Pat Green at Nutty Brown Cafe

Pat Fuckin' Green.

At least that's what anyone who's been to a live show knows him by.

"I've been Pat Fuckin' Green so long, I don't remember what my middle name is anymore.' Or something like that.

Nutty Brown Cafe is a classic Austin landmark. A place "way out in the country" that is only 20 minutes from downtown. Okay. Maybe 25. On the way to Dripping Springs. A restaurant with a huge backyard with a stage and tons of trees and open space. The best part is that it's pretty much right around the corner from our house.

I've been a big Pat Green fan for awhile now. Way before he went Nashville. Back when he lived in a little house in South Austin with his wife. Not that I'm trying to establish my PG street cred. Just saying that my familiarity with his music is the stuff that he wrote while living in Lubbock and performed around the state. George's Bar and Dancehall Dreamer and the Billy Bob's CD. He came out with 3 Days which was great. Some new stuff and some new versions of some old stuff. Then, Wave on Wave. His big Nashville break. Wave on Wave was good, but the other stuff. Meh. I hadn't heard anything from his later albums.

When Becky told me Pat was coming to Nutty Brown, I jumped at the chance. After I know that we had a babysitter, at least. :) Turns out our friends Neil and Leigh were also going, along with some others we know. Leigh posted about the concert at her Once upon a Photo blog. I'm going to steal that photo from her.

We quickly realized the beauty of shared babysitters. The Browns (no relation to Nutty) would drive to our house. Neil and I would go to the concert and stake our claim on the lawn. Becky and Leigh would wait for the babysitter and then join us at the show with pre-staked seats. Simple.

Right?

Snag 1: Gates open at 7. Show starts at 8. Neil and I got to Nutty Brown around 6:30 and parked. Packed. Okay, some early arrivers. I'm sure that parking will be fine for the girls.

Snag 2: Will Call line. I had two will call tix. Neil needed to meet someone to get his tix. I figured I could just use our tix to get us in and then Neil could get the other tix and pass them to the girls. Wrong. The Will Call was probably 50 people long. Maybe more. The A-M line was at least 50. The N-Z line had maybe 10. Bad last name leveling on Nutty Brown's part. Luckily, Neil saw his buddy with their tickets, so we went in, leaving will call to the girls. Surely the line will die down by showtime.

Snag 3: Nutty Brown was way underprepared for the crowd at this show. Thankfully we had scarfed some pizza before leaving. There was 1 food line and it had probably 100 people in it. Pretty much a cluster trying to get by it.

Snag 4: Will Call line never died down. The girls had to wait about 3o minutes to get in. I tried to get their tix and pass them over to them (they were in my name), but, no go. I did get to stand in the beer line right behind US Senator John Cornyn. Of course I didn't know that until Becky pointed it out. I'm clueless.

Snag 5: General clusterfuck. Too many people. This was easily the biggest crowd they've ever hosted.

We did stake some ground, and it was central to the stage, about 40 yards back. Really good seats. There is a concrete area up from there that is standing only, and then a gravel section behind that. We were at the back of the gravel section. Behind that is some deck areas and some more open areas.

Ryan James opened up the show promptly at 8:00. I got a free CD of his latest album, Directed, simply by signing up for an email list. I have yet to get an email. Or open the CD.

Don't take that as a knock on Ryan, however. He was great. This was by far the biggest crowd he'd ever played in front of and he was loving it.

He played a good song that he wrote for his wife. I don't remember the name. Beyond his own songs, he had some memorable covers.

• Freebird - He has some sort of shtick about this song. Something to do with jackasses yelling it from the crowd. Yes. Sometimes I am that jackass. Good song, though.
• Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way - A Waylon Jennings Song that is timeless. And done by so many people. Steve Earle. Kinky Friedman. Uncle Tupelo. An eclectic list to say the least.

Pat came on around 9:00. He opened with his response to the Nashville Sellout thing (Mr. Defensive???) by saying "They say I've sold out. But everytime I come to Austin it's a SELL OUT!!!" Kinda cheesy, yes.

Will go down to El Arroyo have some tacos and beer, yeah and let ourselves go. My favorite line from one of my favorite songs. This is what he started with. Carry On.

I thought this night might be kind of special. Pat has been playing MUCH larger venues lately. Verizon. Arenas. Festivals. This place only seats around 2500. And that's wall to wall.

The show didn't disappoint. On the second song, Pat brought up Django Walker. Django is Jerry Jeff Walker's son. That's a whole 'nother story.

"Texas on My Mind" was written by Django and include on Three Days by Pat. Yes, it's pretty much a London Homesick Blues redux. But it's his own. And a damn good song.

Django seemed thrilled to be up there. Pat was having a great time as well. He brought up his daughter and danced with her. His wife Amy didn't seem as thrilled as he was, but he was obviously loving it. Handled her just like a dad does a small child. Threw her over his shoulder and carried her off the stage upside down. :)

Pat told a story about Django writing that song for a class at Paul McCartney's Liverpool Institute. "He got a D in the class. I bought him a Jag."

Next he played "Cannonball". All I know about that is that I think it's his new album. And, I got a pretty sweet hat.

Neil told me he almost got the same hat. But it was too NASCAR.

So, yes, it's pre-stressed. And the stitches are on the outside. And it has aggressive lightning bolt things going on. But NASCAR? I think not.



Okay. Maybe a little bit.

"Three Days" was next. Followed by "Who's to Say". With a nice 'whatever' jacking off motion by Pat to accompany the "Who's to Say" lyrics.

Back to his Lubbock days. Not that anyone would want to go back to Lubbock. But this is where "Here We Go" came from.

Next in my notes on my Blackberry I have:

Pg aerobics guitar solo
Barney sog
Tarrytown mcconghey bongos

I have no idea what that means. I can only piece together that he played some sort of active guitar solo followed by the "I love you, you love me" song followed by a story about living in Tarrytown with Matthew McConaughey as his neighbor.

No details. Jack Daniels.

He did bring his wife Amy onstage. At least that name sticks in my mid because it's my sister's. She was reluctant, but he grabbed her anyway.

"Take Me Out to a Dancehall."

Pat called out Joe Ely. "That mother scratcher. He only live a couple miles from here. I hope he can hear this."

Coworker: ...and me and Bill are patrolin' down 9-mile.
H.I. McDonnough: Bill Roberts?
Coworker: No! Not that mother-scratcher, Bill Parker.

A Joe Ely great. "Billy the Kid."

And then, the encore. (Becky and I have some disagreement about this. I contend that it wasn't a real encore. She says it absolutely was. Again, I blame Jack .)

Pat came out and told a story about his bus breaking down at 2am on the way to the show. I have a feeling he's told this story this before.

"Songs About Texas" was the result of this story. Sing me one more song. About old San Antone.

This quickly segued into one of the best songs of the night. A cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City". Kind of disappointed that the crowd knew nothing of it. Damn Westlake Kids.

The night ended with "Wave on Wave" with Pat bring Ryan James up on the stage to sing it with him.

Definitely disappointed that he didn't sing "#2" or "George's Bar". Oh well.

This is the best picture of the night, courtesy of Leigh. (This is the photo stealing part.)

The full moon behind Pat and Django is just perfect.

Pretty much sums it up.