This was one of the Palo Verde House Concerts where some pretty big talent gets to play in someone’s backyard. Last time I was here, it was for a night with Tommy Stinson of the Replacements. Tonight was Steve Poltz.
I could probably do a whole blog just about Steve Poltz and the Rugburns and all his stories, both of which I’ve experienced or heard. Good thing that he’s thinking about writing a book, because I promise you, it will be an incredible one. He’s been entertaining audiences for decades and this night was no exception. It had it all. Lots of laughter, almost some tears, a lot of stories and memories, and some great guitar playing and songs. And if that wasn’t enough, a Space-X satellite launch! Having been living in Nashville for the past 10 years and always on the road, Steve had never seen one, so it was a new experience for him!
With the decades of entertaining audiences whether at a party, a bar, a club, a festival, or in front of thousands in an arena, Poltz really knows how to put it together. All of it seemingly on a whim, but damn, it’s an incredible experience. He starts off with a story, plays a song, tells another story, plays another song, asks the audience some questions, plays another song then tells a story while playing the song finishing the song, and by the end of the set, connects everything together by playing a song he just wrote about the whole night, referencing everything that happened! There were a couple of other improvisational songs that were just made on the spot, including one that when he was done, he was asking if anyone had recorded it, because it was that good and he didn’t think he could remember it! The only thing this show was missing, was Steve breaking a guitar string and restringing his guitar WHILE still playing the song. Yes, he can do this. I’ve seen it many times.
It’s been at least 10 years since I’ve seen Steve Poltz play. Probably because he moved to Nashville 10 years ago, but in those 10 years in Nashville, he’s really learned a lot on the guitar. If he previously had his 10,000 hours of experience put in to make him an expert, he now has 20,000 hours, which makes him a super duper expert. He was slapping and slamming those strings on his acoustic on several songs and I had no idea what he was doing or how he was doing it (but then again, I’m not a real guitarist).
Here’s some proof recorded by Shakypix:
I have a long history with Steve and when he came to the stage, he saw me and flipped out. Started the first 15 minutes of the show telling everyone about me, my wedding, Flipside, and even mentioned this blog, being the first artist to ever do so onstage! He even asked if he could shake my hand mid-set and asked for a hug afterwards. Both of which I gave him.
I used to have a record label (stupidly) called “Scam-O-Rama Records”. I called it that because I was living in LA at the time and it just seemed like everything was based on a scam, so I decided to name my label that to make fun of the scam culture that was (and still is) so prevalent. I should’ve kept it up, because it seems the only pages and sites that get any hits these days are pages and sites that are built on half truths and lies to get people to pay attention to them. These sites get tens of thousands, if not millions of hits, and I’m lucky to get a couple hundred. Anyways, I regret the name though, because it just seemed like a joke to everyone and I couldn’t get the trust of anyone with a stupid name like that.
Anyways, back in the days of these contraptions called “answering machines”, Steve would write a new song every day and have it be his outgoing message. I would secretly tape them, holding a microphone up to the speaker of the phone. I had dozens of these songs which I was saving for maybe a future release. I wanted it to be a secret to Steve until I was done, because I didn’t want to ruin the spontaneity and the personal nature of it. Then it came time that Steve was about to sign to a major label (I can’t remember which one… Atlantic?) and I was like “oh crap! I better tell Steve I’m doing this, because if he lets me release this, we got to have the agreement before he signs that major label deal!” Long story short, we did all that. The really cool thing was, was once Steve actually knew someone was recording these messages, he actually made them even better! Seriously! Eventually I put it out as a release called “Answering Machine” (as a nod the Replacements).
Steve told a lot of stories about our release and even played a couple songs from it, one of which he probably hadn’t played in decades and he somehow remembered it. He said because of these songs, he knows exactly when 45 seconds is, because that was the limit of the outgoing messages. And sure enough, he proved it when he played “Sugar Boogers” for the first time in quite awhile:
Neil Young is a fan of the CD! Via Steve’s connection with Jewel, who toured with Neil, Neil Young was at a gathering with some friends, including Jewel’s other guitarist and friend. Steve was told a story, which he shared here, where Neil and Steve’s friend were all smoking pot and Steve’s friend put on the “Answering Machine” CD, just to play a couple songs (heck, they’re only 45 seconds each!) and see what Neil thought. After a couple songs, Steve’s friend stood up to turn it off and Neil Young goes “No! Leave it on. Leave it on!” Then when the 56 songs were finished, it was mentioned that there were 7 bonus tracks. Neil wanted to hear those too! When it came time to go, Neil Young stood up, grabbed the CD, and said “This is mine!” I had heard this story before from Steve’s friend, but I didn’t know that Neil had taken the CD!
But I didn’t know this story that Steve had told tonight: Steve was at the John Varvatos store in New York City (which is actually the place where CBGB was; Steve and I were at CBGB to see the Dragons back in 2004, but that’s another story for another time) and he saw Peter Buck from R.E.M. also there shopping around. Steve didn’t want to go up to bother him, but did want to meet him. Next thing he knows, Peter Buck comes up to him! He says “You’re Steve Poltz!” Steve’s like “Hi! How in the world did you know who I am?” Peter Buck said “From your CD, Answering Machine! I love it!” Now Steve is even more confused. How in the world would Peter Buck from R.E.M. would know about this CD that was basically a fan club release (that’s what we called it as to not have any trouble with the major label) on a little label called Scam-O-Rama Records? So he asked him. Peter Buck’s answer? “Neil Young!” WHOA! Mind blown! Peter Buck is actually very knowledgeable and a fan of underground music. He even knew about the Dragons when the Dragons played Seattle.
Anyways, I did record enough more songs off Poltz’s answering machine to make a 2nd CD, which never got released. This time actually using a real recorder used to record phone calls. Steve wanted to go into the studio to re-record the songs because some people were complaining about the sound quality of the first one. I didn’t want to spend the money. I already paid $2.50 for the cassette to record it, you think I wanted to pay more money to have it done in a studio?! Seriously though, I think the charm is in the privacy of the recordings and I don’t think that spontaneity and magic could happen in a studio. And by that time, I was done with the label. But if anyone could make that spontaneity and magic happen again, it would be Poltz. I still have it. Ready to go. Who knows? Maybe it’ll see the light of day. I’ll have to talk to Steve about it.
Another part of the set was when Steve played “Hitchhiker Joe”. I almost lost it here, as it was co-written with Steve by a dear friend of ours, Steve Foth, who was stolen away from us 26 years ago. I looked at my watch a couple songs later to check the date, and it was almost exactly to the day when he was murdered. Steve Foth was in a band called C.L.A., and I was actually going to put out a tribute album to C.L.A. (stay tuned, I actually may just put it here on a future post). Steve Poltz played a 12 minute version of the song, which morphed into other songs (including “Holidays In The Sun” by the Sex Pistols and “Bastards Of Young” by the Replacements), then while still playing the song, told the story of the song and video. I wish I captured the whole thing, but at least got the last half of it:
Hear about it here:
Then a bunch more songs and stories. Then he made up a song about this show, wrapping everything together. Some of the jokes, you had to be there. Steve had a running joke in a lot of his stories (some true, I’m sure, others for comedic effect) where he asked people to “take off their shirt”. He somehow got a guy in the front to take off his shirt earlier in the set, and wrapped it all up in this song. Epic! But you had to be there…
Here’s some pictures I took of the show:
