Can’t be in two places at once but you can make it to two simultaneous concerts on the same evening.

I caught about 45 minutes of David Hidalgo & Louie Perez, of Los Lobos, opening for Leo Kottke Saturday at the State Theatre. In this mostly acoustic format (with a bassist and drummer occasionally joining them), Dos Lobos reminded us of the sweetness of Los Lobos rhythm-heavy songs. (They did some Lobos numbers, tunes by side project Latin Playboys, among other selections.) At one point, Perez said Hidalgo’s songs almost made him cry. Perez proved to be a dry wit, something that’s not evident at Los Lobos concerts at which Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas dominate.

Before David & Louie finished, I exited for St. Paul to see alt-country cult figure Shelby Lynne at the O’Shaughnessy. Even though I missed the first handful of songs, it was a terrfically rewarding concert.

Shelby, who has been inconsistent live and on record, was in good form, demonstrating a mastery of the art of being sad and sultry at the same time. John Jackson, a former Bob Dylan sideman, provided the right guitar seasonings for Shelby’s southern soul. You could feel her pain on the ballads, especially the desperation on the tunes from her stellar new Dusty Springfield tribute album.

She was less effective on the rockers and rockabilly stuff when her voice just wasn’t compelling enough. For an encore, she did a deliciously slow and funky reading of Tony Joe White’s “Polk Salad Annie.”

And, in this perfect theater setting after headline shows at the Fine Line, one could appreciate the fact that Shelby has the sexiest stage legs since Dwight Yoakam’s.

What did you think of the concerts? Did you see Kottke? Please post your comments here:

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Concerts, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.