July 3rd Concert in the Park

Tuesday evening I rode my bicycle in to Kalispell's Depot Park to attend another "Picnic in the Park" concert. I again arrived after the concert started at 7 pm, but not by too much.

The concert was by Tom Catmull and the Clerics, who are from Missoula. They are a four person band who play Americana, Country, and Acoustic music. They played a number of their own songs (which were fairly good), along with songs by Lyle Lovitt, John Haitt, and Tom Waits among others. They were not a country band. They played songs with attitude.

The band in concert reminded me of the mid-1980s music movement of "cow-punk" with bands such as the Beat Farmers. Cow-punk was the marriage of country type songs with a punk attitude.

I enjoyed the concert, as Americana music with an attitude was what I was in the mood for. The music was much more lively than the jazzy salsa sound of the previous week's band.

The band was Tom on lead acoustic guitar and vocals. There was an upright bass player, a drummer, and a person on rhythm electric guitar. The electric guitar player also played steel guitar on a few songs.

The drummer wore a shirt with "Tom Catmull Sucks" in large letters. He really got into his drumming and for a couple songs got up and danced while madly drumming. He was the only person to wear a straw cowboy hat. Tom wore a baseball cap and shorts.

The music was louder than the previous week's concert. I could easily hear it when I rode up on my bicycle. I could have stayed at the same location in the back as last week and not worry about people talking and being distracting. But I arrived earlier than last week, and there were less people there, so I locked my bicycle to a light post, and found a park bench to sit on in the middle of the crowd.

With less people, and being closer to the stage I also didn't have as many people to "people watch" during the concert. Some small kids were in attendance, but not too many. So not many "dancers" in front of the stage.

The photo on the right is from the local newspaper. The woman photographer had a little difficulty in getting the photo as the little girls wanted to pose for her and would stop dancing.

A few adults danced to a few songs. One couple seemed to be dancing a jitterbug style of dance as he kept twirling her around and around. She had to be dizzy after the dance. Unlike a lot of couples who dance (as most men do not know how to dance), he was controlling the dance and she seemed unsure of what move he would do next. Later he danced with another woman slightly more in tune with his dancing style. His previous partner danced with another man who wasn't quite as sure - or fancy - with his dance moves. They were fun to watch.

Again one of the raffle prizes during intermission was a bag of dog food.

It was a very good concert. If you want to hear the band's music, you can listen to samples of their music at the band's myspace page. Or CD Baby has samples of their music. And here is another complete song. In my opinion, while good, his music is better in concert. The concert had a number of up tempo songs with a 'galloping' beat.

After the concert was over I came across my health insurance agent. He is a quite older gentleman and I didn't expect him to care much for the music. But he said he liked it. I told him I planned to go on a long hike this weekend into Canada and he said he planned to go to the lake and sit and do nothing.

After the concert was over I went over to the west end of the Depot Park to look at the new veteran's memorial and statue that would be dedicated on July 4.

As you can see it is of the "new" style of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial where the names of the dead soldiers from Flathead Valley are etched in the stone that also reflects a person's image. I think the statue on top is nicely done.

I took a longer route during my bicycle ride home. I decided to take a photo of the "Rainbow Bar" sign as this is on my usual long route home. I never have been inside the bar, but I like their sign. It has a 1950s feel to it.