentioned. Then she mentioned the rumor that she’d been kidnapped and replaced by aliens, adding, “It may be true.”
• She played a song by Mark Erelli—“If you like it, you’ll appreciate my taste in borrowing it from Mark; if you don’t like it, it’s his song, not mine,”—which was better than I’d expected of Mark (having seen him back in February) but not quite up to par for Catie.

That’s all I have now… and the Sox have shut down the Yankees, 12-5. MLB Gameday is pretty cool when you don’t like TV.

Now playing: What’s The Matter from A Crash Course in Roses by Catie Curtis