Arlo Guthrie at Showplace Performance Centre - more photos... photo by clint gilders - staff photographer

by andrea gilders, club kingsnake contributor
Arlo Guthrie
Showplace Performance Centre
October 26th, 2007

Getting reviewer tickets to Arlo Guthrie was like being handed a moment frozen in time. For me, "Alice’s Restaurant" was one of those songs. The ones where you heard them long before anyone else in your peer group, the ones where you remembered precisely who played it for you and where you were when you heard it. The song always made me smile, and always think of silly times. Going to the show, knowing little else of Arlo Guthrie's body of work, and sitting beside a diehard fan was also pretty magical. To see a man well into his fifties practically giggling with excitement over the coming show was delightful.

Arlo was just starting out on the "Solo Reunion" tour, so billed because, well, he hardly ever played with a band and since it was now so popular to have reunion tours, Arlo figured why not get in on the action and reunite with himself.

The stage was set with simply a grand piano and a small rack of acoustic guitars and a stool. When the man himself took the stage there was a radiance about him, a good humour in his eyes and a comfort in his movements that made me wonder if he’d ever been away from performing on stage for more than a few months at a time. He wore a worn black leather vest, a soft white shirt that draped just so and a pair of worn blue jeans. His long wavy white hair glowed. I wasn’t sure if Santa Claus himself could have radiated more good cheer.

The music, well what can truly be said by a mere reviewer when listening to a piece of music history? It was flawless. From opening songs like "Gamblers Blues" and "In My Darkest Hour" it was evident by the timber of his voice and his innate sense of melody that he was beyond reproach. His personality lit up the theatre. The show truly was as much a spoken word show as it was a musical act. Arlo's ability to relate his thoughts in an accessible and amusing way made the show an absolute treat... Honestly, how can you not be delighted by him when he likened song writing to fishing ("mostly its just sitting there waiting until a song comes by") and how sometimes you really should just throw them back? His classic "Motorcycle Song" being evidence of one that perhaps he wished he’d never penned and honestly, while it was sweet, I can see the stretch to the rhyme

I dont want a pickle
I just want to ride on my motor-cicle

might get a little bit difficult to perform after the thirtieth year of performing it.

Truly the show was without a sour note. We also saw Arlo play the piano, a rare treat I was told by the fan to my right who practically writhed in glee when he performed "The City of New Orleans" on the piano only. His instrumental only, self-penned ragtime ditty was also great fun. "Alice’s Restaurant," well, to see a 20-minute long song performed live was enough to simply take your breath away.

Arlo Guthrie at The Showplace Performance Centre - more photos... photo by clint gilders - staff photographer

In parting, Arlo left us with a lovely song (words by his father, recently set to music by Arlo himself) called simply "My Peace." He asked us to sing along, suggesting that perhaps singing together like that, the power of our voices, might lift up into the air and go out into the world where tonight, someone might be hiding or scared and or at war and perhaps the strength of our voices would be able to reach them, their spirit, somehow. Then, thinking about the peace that we each can embody he mused

if people took care of the little peace well the big peace, it’d take take care of itself

Have truer words ever been spoken?