Lucinda Williams fought the bugs – and the bugs won. At least, that's the way she acted Tuesday night at the Minnesota Zoo.
In the home stretch of her two-hour return engagement at the sold-out zoo amphitheater, the Americana queen lost her focus, started bitching about the bugs and even brought out insect repellent but declined to spray it after reading the label.
"At least they're not mosquitos," observed the zoo veteran, who is married to a Minnesota native and has spent a fair amount of time in the Land of 10,000 mosquito habitats.
Truth be told, it was a pretty strong Williams performance. Her voice was more assertive (and louder) than usual, her repertoire refreshed with superior material from last year's double album ("Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone") and her backup trio, Buick 6, top-notch.
If there were any failings in her performance, it was her dependence on consulting lyrics sheets that was more distracting than the bugs flying in her face. By consistently looking down at her spiral notebook on a music stand, Williams fails to make eye contact with the crowd. At times, it seems as if she's not engaged. Her approach certainly prevents her from getting lost in song and truly rocking out. The only time she ignored the music stand and just rocked with abandon was on the finale "Get Right with God."
Her lyrics on a couple of selections, namely "Protection" and "Are You Down," didn't measure up to Williams' high standards but guitarist Stuart Mathis saved the songs with an uplifting solo. He also nailed the Bruce Springsteen solo on a straightforward cover of "The Rising," a rallying cry that seems like an odd choice for a singer who is glued to lyrics sheets.
The highlights included newer numbers "When I Look at the World," about looking at the big picture instead of just your own problems, and "Compassion," which suggested Leonard Cohen in both melody and lyrics (which were taken from a poem by her father, Miller Williams).
Near the end of the show, Williams talked about the need for bug repellent – "natural, of course" – at the zoo. And she admitted, "It's impossible to be cool in this situation." Then she kicked out the jams on "Honey Bee," which is about sweet love, not distracting things flying in her face.
