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Mrs. GolfBlogger and I had a real treat last night: we saw Mark Knopfler live at the historic The Michigan Theater in downtown Ann Arbor.
The GolfBloggers are huge fans of Knopfler, who perhaps is best known as the front man and guitarist for the group Dire Straits. Knopfler formed that group in 1977 and had a breakthrough hit in 1978 with “Sultans of Swing” from the album Dire Straits
The concert was in a relatively a small setting—the Michigan seats 1,700—and thus had a nice friendly atmosphere. Knopfler and his immensely talented band reeled off one song after another, with no chat and little wasted time. His new songs—mostly with a Celtic-Bluegrass feel—were enjoyable, but the real crowd pleasers were from his days with Dire Straits: Romeo and Juliet, Brothers In Arms, Sultans of Swing, So Far Away and others.
I wonder if it is satisfying—or frustrating—for an artist to have his original works so eclipse the newer material. I think for Knopfler that it must be a little bit frustrating, since he has not been content to do Dire Straits reunion tours (none apparently are forthcoming, either), or album after soundalike album. His recent work is very different, and yet still recognizable
Knopfler’s guitar work is simply amazing, in spite of a recent injury that forced him to play the entire concert from a chair. He was precise, melodic, versatile. I dabble in guitar, and more than the quick picking, what I really admire about Knopfler are the haunting slides. I was also amazed by the number of guitar changes he made during the show. I’m sure he he had twenty different guitars, and switched out after nearly every song.
I rarely go to concerts—they’re too expensive and the huge venues put me off—but the Knopfler performance at the Michigan was well worth the (considerable) money.
Knopfler’s new CD, Get Lucky
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Something else we have in common, dude. You could be my brother. When I was just starting to hang out with my wife, I was SHOCKED to find a Dire Straits album that wasn’t Brothers In Arms in her CD cabinet. (in fact, she had 3 or 4). This has been one of our great enjoyments while dating and in our marriage.
We have been to two concerts at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and were completely bummed when for some reason he omitted the entire Southeast for this tour – I kept waiting for Nashville, Dallas, or Atlanta to show up, but it never did. The last time we saw him in 2008 at the Ryman, we were dead center, 6 rows from the stage, with nobody in the pew in front of us. Any closer and we would have had neck cramps.
With Romeo and Juliet, it is such a great song, probably my favorite still, and he always plays that I think, but the most amazing is Telegraph Road, which how dorky is this, I timed it- it came out a little shorter live at around 13:40 or so- but the amazing thing is to go for that long without missing a single note.
Last story- Last year, at the Arkansas Scottish Festival, my dad and I (and brother, Uncle and cousin) played in a golf scramble with my dad’s friend Alex Beaton, who is a Scottish Folk Singer who does many festivals. Alex is around 60, and he and I held together our scramble team for 3 years (this year we disbanded, and lucky we did, because it was stormy on the tournament day)- Anyhow, Alex lives in Nashville, and I told him that we had come to Nashville for the concert and I was sorry I didn’t call him to play some golf there – when Alex told me that he too was at the concert and that afterwards had met with Mark backstage. Turns out that one of Mark’s first live performances on radio back in the UK that he had covered one of Alex’s songs from the 60s. Then I really kicked myself for not calling Alex before we went!