Dave Alvin surveyed the crowded room at The Birchmere and stated the obvious, tongue firmly in cheek.
“Probably when you purchased the tickets, you said to yourself, ‘Dear God, I hope they tune a lot’,” Alvin said after performing “We’re Still Here” with Jimmie Dale Gilmore to open the third show on their “Almost Acoustic” tour in Alexandria, Va. “Well, my friends, you are in luck. You’re gonna get some tuning like you’ve never seen. We’re not gonna let you down.”
Tuning jokes were a recurring theme by the artist I’ve seen live more than anyone over the past 40-plus years, but as an entertainer, Alvin has never let me down. He remains a consummate storyteller, songwriter, interpreter, and guitar master, and his sets with Gilmore are always life affirming and fun.
What seemed like a surprise music pairing in 2018, when the two released Downey to Lubbock, now fits like a well-worn but still comfortable glove. The two music legends, who have been performing for more than 100 years combined, belie their ages (Gilmore is 80, while Alvin is a decade younger) and were in remarkable voice on Monday.
Part of a short East Coast tour that ends May 9, the show was a particular treat due to the presence of Lenny Kaye, who has been Patti Smith’s guitarist and collaborator for more than half a century. Kaye, whose official debut as a solo artist was announced last month, opened the show and joined Alvin and Gilmore on stage for the final six songs.
Alvin, in particular, was hyped about playing with the 79-year-old Kaye. “Open the dictionary and go to the word ‘visionary,’ and there’s a picture of Lenny,” he said while reintroducing the author, music producer and critic whose album, Going Local, will be released in July.
Kaye played a 45-minute opening set, highlighted by the title track from his new album and another original, “The Things You Leave Behind.” He read an excerpt from his 2022 book, Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll, about creating Smith’s 1975 album Horses, before closing the show with a lovely version of the band’s “Ghost Dance” and a fiery mashup of The Box Tops’ “The Letter” and the Velvet Underground’s “Run Run Run.”
Alvin and Gilmore played 12 songs, including several from Downey to Lubbock and the duo’s 2024 followup TexiCali, before they were joined on stage by Kaye. Alvin, on fire all night on guitar, played “King of California,” “Johnny Ace is Dead,” and “Dry River” from his solo albums. He also debuted “The Big One,” a new song about his relationship with Tom Russell, that will be on his “first solo album of all original songs in a long time” when it is released early in 2027.
Gilmore paid homage to his Flatlanders bandmate, the much-missed Joe Ely, with “Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown.” Gilmore, who wrote the song that his friend famously covered, said “every show I’m going to do” is a tribute to Ely, who died in December.
Another highlight from Gilmore: His introduction and performance of “Borderland,” a love song to his wife and to the town of Terlingua on the Rio Grande River. “It’s become the scene of the new definition of boondoggle,” he said. “A wall that will do nothing except mess up the lives of the people and the animals that live there, separate Americans from the river, and give the river to Mexico.
“The ruling party in Texas went completely stupid a long time ago,” Gilmore said to laughs from the crowd. “It took the rest of the country a little while to catch up.”
Kaye joined for the last three songs (“Let’s Get Together,” “Fourth of July,” and “Dallas”) before the three-song encore of “Midnight Train,” “Marie Marie” and “Downey to Lubbock.”
Even though they had never played together before the start of this tour three days earlier, you would never have known. For “Let’s Get Together,” Gilmore changed the lyric from “Come on people now, smile on your brother” to “Come on people now, smile on each other” to be more inclusive.
Alvin followed with “Fourth of July,” which he said was written about “my hometown and, oddly enough, ladies and gentlemen of Northern Virginia, it was written about your hometown too.” And it felt like it.
Find more information here: https://www.davealvin.net
Enjoy some of our previous coverage here: REVIEW: Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore “TexiCali”
Setlist:
We’re Still Here
Betty & Dupree
Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown (Jimmie Dale Gilmore song)
King of California (Dave Alvin song)
Silverlake (Steve Young cover)
The Big One (New Dave Alvin song)
Bring It On Home to Me (Sam Cooke cover)
Braver New World
Johnny Ace Is Dead (Dave Alvin song)
Billy the Kid and Geronimo
Borderland (Jimmie Dale Gilmore song)
Dry River (Dave Alvin song)
Let’s Get Together (Dino Valenti cover) (with Lenny Kaye)
4th of July (X cover) (with Lenny Kaye)
Dallas (Jimmie Dale Gilmore and The Flatlanders cover) (with Lenny Kaye)
Encore:
Midnight Train (Jimmie Dale Gilmore song) (with Lenny Kaye)
Marie Marie (The Blasters cover) (with Lenny Kaye)
Downey to Lubbock (with Lenny Kaye)