I have been enjoying the thread about seeing Joni, but have not had time to collect my thoughts and post mine. I have been fortunate enough to see her 5 times live and in different cities everytime. I have seen her twice with Dylan and was really not interested in the Dylan part both times. The first time was in Houston in 1976 for the Night of the Huricane tour. I was attending USL in Lafayette Louisiana and hitched over with some friends. I even enjoyed Dylan on this tour (I have seen him several times since and didn;t enjoy him as much as this time). Of course Joni did not play enough since it was a circus sort of Dylan planned thing. The next time was almost 10 years later in Baton Rouge, Louisiana when Freda got tickets (she was still at LSU then b4 we were married and she STILL liked Joni but I digress). She was really worried that the tickets were too far from the stage but we were about 5 rows in front of the House Console dead center. I was floored (no pun intended). Her version of Banquet on this tour was as if Robert Plant and Jimmy Page had gotten ahold of the Tab and hard rocked it out. It was so brilliant and I remember wanting a copy of that version so bad ( now I have so many versions in my collection thanks list!). I also remember her fucking up the lyrics to something from Court and Spark (my memory tells me it was Court and Spark, but it might have been Help Me). I remember thinking that this made her seem so reachable and human, where as most of the bands and artists at that time were so larger than life. The next time was in San Jose Cal. during the 1998 tour with Dylan. I was sick as a dawg, but still managed to love the show and my boy Kev got us some great seats in the floor section sort of close to where Julius was seated. This was my first time meeting other folks from the JMDL before the show. The last time I saw Joni was in LA in 00 and the orchestra. Oh what a wonderful treat to see her in this format. I wrote a review of the show for jonimitchell.com. I would love to see her again and again and am content with any way she chooses to perform, but would just love to hear her play the piano a few more times. The picture I have burned in my memory of her at the piano is one I will never forget. I have a feeling we won't be let down and that she is not quite through yet especially since she is ripe for falling in love again.
Love Paz NP-Sin's A Good Man's Brother-Govt' Mule-The Deep End Vol 1
