Musical Moments #1: The Jayhawks

Music is a pretty big part of my world. And within that general "music" category there are certain bands that stand out. They're mostly bands I've loved for a long time, though not all ... but they've all wormed their way into my life somehow. I think it would be fun to highlight one of those bands every so often, and list a few of the little memory bits that stand out particularly for me. I'm not going for anything general ... more of a "moments in time" kind of thing, and probably a weird mix at that. I'll see how it goes. First up:

The Jayhawks

• At Luther's Blues, the first time I saw them live, they played one of my favorite Golden Smog songs - "Jennifer Save Me". When Gary Louris sings "fences bent gun metal sunlight/all the way to Montreal" in concert, sometimes he changes Montreal to something locally relevant. Well, on this particular night, he sang, "fences bent gun metal sunlight/all the way to Kenosha." At the time I honestly thought I'd misheard, because he couldn't possibly have named my relatively obscure hometown. But I got a copy of the recording sometime later, and he certainly did.
  
  
• Marc Perlman playing his bass with the bass stand, getting really into it, at the end of "Sister Cry" during the same show
  
  
• After an October '04 concert in Minneapolis, a group of friends and I ended up at the same bar as some stray Jayhawks. Gary was standing near the bathroom hallway for awhile, pretty much blocking the way ... and he wouldn't move for people. Gina had to sort of slither her way around him to get past. For some reason, this makes me laugh every time I remember it.