Mark Knopfler - Pines Theatre, Look Park, Noho, MA

Thursday, 30th June 2005
Pines Theater, Look Park
Northampton (Florence) MA, USA

Mark Knopfler's Shangri-La Tour 2005

Now some of you know that I left the conference in Maine early to make it to the concert right? A 5 hour journey, and I wanted to make it to the gates by 5:30p at least (opening time). So Lisandra and I left Rockport at around 10:45 am.. and did make it to Boston by about 2:45pm.. more like 3:15pm by the time we got to her apt..
By the time I took off from Boston, it was almost 3:30. 2 hours from Boston to Amherst/Noho is normally routine for me so I wasn't worried.. just cruised along.. at 65 (did I tell you about the ticket I got 2 weeks ago??).. confident that I'd make it on time. Then slowly the traffic starts slowing down.. wth longer and longer stopped periods.. and then finally we are at a standstill .. for almost a complete hour.. on I-90. Man, was I frustrated. I don't even know what caused the jam up. Anyway, as soon as it frees up, I take off.. and manage to make it to Look Park by about 6:30pm to find poor Bastien standing at the entrance waiting for me .. he'd been there since 5pm!! and since the tickets were on my name he couldn't even go pick it up!!

Anyway - we were finally in. The Pines Theatre - a tiny venue with a really nice grass lawn seating.. luckily we had brought our blankets/lawn chairs etc. and managed to finagle a decent enough spot to park our butts. Then I went around to check out the food/drink stalls and realised that there was absolutely no alcohol being sold on the premises!!! Oh man, if only I'd known! I had half a mind to go for a quick beer run and bring in a couple of cans of beer at least (that was permitted- no bottles though!!) but didn't want to risk missing out anything. Oh well.. by the way another thing that was bugging abt Pines Theatre was that it was an outdoor venue with absolutely no smoking allowed!! HUH????? Oh well..

An Irish + British duo, Bap Kennedy and James Walbourne kept the crowd happy for a bit with some fancy numbers... very acoustic, very smooth - almost like classic american country music. But they weren't what we'd paid an unholy amount of dineros to listen to!! The crowd's getting restless now. No Knopfler yet!! Luckily the crowd was older I guess, and less unruly?? Average age of the crowd?? Hmmm I'd put it at 50!! hehehe.. But trust these oldies to light up the good weed at a place where even smoking was prohibited!! :D

Any hoo haaa... come 8pm - FINALLY - and Mark Knopfler walks out and kicks off with the relatively obscure Why Aye Man from Ragpicker's Dream.. Follows it up with and the more well known numbers, bringing the aging (!!) crowd to its feet. (I'll have out the full set-list at the end.) So anyway, even though this was the ShangriLa tour he had just two numbers from that Album - Walk of LifeSong For Sonny Liston and Boom, Like That which was excellently performed. Great song!! It's about fast food and McDonald's founder Ray Kroc... hmmmmm McDonalds!!!!!! but I digress.. The undoubtedly well received songs were all the old Dire Straits songs - With people just going MAAAAAAAAAAAD during Sultans of Swing. Romeo and Juliet quietened people down - melancholic memories for all I guess. A duet for Done with Bonaparte with Knopfler on his classic Steel Guitar and the Richard Bennett on the greek looking (and sounding) Bouzouki and another duet (kinda) for Rudiger was excellently performed. These two were very very memorable - other than the regular Dire Straits numbers.

Remember this is about the first week in July in Northampton (Western Mass) and it's not dark till about 9pm!! But it seemed like they timed their set perfectly to coincide with the real nightfall!! Knopfler starts off with a wonderful wonderful playing of Telegraph Road... one of the longest numbers for the night.. Darkness falls.. the lights and the fog effects are perfect and the music, Knopfler's signature guitar sounds mesmerises the crowd. We didn't need the extra paraphernalia to be stoned on that heady mix of ambience and music. Oh wow - the song went on for ever and ever. And when it was done, the crew got together and said their good-byes. Of course, knowing that they'd be called back for an encore - and what a calling it was!! And what an encore!! They walked back to play Brothers in Arms and then Money for Nothing. These two numbers just drove the crowd wild!! If there were anyone sitting during the concert this part definitely brought them to their feet.

These two numbers completed, Knopfler and the crew take their bows, bask in the applause and the pleads for one more-one more-one more... and then - lights off- spot on Knopfler and he starts off with So Far Away as the Final Encore.

What a night - what a show!! just shy of two hours - fifteen songs by one of the legendary guitar masters. Been hearing Mark Knopfler since I was young enough to understand and appreciate music - and to get to see him, hear him perform live is unreal. I was hoping he'd play more - and man, there are so many he could have. I wanted to especially hear Your Latest Trick. But in a way I'm glad he didn't. There's always a next time isn't there?


The set-list:

Why Aye Man - From Ragpicker's Dream.
Walk of Life
What it is
Sailing to Philadelphia
Romeo & Juliet
Sultans of Swing
Done with Bonaparte
Song for Sonny Liston
Rudiger
Boom, Like That
Speedway at Nazareth
Telegraph Road
Encore:
Brothers in Arms
Money for Nothing
2nd Encore:
So Far Away

More Pictures Below:
Sorry for the blurry, grainy, noisy pics - This was the best my low ISO cam could do from that distance in that light! :).. Maybe when I get my DigiSLR!!! ooooh!!! enjoy these in the meanwhile.