Todd Snider at the Murat Review

Last night MacTroll and I drove to Indianapolis to see Todd Snider. Todd was introduced to us a few years back by a friend and colleague of MacTroll's. Todd is a folk/rock/country/blues singer. And he's a lot of fun on his records, particularly "Near Truths and Hotel Rooms" and "East Nashville Skyline." He warns everyone at the beginning of the concert that he plays short songs, long songs and that he might talk and tell stories between songs that can last up to 18 minutes. And since Todd's stories usually put himself in the first person, he's living a colorful and interesting life (that of a drugged out hippie musician). But MacTroll said that he was always better in concert. 

So, we hired a babysitter and grabbed some Sonic and booked it over to the Murat, a large concert hall put up by the Shriners in downtown Indianapolis. Given the time change and the two hour drive, we arrived at the intermission between the opening act and Todd. The whole walk-in process was kind of strange. 

1) We paid $15 online to park at the Murat. When we got there, no one was in the booth to take our proof of paid parking. We drove on in and ended up parking about 20 feet from Todd's POS tour bus, i.e. parking would have been free. More interesting, however, was that on the ground, parking at the Murat was posted as being only $8, but they sell it on Ticketmaster for the $15. 

2) We waited in line for some really old ushers to scan our tickets and then give us directions to the "Upstairs" room. Where we past like 20 security guards in a 100 foot walk (no lie). 

3) The Murat Center had multiple rooms and may have multiple events going on. They had A LOT of security and assistance personnel watching us like hawks. I found this strange since the parking lot had been abandoned. 

4) When we got upstairs, there were a legion of white folks between the ages of 21 and 65 (no lie) with Bud Lights in their hands talking up a storm. To the left was the t-shirt seller. To the right was a large former ballroom with a stage up front. Several hundred battered event chairs were lined up in a concert formation. 

5) MacTroll and I immediately went to the bathroom. Most of the users were dressed in jeans and t-shirts holding their cans of beer. Some of them were already pretty buzzed and were about to break the seal. But two or three were dressed -- differently. Like the 50+ old woman in the long navy blue sweater dress and the tights and the high heels. She looked scarily like Cruella DeVille. She also looked uncomfortable surrounded by the hippie/cowboy crowd. Then I realized that the OTHER main event that night was "The Lion King." Crowds of well-to-do musical lovers and their children versus the left-wing, pot smoking, heavy drinking crowd made an interesting mix in a state that just recently went blue on Election Day.

We found our seats, which were pretty good, about 8th row to the left. Todd played a lot of my favorites, "Incarcerted," "Lookin' for a Job," "Playing a Train Song," "Tension," "Fortunate Son," the lighthearted, "Beer Run" and "Statistician's Blues." We all sang and danced in and out of our seats and had a good time. We made Todd smile a lot with our carrying on and screaming out requests. 

Todd makes it clear that although his songs have gotten more -- um -- opinionated through the years (usually politically to the left, and telling stories and songs about injustices and how the world is often broken). He swears that he doesn't sing the songs to change anyone's mind or to preach to them. Instead, he sings them to ease his own mind... regardless, he says, he really sings them because he's happy that the words rhyme. 

He's a simple artist; usually it's just him and a guitar. This time around he brought some musicians with him, another guitarist, a bassist and some dude on the mandolin, that was really pretty awesome, but when he sang back up, he sometimes sang over Todd, which was a annoying. As a band, they were having a great time, and, as a crowd, we were eating it up.

It was a great night out, and MacTroll and I got something we usually don't get: four hours alone together, on the drive there and back, to sit and chat about life. We really need to do that kind of stuff more. 

Plus, we paid $1.55 per gallon for gas in Crawfordsville, IN. What is that all about? Crazy.