Lydia Loveless Played The Brighton Bar, 2/5/15 (PHOTOS)

I'm Blogging This

"Nobody's blogging this, right? There are no bloggers in Long Branch."

Well, Lydia, I wasn't blogging it right then, no.

I had to say something today, though. From my hidey-hole here in Not Long Branch.

I walked into The Brighton at the tail end of Jonathan Tea's set. As it turned out, Tea was the second of five opening acts. Five. No knock on any of the acts in particular (Nikki Sue and The Bad News even kind of blew me away), but five openers on a Thursday is a little nuts. By the time South Street Exile finished their set at around 11:15, I was ready for a nap.

Loveless and her band were set up and ready to go probably a little after 11:30. From the first strains of "Really Wanna See You" and "Wine Lips," I was wide awake. Belting her songs, pounding on her telecaster, straining with her eyes closed, Loveless is a rockstar -- a hilariously personable and foul-mouthed rockstar.

The moments before the set and between songs were riffs on anal sex, on "All About That Bass," on deeply personal acts between sexual partners that may or may not cause cancer. Loveless and the audience laughed together. Someone jokingly called her "Linda" from the crowd. She joked with her band in that way you do when you and your friends are sitting around drinking and one-upping each other with jokes and one-liners.

"That was a fucking great song," someone shouted from the back.

"Thanks."

At the end of the main set, Loveless dismissed the band to play some new material -- and a version of "How Many Women" -- solo. She joked about her lack of confidence as a guitar player, but finger-picked her way pretty well through the new material.

When she called the band back on stage, things took on kind of a free-form, all-request format.

"What should we play?"

Shouts from the crowd for early songs that Loveless and the band, for the most part, weren't ready to perform.

"Jesus Was a Wino!!!"

"Good Lord..."

We did get a version of "Paid" that guitarist Todd May managed his way through. Loveless and the band delivered a great version of "Steve Earle" -- "a song we never, ever perform." They closed with "Crazy," Loveless rolling and crawling around on stage before exiting through the crowd. I, honestly, think that they would've kept playing, taking requests until closing, if the sound man hadn't given them the old "one more song."

The show was everything that a show with a talent like Loveless should be in that setting. It was an intimate, personal, fun, and friendly exchange between the artist and the audience -- something that I don't think will be possible for much longer. Lydia Loveless is just too good. I think everyone who walked out into the 15-degree weather at 1:30 in the morning knew they'd all shared something special. I hope so, anyway.