Richard Buckner w/ Six Parts Seven @ Schubas

Already attending a friend’s going-away party in the upstairs room of Schubas, we were delighted to find that Richard Buckner was playing this tour with a complete band. As you may recall from last time, he played well, but it was merely he and Doug Gillard sitting on chairs with looped interludes between songs. In the interest of proper party-abandonment decorum, we unfortunately missed most of Six Parts Seven. We caught their last two songs, but that was it. I can tell you that four-fifths of the band was wearing winter hats, and they sounded rather together, but extremely low-key for a Friday night. They also had twenty minutes of additional stagetime that they passed on using. So we had thirty-five minutes of wait time before Buckner took the stage.

The only item of note during the interim was that all the couples seemed extremely cuddly. It was very surreal. Turns out it was just cold in there, but I hadn’t seen anything like it at a 21 and over show before.

As we were waiting, the lack of drum kit on stage grew conspicuous. I became concerned. Right on time, Buckner took the stage by himself, tuned his five guitars and went to work alone. This show was way more packed than the last one – either due to the promise of a live band, or because it was on a Friday. He appeared grimier than usual, sporting a full beard and longer hair. It was definitely a less-spirited performance than in the fall, though much of the crowd seemed devoted nonetheless. My friend Brad asked the doorman, “What’s up with this full band stuff?” He was informed that Buckner fired his band the night before. So, I guess we had bad timing. I still highly recommend checking out his new album, Meadow. It’s his best work in my opinion, and has a couple of very compelling songs. But since I was anticipating Buckner with a full band, this performance was a disappointment. I also hope he’s OK. He didn’t look so good up there.