A Most Pleasant Welcome to the Derby City

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It was 35 years ago that the music world was slapped upside its head with the eponymous debut album by Marshall Crenshaw. A friend of mine in Chicago calls it "quite possibly the most perfect pop album ever made," and I'm not going to disagree. If I had to pick my favorite 80s album it would either be Marshall's or the debut by the BoDeans. Both stunning (and there's a connection, too: the BoDeans sang back-up one one of Crenshaw's albums, and he recorded their song "Radio Girl"), and both hold up very well all these years later. And to think....Marshall Crenshaw had never played in Louisville before. (Now you know why I drove to Chicago to see him a few years ago???) He said after the show he thinks he may have opened for Hall and Oates in 1980 or 81, before his first album was even recorded. So now he has played Louisville, and I can tell you that it was a most pleasant welcome to the Derby City last night at Headliners Music Hall. With the St. Louis Americana band the Bottle Rockets opening, then serving as Crenshaw's backing band, the evening was a fun romp through some great music. The Bottle Rockets' opening set had one problem: sound. At times there was no hearing Keith Voegele's bass lines (and I was sitting right in front of him). Still the set was good, highlighted as always by their crowd favorites "I Love My Dog," "$1000 Car," and "Indianapolis" (which was very well received here, about 100 miles from Indianapolis). When they returned to the stage they were ample support for Crenshaw, who sadly barely highlighted his career (it's that long and that good) in the allotted 105 minutes. In addition to his favorites ("Someday, Someway," the closest thing he had to a hit, "Whenever You're On My Mind," and "Calling Out for Love [At Crying Time]") Crenshaw opened with an obligatory Buddy Holly cover (given that most people know him from playing Buddy Holly in the Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba) and sneaked in a couple of other covers. A pleasant surprise was his cover of "2541" by former Hüsker Dü member Grant Hart (if you were paying attention to @teamfreak16 's list of favorite indie labels you may remember seeing their label, SST, mentioned). The only downside to the show -- and the covers -- was that Crenshaw also played "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream." That song is about six minutes long (in contrast to Crenshaw's three-minute pop tunes), which meant that so many of the songs he has from his own history had to take a back seat. But let's face it: any Crenshaw is good Crenshaw, and you got to hear a Dylan song without suffering through Dylan's voice. I love seeing Marshall Crenshaw and the Bottle Rockets together.