Mark Knopfler, Academy of Music, Philadelphia, 10/17/2015, An Evening With Mark Knopfler, He Did It His Way





Mark Knopfler - Your Latest Trick, Academy of Music, Philadelphia

Mark Knopfler brought his North American tour to Philadelphia on Saturday, October 17th to play a concert at the Academy of Music. By all reports, the show sold out in about fifteen minutes.

Billed as "An Evening With Mark Knopfler" (there was no opening act), the two plus hour show was packed with mostly songs from Knopfler's lengthy solo career with some tasty nuggets from Dire Straits mixed in. After saying that he was glad to be here and that he had already had some Philadelphia cheesesteaks, he didn't say much to the audience preferring, I guess, to let his guitar do the talking.



Even though I never got a good handle on his last release, the double album Privateering, I quite enjoyed hearing him do the title track. The show's highlight for me was an amazing "Your Latest Trick" (watch video above) from the Dire Straits' classic Brothers In Arms album. Then, he did an exceptionally sweet nine minute version of "Romeo and Juliet".

This show was really loud which would ordinarily be fine, however, the combination of sound level and the sonic depth of the bass and drums caused the balcony in the one hundred plus year old Academy of Music to physically shake. You can plainly see the vibration in the videos which were shot with the camera mounted to a c-clamp tripod device attached to the arm of the seat. During "Sultans of Swing", the lead vocal and most of the lead guitar were buried in the mix by the bass. If you watch the video, you will hear more of the vocal and the lead guitar than could be heard in the venue as he played it. Apparently, the subwoofer frequencies that shook the building were below the range of the camera's internal microphone. This little camera never ceases to amaze me. It is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS20. It has a 20x optical zoom lens and, although it's not a video camera per se, it shoots beautiful high definition video. All that and it fits in your shirt pocket. Considering that Knopfler is booked to play mostly orchestra halls this tour, I'm surprised that they don't fine tune the sound system to provide perfect sound commensurate with the nature of the venue.



If Knopfler did nothing else in his career but the song "Brothers in Arms", he would still be my number one guitarist of all time. As it is, he's also way up there among favorite singer-songwriters. His career has been remarkable; after disbanding Dire Straits, he has been able to have it entirely his way with an enormous amount of worldwide success. As Knopfler introduced his band, he stated how long each musician has been with him. It quickly became clear that the distinction between Dire Straits and his solo career is completely subjective. This band could just as easily be the current version of Dire Straits playing the music he chooses.

This time around there were a number of nice surprises. For the record, of the seventeen song set, three were from Tracker, two from Privateering, two from The Ragpicker's Dream, and one track each from Sailing To Philadelphia and Shangri-La. Completely unexpected, Knopfler included two songs from his movie soundtracks; "Father and Son" from Cal and "She's Gone" from Metroland. He played five songs from the Dire Straits' catalogue, starting with "Your Latest Trick", "Romeo and Juliet", and "Sultan's of Swing". Another highlight of the set was "On Every Street"; Knopfler said that they added it because of sax player Nigel Hitchcock and noted that he had not performed it in the last 23 years. He encored with "So Far Away". The final encore song was another surprise, "Piper to the End" from Get Lucky, which included the traditional Scottish instruments, a perfect set-ender.



Many thanks for the photo and video assistance:
Camera - Beverly Kates
Video production - Amy Hockstein and Lindsey Mitchell



See more videos from this show: Click video links on setlist below (setlist courtesy of setlist.fm).

1. Broken Bones
2. Corned Beef City
3. Privateering
4. Father and Son
5. Hill Farmer's Blues
6. Skydiver
7. She's Gone
8. Your Latest Trick (Dire Straits song)
9. Romeo and Juliet (Dire Straits song)
10. Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits song)
11. Mighty Man
12. Postcards from Paraguay
13. Marbletown
14. On Every Street (Dire Straits song)
15. Speedway at Nazareth
Encore:
16. So Far Away (Dire Straits song)
17. Piper to the End


Photos by Beverly Kates

Mark Knopfler Website
Mark Knopfler Facebook
Mark Knopfler Twitter
Mark Knopfler Instagram




http://billsmusicblog.blogspot.com/

Comments

Charlie Ricci said…
What a great night this must have been. WIsh I could have been there.
10/25/2015
Susan Herczeg said…
Jealous! He's my favorite guitarist. Sounds like it was a fabulous concert. His show sold out so fast, perhaps he could consider a bigger venue next time.
11/03/2015
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering the Main Point, 1964 - 1981

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #5 Begining in 1964, The Main Point in Bryn Mawr provided the Philadelphia area with one of its most enjoyable venues for live music. Although it started as a folk based coffeehouse, all styles of music were presented over the years. Financial problems continually plagued the Main Point, and in spite of frequent benefit shows by artists who loved the place as much as the audience, the club finally closed in 1981. The following brief history is contained in an obituary of Jeanette O. Campbell, one of the founders and owners of the Main Point who died on October 22, 2006, written by Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer Sally A. Downey as reprinted on the Save Ardmore Coalition website. Jeanette Orndoff Campbell, 89, former owner of the Main Point, a music hall in Bryn Mawr where young talents including Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor were introduced to local audiences, died of complications from hip surgery Oct. 22 at Stap
Read more

Cream and Blind Faith at the Spectrum, Philadelphia, 1968 & 1969

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #3 (L-R) Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, & Eric Clapton I could not have foreseen it at the time, but looking back on a concert going history now entering it's fifth decade, my first three concerts were absolutely formative in the development of the music obsession that has driven life as we know it from that point forward. Attending a rock concert pre drivers license was no small feat, that I even got to these shows is the first indication that I knew I was onto something even if I couldn't quite explain it. I've already detailed my first concert (The Beatles at JFK Stadium) in my MMMM#1 . My second and third concerts took place at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, they were less than a year apart, and due to the fact that concerts never end at the time predicted, these concert experiences both ended with a very angry driver stuck waiting in the car outside the venue until the last encore had finished. I shot both concerts with the same starter
Read more

And We Danced - Filming the Hooters Video, 7/27/85

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #4 "And We Danced" (picture sleeve above) was released in 1985 as the second single from the album, Nervous Night , the Hooters' major label debut for Columbia Records. Here's the video. The call went out to the Hooters' mailing list the last week of July 1985 that an audience with cars would be needed on the coming Saturday for a video shoot. Participants would report to the Exton Drive-In by late morning and be prepared to stay all day until after dark. This stage set, early in the day, was a warm-up for the crowd and probably a dry run for the production team for the night-time performance to be filmed later. The banner backdrop does not appear in the video. Some of the antique and custom cars that were on hand for the shoot. The production crew prepares the ticket booth for its shot. This is the film crew shooting the acoustic intro part of the song. The acoustic intro was shot twice, first with t
Read more