Went to see the Jeffrey Dean Foster show last night (free bonus link). It was part of the Summer on Trade series (block off the street urban thingie – you know how it works). The legendary Mitch Easter opened, to boot. Most cool.

Mitch was Mitch, pretty much. I’ve never really loved him as a singer or songwriter so much (acknowledging that a lot of folks whose opinions I respect tremendously disagree with me here, so let’s chalk this up to a flaw in my personal taste), but he’s always been a great player, and last night we were treated to some outstanding guitar work. Even in an outdoor street faire venue, where the audio can be notoriously tragic, he managed to sound really solid. And I say this as somebody who has seen some spectacular musicians felled by bad acoustics and second-rate sound guys.

Foster’s performance was a little different from the last few times I’ve seen him live. This obviously wasn’t an ideal set-up for intimate, which is what most of his last album calls for. So the band took the energy level up a couple notches from the git-go, and really turned it up by sliding directly into “Bang a Gong” from “Long Gone Sailor,” something they don’t do in their quieter shows. Yeah, the crowd feckin’ loved that. The show was clipping along nicely, and then about halfway in the rain hit. Not monsoon-level, but enough to send a lot of folks running for cover.

However, a lot of other people bolted out into the rain, and almost immediately the tone of the show changed.

Even people who dearly love the city don’t really think of Winston-Salem as the Capital of Cool, you know. But all of a sudden we had a genuinely special moment on our hands. People don’t dance in the rain for just anybody, I guess, and even in his hometown Foster isn’t what you’d call a household name. (Then again, a lot of people wouldn’t know Mitch Easter if he walked up and bit them and the dBs had to leave town to earn their fame.) When Easter joined the band for the last three songs it really did feel, all of a sudden, like we were somewhere. Amazing show. Wish you could have been there.

Thanks to Jeff and the Birds of Prey. Thanks to Mitch. I’ll remember the last half-hour for a long time, I imagine…

(Then, of course, there was this.)

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