Category: orange peel

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best weekend ever

ALO came to town on friday armed with a new album and ready to liberate the animals of asheville for the first time with california beach funk love.

it was keyboardist zach gill’s birthday. i happily provided some balloons and cakes in the shape of dogs, straight from ingles. they all made it to the stage of the orange peel later.

unicorn balloons

also 2 of 4 members wore skippy haha vintage shirts on stage. if it’s free i’ll take it!

go to their site. buy their new (awesome) album. (sounds like this) and go see them live if they come to your town! you will smile. and dance. and feel one with humanity. and happy to be alive. and smile some more.

livin in a plastic bubble and it’s GOOD!

time lapse video of the making of their backdrop. 


next night was jack white. guitar master. rock god. hotel yorba sing-a-long. all girl band. no photos allowed.

jack white
believe the hype.
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sing alongs

the wood brothers put on a great show. 

gotta love when they call for an encore sing-a-long and the crowd is not too pretentious to oblige. 

orange peel on wednesday night such a thing happened. 

so damn heartwarming!


runnin’ is useless, fightin’ is foolish
you’re not gonna win but still
you’re the luckiest man
you’re up against
too many horses
and mysterious forces
whatcha don’t know is
you are the luckiest man

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friday

yesterday i ran my left pinky toe as hard as i could into a concrete step.
i get no sympathy from a person whose pinky toes are permanently in this position, i’m told i don’t need it and i kind of agree.
i killed a small black widow spider. on the freakin couch.
i wore a skirt for a dress. not outside the house.
i saw gilian welch & david rawlings. 
my soul was stirred. there was banjo but it was low, slow & sincere & i liked it.
it was dangerously hot in the orange peel until we weaseled our way under the giant ceiling fan. dangerously hot. 
i’ll fly away!
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orange peel redux

last time i wrote about the orange peel it was after feeling unfairly violated by security at an ozomatli show two years ago.
i went back last night for the lucinda williams show and am THRILLED to report that entry was smooth and easy and my civil rights remained intact. everybody was friendly and there were no harsh searches or pat downs or anything. it was amazingly refreshing.
lucinda williams. her voice is one in a million. she makes me believe she’s had a grizzled life and lived to sing about it. she was on.
she did a 3 song encore. and after that came BACK OUT for one more – cover of buffalo springfield’s ‘for what it’s worth.’ she left the stage triumphant yelling ‘peace love and revolution.’
the vintage empress in me thinks it was too bad she and her lead guitarist were wearing basically matching blue bandanna style western shirts.
dylan leblanc opened for her. this kid is GOING PLACES. mark my words. 21 years old from shreveport louisiana. looks like townes van zandt. great stage presence. haunting emotional raw voice a la jim james, proficient moving finger style guitar, he’ll be back at the orange peel in june opening for the drive-by truckers. don’t miss it. his cover of bruce springsteens ‘i’m on fire’ was imminently memorable and smoldering.
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north mississippi allstars


ventured out last weekend to see the north mississippi all stars play at the orange peel. i was amazed and relieved and gleeful that the guy at the door took my ticket, stamped my hand, and let me inside. no pat down. no opening my bag. no rifling through my pockets. no opening up my wallet and change purse. it’s the first time i’ve been back to the orange peel since being rabidly searched at the door last year and i was so impressed with how pleasant it was to enter.
the show was pretty good. of their first 5 songs, 3 of them heavily involved “SHAKE IT” in the chorus. most of the instrumental noodling sounded like the allman brothers’ ‘jessica’ on repeat. i know about 6 of their songs and they played them all.