Will Oldham comes to Lawrence

Will plays some songs


Will turns into a cat


the hipsters are baffled by the transformation

The above photos are from Will Oldham's free in-store at the Love Garden in Lawrence. They painted a nice little backdrop for him and I was fortunate enough to have a place near the front. A lot of people crammed in to see him play, but everyone was silent as could be during the set, aside from one guy who passed out cold and fell down back by the recent arrivals section. Also entertaining was the way one of the Love Garden house cats crawled up on stage and stared at Mr. Oldham while he played, which he seamlessly incorporated into the lyrics of his songs.

The highlight for me was when he took requests. I called (but not too loudly) for "Blockbuster," meaning his song from the "Hope" EP, "Werther's Last Blues to Blockbuster." A few people yelled out other stuff, but Will just started strumming for a minute and stared off in concentration, as if trying to remember the chords. Everyone quieted down again, and sure enough, he played the number I asked for. I was very excited, and grabbed Jennifer's ankle from where I was sitting Indian-style on the floor. There were quite a few times I had stayed up all night in Germany playing guitar with Wade, either at our places or on the Rhine, and that song never got skipped. Pretty neat to hear the man himself play it by special request.