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| Nikki Lane and Jon Shoemaker |
It was an eventful first day of the tour. The band was testing out a different set list while breaking in their new bass player.
Nikki Lane was wearing a newly acquired hat that was "just a little too small." The opener
Carl Anderson and his guitar player
Sam Wilson were playing Denver for the first time. They performed on empty stomachs due to the venue selling out of barbecue before they could order. The food shortage could of also contributed to the crowd being too drunk for a Tuesday.
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Nikki Lane - All photos by
the Rock and Roll Princess |
A break up and an unexpected encounter at a flea market shaped
Nikki Lane's career. After working in the fashion industry, Lane
decided to become a singer out of spite after splitting up with a country musician. After she met
Dan Auerbach of
The Black Keys randomly at a flea market, Lane convinced him to produce her second album. That record received high praise from the music industry. She was declared the First Lady of Outlaw Country. That gave her the opportunity to open for
Loretta Lynn and
Chris Stapleton. Now she is touring in support of her third album
Highway Queen.
The song
700,000 Rednecks set the tone of for the evening with
Nikki Lance confessing "
I travel around from town to town/I do the best I can everyday/I drive long hours and I don't get to shower and I ain't going to brag about the pay." After playing a number of songs from her latest release, Lane switched to
All or Nothing from her first record. Her breathy vocals inspired many of the women in the audience to sing-along. An enthusiastic fan with a light-up boa and a cartoonish tiny hat belted out the lyrics with such passion it almost stole the spotlight from Lane.
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| Alex Munos and Nikki Lane |
The show suddenly stopped because of technical difficulties with bass player
Jon Shoemaker's equipment. Lane quickly went backstage to retrieve a bottle of whiskey and a glass bottle of Coke. She talked to the audience while enjoying her spirits and chaser. When the problem was finally fixed, Lane passed the bottle (of whiskey not Coke) to the crowd. This is the second time I witnessed alcohol being distributed to the fans by the headliner at
Globe Hall. It might be some kind of unspoken tradition.
Jack Pot ended the set with a clever comparison of love and gambling (it even had
Viva Las Vegas in the chorus). The band came back for the encore playing
Mickey Newbury's Why You Been Gone So Long. As
Nikki Lane left the stage, her bottle of Coke spilled at the base of her microphone stand while the crowd poured out into the blackness of the night.
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| Carl Anderson and Sam Wilson |
In the middle of his set, supporting act
Carl Anderson heard a voice in the crowd requesting
Different Darkness. The song describes the similarities Anderson has to his estranged father. "
Same wanderlust, met with a different darkness/I can see his face in mine." His dad was a drifter/folk-singer who Anderson last saw him when he was just six years old. When he was a teenager growing up in a small town in Virginia named Wolftown, Anderson discovered he shared his father's gift of music. He sang songs with melancholy themes accompanied by
Sam Wilson's atmospheric haunting electric guitar playing. Despite his somber lyrics, Anderson appeared delighted about his Denver debut. He smiled at the crowd, showed off his dancing skills, and even made
John Denver jokes.
See you at the next show. I'll be the one asking the singer to pass me the bottle.
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