The Pier is set up so that if you want to drink alcohol, you must go into this fenced off pen area and drink from a plastic cup.  Umm-yum.  Just how the connoisseurs prefer it.  Consequently, you cannot drink near the stage area.  Which also translates into the fact that the performers are not allowed to drink on-stage.  This seemed to be a source of aggravation for Mr. Alvin, but he somehow managed to deliver the musical goods despite this major obstacle.

Local band The Picketts opened the show.  Although we could find nothing wrong with them per se, the three of us agreed that they had a bit too much of a hippie/Grateful Dead thing going on.  Technically they are very proficient, and lead singer Christy McCaughey has a lovely voice, but overall the band left us all flat.  And made us clamor to see Dave & the Guilty Men all the more!

Ah, the sun was going down by the time Sir Dave took the stage.  Every time I see him I am amazed.  He started off the show by playing the first six songs on his acoustic guitar.  One of the most touching songs he did was "California Snow" which he wrote with Tom Russell.  It can be found on his latest cd, "Blackjack Dave."  This song concerns an immigration officer's feelings after finding an illegal Mexican couple who had crossed the border;  the wife freezes to death in the snow, leaving the husband to be sent back to Mexico alone.  It's a wonderful song, the kind of song I can only hope I will someday be capable of writing.

He then proceeded to do eleven more songs, and an encore.  This was one of the finest Dave Alvin shows I have seen.  He seemed happy and relaxed (despite the lack of libations on stage) and played a good mix of his new and old songs.  We got the chance to talk to Dave backstage, which was a bit tricky.  Michelle and I had made some lovely almond cookies for Dave & the band (get it, "Dave Almond" cookies...) and Michelle had decorated the cookie container with quotes from Thomas Wolfe and pix of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and Mr. Wolfe.  We had to deliver the goods!  The security at the Pier was trying to kick everyone out, so we talked to the drummer of the Guilty Men, Bobby Lloyd Hicks, and since he had a hankering for cookies he let us backstage.

Mr. Alvin was nice as pie, and remembered talking to us at his Monsters of Folk show in Seattle.  He asked us if there was a good place to get a drink, so someone suggested the Frontier Room, a dive in Belltown.  He told us that he and the band would meet us there later on.  We left, thinking "yea, what are the chances that he'll really meet us there?"  Well, lo and behold if he didn't come walking in there later on with most of the band in tow.  The crowd was pretty lame at the Frontier Room, so we all moseyed on over to the Rendezvous, another infamous Belltown dive.  While we were all drinking and talking, Rick the steel guitar player told me about a show they were playing on Sunday night in Independence Oregon, a small town outside of Salem.  The club was called "Lenora's Ghost," and it sounded like a great show to go to.  He told me he'd put us on the list if we went.  We decided to think about it, as I had my sister's wedding to attend on Sunday afternoon.

Okay, we thought about it and decided to go.  Pattie and my friend Steve also decided to go.  Yippee, four adults in a 1993 Toyota Tercel.  It doesn't get any better than that.  Did I also mention that I have no air conditioning?  We had to leave Seattle after 5:30 on Sunday due to everyone's work & social obligations that day.  Rick had given me the phone number of the club, so we called when we were halfway there and got directions.  Rick had also mentioned that an opening act would be going on at 9:30, so we thought we had plenty of time.

It's not a road trip unless you have stories to tell, now is it?  Well, when we got to Salem the consensus was to find a hotel room, then go to the club.  I was already ready to go, so I wanted to head on over, but oh well, whatever.  So we get this cheap hotel that was run by a brain dead night clerk, and the other guests all appeared to be fugitives on the lam, you know, the kind you see on "America's Most Wanted."  Cozy!  So the chicas get ready, and we drive on over to the club.  By the time we get there it is 11:00 pm.  And guess what?  Dave Alvin was on stage, and had been since 9:00 pm.  Aargh!  Just my luck!  So we saw four songs, including the encore that he did.  During the last song of the encore, the p.a. gave out as a fuse had blown.  So if the band was planning on doing any other songs, it was not meant to be.  What I did see was great, and this club is something else.  Couples were dancing as if Dave Alvin & the Guilty Men were the house band at a road house out in the middle of nowhere.  Which I guess they were for a night.  I wish we had seen more.  Oh well, how interesting of a story would it be to say "oh yea, we went there & the show was great."?  We did get to hang out with the Dave & the band & the club owner.  They are the nicest people in the world, I swear.  We even got to go upstairs in this abandoned hotel and look around for Lenora's ghost, the club's namesake.  I don't think she likes to show herself to large groups of boisterous people.