Dallas, TX
July 3, 2002
~ Gregg
It was different than it had been 364 days earlier at the City of Bedford’s July 4th festival where the band opened for some overly slick Nash-Vegas band who’s name I can’t even recall – Ricochet maybe?
Tonight it was a quiet Wednesday evening in Deep Ellum where the Gypsy Tea Room was to host the boys with Jane Bond opening. I was quite excited about Jane Bond, as I had caught a small portion of her act when she opened for RK at Antone’s in April. She sings an honest mix of blues, jazz and country with a voice that belies her diminutive stature.
After Jane began her set, I migrated toward the stage to take my place stage right and soon found myself chatting with Gil and Jackie.
The Gypsy Tea Room has two different stages – The Ballroom and the Tea Room. Appropriately named, the Ballroom is much larger and the Wednesday show was smartly booked in the Tea Room. This pleased me greatly as the smaller stage provides a more intimate environment for 250 or so people. For some reason, the RK fever that has fully enveloped Austin (and to a lesser degree, Houston) hasn’t yet taken full effect here in Dallas. While that does mean for fewer shows than those two major sites, it generally means easier access to the show and a more familiar atmosphere.
Probably due to the holiday weekend that started that evening, the show was thankfully free of the “music overtalkers” and other undesirable concert-going elements. Call me an elitist for that comment if you will but I’m there for the music.
Gil and Jackie bought me a beer or two during the show and I didn’t once have to leave my coveted front row spot so I never did get a good perspective on how full the Tea Room got. One rather unusual occurrence happened – no encore. There were cries for one and the set list showed “Wicked Twist”** as being slated but it just didn’t happen. Maybe it was because this was the first of four shows in four nights or maybe it was because the Tea Room was hotter than sin that night.
A couple of people asked if I was taking pictures
Logistically, it’s looking more and more as if I won’t get a chance to see another show before the boys pack up for their annual Idaho homecoming. For that I’m sad. But I take consolation in knowing that I got to gorge myself on 2 equally great shows right before my RK fast begins. I’ll wait patiently for cooler weather and the band’s return to Texas while dreaming of the intimate Monday night Momo’s shows at the beginning of the year.
** “Wicked Twist” is an unrecorded RK song that may also be referred to as “My First Love”. [ed.note, 7-16-02... we've heard it's "Wicked Twisted Road".]
She’s a bit of Bessie Smith and Bonnie Raitt (but without the guitar chops). Jane didn’t disappoint with a solid set of originals mixed with classic blues tunes. Even if her set wasn’t your bag, you have to give a nod to a girl whose band includes a guy who occasionally busts out on a trombone!
Gil and Jackie are true fans from Austin and I’ve met them several times at shows. They were passing through Dallas on their way to see family for the 4th and decided catching RK in Dallas would be a better diversion than stopping to see the world’s largest ball of twine or some other traditional American roadside tourist trap.
The show was significantly less Millican–heavy than the weekend before. In fact, it was a great mix of the old 
and new. The now familiar Sopranos walk-on and “Baby’s Gone Blues” opened the show around 11:30 PM but the main course was a run of 12 songs that included the new “Desolation Angels” and “Hiram/Motel Cowboy Show” as well as “Back Around” and “Eight More Miles”. The band again gave a nod to John Entwistle with a portion of “My Generation” during “Hey Say May” and also indulged us with the new “Laredo” which seems to be making more and more set lists
for the band’s website that night. I answered honestly by saying “no” but I didn’t exactly volunteer the whole story since we were still working on getting everything set up here. To Jennifer and someone else whose name I forget, I’m sorry … we just had to get our ducks in a row before letting everybody in.