Saw "cult guitarist" Leo Kottke last night in Charlotte at the 700 seat capacity Neighborhood Theater. You have probably heard his music even if you do not know who he is. NPR plays cuts of his amazing finger style playing on All Things Considered frequently. His style is unique: 6 and 12 sting guitar, played intensely with firger style and slide. He tunes down usually 2 half steps so he has a rich and booming sound. You may recognize his renditions of "Rings" ("Ring,
ring telephone ring Somebody said: Baby, what ya' doin'") or "Louise", or maybe his famous "Vaseline Machine Gun".
His liner notes are classic. He writes a humorous little comment about each song. In his live performance he probably talked 1/4 of the show, telling almost stream of consciousness stories about his playing, tours, and musicians he has known, as well as "weird stories". He stressed last night how it is great to be constantly surprised by life, inspite of how it seems life would get less and less surprising. He apparently has an endless supply of stories. One he told was about the curtain he had to struggle throutgh to get on stage. At one of John Hammond's performances Hammond was behind a curtain that rose up off the stage. He was listening to the announcer for his cue to go on. When the curtain rose, his guitars went up with the curtain...
Kottke just laid both his Taylor guitars down on the floor of the stage (there was a carpet) when not in use! He wore jeans and those slip on weird looking leather shoes with convoluted rubber soles. I noticed them because they were 15 feet from my eyes, and he was conatanly tapping both feet, usually in unison. He sat in a chair that looked like it came from behind a 1950s teachers desk - one of those golded wood chairs, very solid and very square, with a seat that conforms to your butt. I guess thats what he picked from the old theater's collection of chairs.
I learned a lot about how he plays some of the songs that seemed so impossible on the albums. The chords he played were often formed with 2 or three fretted notes and open strings allowing for slides of his fingers or the slide. It appeared that he did not use any finger or thumb picks! I could see his thumb move, but his fingers appeared to not move from my angle! That means that all motion was from the middle knuckles down, and the moving parts of his fingers were hidden from my angle by the back of his hand. I believe he developed this technique in part because he had injured his tendons at one point because of his intense picking style.
The whole first half, he didn't use his slide, which surprised me. I believe both his guitars were tuned EADGBE during the first half as well, with the exception of some drop D tuning. (2 half-steps down from EADGBE and Drop D). In the second half he did the alternate tunings and lots of slide. At one point he monkeyed with his slide while monologuing, as part of the show, moving it around to different spots until he was content with its location. Kottke loves the bizzarre and to experiment with concepts. It shows in his music as well as his performance style. Many of his songs are derivative/evolved versions of his other songs.
I got there early to get a seat on the second row. I parked for free on the side of the building! The first row is literally 2 feet from the stage in this old theater, so 2nd row was better to me. I later found out that although there is no reserved seating, once you have presented your ticket, you can get a piece of paper - to tape to the seat you select, with your name on it, to save it while you go to dinner in the neighborhood! I am thrilled with this venue. Except for one thing, which is my pet peve. The sound reinforcement was not appropriate for the acoustic instuments. It overpowered the guitar's near-field sound, and I was only 15 feet away. He had to ask them to turn it down during the show. His guitars were jacked in through pickups mounted in the soundholes. I hate to see an acoustic instument transmorgified into a pseudo-acoustic instrument, but they made it much worse. Unfortunately there was so much open space around him that the sound would have gotten lost for those in the back without any reinforcement. The Neighborhood Theater is a smoke-free performing arts center in a former movie theater in the new arts district of Charlotte. Apparently it used to be a smoking venue - thats probably why I had not been there before . Robert Earle Keene and Doc Watson will be there in future weeks and I won't miss them in this great theater.
I am very satisfied overall to have been 15 feet from one of my guitar heros, and to be so entertained. He played plenty of my favorites from 6&12 String Guitar, which is still my favorite Kottke album.
