Re-Viewed: Lucinda Williams at The Vic

By Julene McCoy in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 4, 2005 1:31PM

Saturday night at the Vic, Lucinda Williams took the stage and gave a performance of a lifetime. Preferring not to follow the set list that had been previously decided upon, she would look through a large book with around 240 songs in it and choose that way because sometimes “you have to go with the flow”. The band would peer over her shoulder to see what was next.

Chicagoist had seen Lucinda before at ACL Fest in Austin (the people who brought Lollapalooza to Chicago this year) and thought she was good, but did have a tendency to go a little off-topic when talking between songs. Lucinda stated that she wasn’t going to talk a lot because it got her in trouble. This clearly allowed that energy to be put to use in every single song that was performed and it showed.

Lucinda was great whether she was singing gospel (“Get Right With God”), no depression country, or the blues with opener CC Adcock and Cedric Watson in a great jam that included “Lake Charles” and “Come to Me Baby”. She definitely was on fire from the beginning, but gave us goose bumps with the sexual “Righteously” and a yet-unreleased “Unsuffer Me”.

Other faves of the evening included “Essence” and “Those Three Days”. Chicagoist agrees with Metromix that someone better have taped that show, because it would be sad to lose one of the most amazing performances we have ever witnessed. The energy in the Vic was phenomenal from both the stage and an extremely involved audience creating the perfect two-hour journey.