Todd Snider - Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA (4.16.2010)

My sister and I sat patiently, watching the steady stream of people strolling by the open –air storefront of the Little Five Corner Tavern. This little eatery probably has the best seat in the house for those of you looking for some prime-time people watching activity. And the mix of people walking around Little Five is nothing short of interesting to say the least. Heidi was in town for the weekend and I couldn’t have been more thrilled to have her as a companion for this particular trip to Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse. She had never seen Todd Snider before and I knew we would be in for a treat. Oddly enough, this will be my first time reporting on Variety Playhouse, even though I’ve probably seen more shows here than anywhere else since I have been in Atlanta. Variety is really nothing to write home about. A medium sized theatre-type venue with overpriced food and a monopoly (for the most part) on Little Five Points entertainment. At least as far as music in concerned. This venue books the acts that are too small to play The Tabernacle or Fox Theatre, but draw too big a crowd to play The 5 Spot down the road. Tall, exposed ceilings, plain red walls, theatre seating, and an over-hanging balcony provide the Playhouse’s structure. Not the most aesthetically pleasing venue I have ever been in, but it serves its purpose.


Heidi and I vacated our people watching perch and started walking down the road to Variety just as the opening act, Bobby Bare Jr., was set to get started. It’s been quite awhile since I’ve been on time for a show. I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately, but for some reason or another (perhaps a dwindling capacity for endurance), I consider myself lucky to catch the last few songs of an opening band. It’s really quite silly to pay for a show and not take advantage of the opportunity to discover new music. Some of my favorite bands have been uncovered while waiting for a “main act” to begin. Needless to say, Bobby Bare Jr. will serve as a good reminder that I need to do a better job of this. As we stood in the ticket line at the Playhouse, a middle-aged man caught our attention and approached us with an extra ticket to the show. My buddy Frazier has been known to drop a free ticket on some unsuspecting recipient and I admire the good-will of everyone who shares this idea. It would be easy enough to knock $5 off of a ticket price and sell your extra to a fan in need, but karma will thank you for taking the higher road and brightening someone’s day with such a generous act of kindness. We thanked the man and headed inside.

It wasn’t long after we found our seats that Bobby Bare Jr. took the stage and got ready to do his thing. The area in front of the stage (usually reserved for dancing) had been converted to seating for this low-key event. Cocktail tables and plastic chairs allowed patrons an up-close view of the stage. Bobby Bare, following in the footsteps of his father, Robert Sr., is a songwriter from Nashville, TN with a natural storytelling prowess and a uniquely pleasurable singing voice. From a distance, Bobby had the appearance of a crazed Benicio Del Toro character, straight out of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He had the look of a struggling, roughneck musician, slightly weathered from the wear and tear of life on the road and the persona to back it up. Bobby came on stage, beer in one hand, guitar in the other, and began playing with an unexpectedly tender yet powerful touch to his instrument. He added some sort of choral effect to his vocals and I couldn’t help but tap my feet as he used the microphone to tell his story. He sung with genuine despair yet light-hearted humor in his voice as he told undoubtedly true stories of ex-wives and rehab stints.

Enter insanely annoying Bobby Bare Jr. fans who just so happened to find a pair of seats directly to our right. These two were literally a concert-goers worst nightmare. Drunk and obscene, the female counterpart began shrieking both during and after every song that Bobby played. Her voice was like a sharp, thin blade splintering your ear drums over and over again. The male, just as drunk and probably more obscene, quite honestly thought he was having a question an answer session with Bobby himself even though he sat over 50 yards away amidst an increasingly crowded venue. Bobby, pointing out the obvious, announced that his friend Todd Snider would be next on the billing and this idiot responded with a loud and proud “FUCK TODD SNIDER!!” as if everyone in the venue was there to see Bobby Bare Jr. and had an equally close-minded outlook about any other musician who might be playing with him that night. After a couple of firm “shut-ups” from other annoyed concert-goers, things quieted down a bit. But the drunken woman’s shrill voice never ceased until the second Bobby was off the stage. Lucky for us, this trashy duo only stuck around long enough to see their coveted Bare play and they were off to annoy some other group of people trying to enjoy a night out on the town. The crowd applauded not only the performance of this skilled folk-singing musician, but the exit of dumb and dumber who none of us wish to ever encounter again.

If you’ve ever seen Todd Snider before or listened to any of his live albums, you might have heard him open with something along the lines of…

“My name is Todd Snider and I’ve been traveling around for 15 years makin’ this shit up and playing it for anyone who will listen. Some of it’s sad, some of it’s funny, some of it’s short, some of it’s longer than others, and sometimes I will ramble on for as many as 18 minutes between the song. But I will tell you this ladies and gentlemen without batting an eye… I absolutely LOVE this shit.”

Right from those opening lines, you get a glimpse of Todd Snider’s sincere love for what he does. Todd makes a point of telling people exactly how it is. He will tell you that some people like to label his music as being opinionated. Fine. But never does Todd think that because he has a guitar and a microphone, that he is in the position to force his opinion on you or tell you how to live your life. And he doesn’t ever claim his opinion to be right. He’ll tell you that he says what he says because quite simply, it rhymes. But on a deeper level, he says what he says because it’s therapeutic for him. When things go wrong for Todd, he writes. He writes heartfelt, authentic tunes FILLED with the humor that makes his music so unique. On this particular evening, Snider opened up with a song called “Greencastle Blues” that reinforces this concept of songwriting as therapy. Todd takes an unfortunate situation and tries to make light of it, lifting himself out of these depressive lows that may or may not be a result of his bipolar diagnosis. In “Greencastle Blues”, Todd, a man well into his 40’s, writes about being stuck in an Indiana jail for marijuana possession and about when it might be too late to learn from your mistakes. There is a serious side to this music (a side he will surely deny) and a much more humorous side that Todd does an unbelievable job of tapping into.

“So there’s nothing left for me to learn here. Just this half full of half empty cup.
Less than an ounce of possession, shit, I could do that kind of time standing up.
Some of this trouble just finds me, some of this trouble I earn.
How do you know when it’s too late? How do you know when it’s too late to learn?”

It’s witty, it’s playful, and it’s what makes Todd Snider’s music so unique. Fans of Todd wont sit there and boast about his guitar playing proficiency or his vocal range. They are fans because of his natural ability to craft songs. These lyrics aren’t just thrown together haphazardly. Listen, and you will hear a story. From here, Todd moves on to a song about his current residency called “East Nashville Skyline” and then into one of my own personal favorites “Tension”. Here, the Bob Dylan in Snider comes out as he breaks out his mouth harp and voices his opinion about government, religion, and the omnipresent tension felt amidst the American society. He even pokes fun at his own personal issues surrounding former drug addiction and time spent in rehab.

“Well they roped off all of my problems and pointed their fingers at addiction cause they know if you’re doin’ the pointing then no one’s looking at you. But you know this war on drugs is funded by the Tobacco and Alcohol Commissions… It’s not what drugs you’re strung out on they care about as much as… whose. You see, people still dig drugs. I mean ya’ll do anyway… I’m over it.”

After “Tension”, Todd breaks into a few crowd favorites such as “Tillamook County Jail” and the infamous “Money, Compliments, Publicity” off of his most recent album “The Excitement Plan”. These songs navigate into the first lengthy story of the night, a prelude to “KK Ryder”, where Todd tells the tale of an indoor rope swing and the “classic showbiz example of being in the right place at the right time”. These stories are what really draw me to this music. If you have heard any of Todd’s live releases, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. Snider, as if sitting around a campfire amidst a group of friends tells witty, captivating stories that have everyone in the room erupting in laughter. It’s quite honestly one of the most humorous live experiences I have ever had. After “KK Ryder”, Todd runs down an impressive set list including “DB Cooper”, “Alright Guy”, “Keep Off the Grass” and my sister’s favorite of the night “Conservative Christian” – a sarcastic tune where Todd makes no secret of his political views. In addition, he plays one of my very favorite songs “The Ballad of the Devil’s Backbone Tavern”. Although we weren’t lucky enough to hear the accompanying story, Todd still delivered a great version of a song about this sweet old bartender whom he came to know at a Texas bar in the middle of nowhere.

“And then one night after closing, she poured me up a beer
She said "Come over and sit down you little shit I got somethin’ you oughtta to hear"
She said "Life ain't easy gettin’ through, everybody's gonna make things tough on you
But I can tell you right now if you dig what you do, they will never get you down"

She said life's too short to worry, life's too long to wait
Too short not to love everybody, and life's too long to hate
I meet a lot of men who haggle and finagle all the time
Trying to save a nickel maybe make a dime
Not me, no sireee, I ain't got the time

Now I ain't seen Ol' Virgy in must have been about ten years
I've been bummin’ around this country singing songs for tips and beers
Now the nights are long, and the driving's tough, the hotels stink, and the pay sucks
But I can't dig what I do enough, so it never gets me down”


This last line pretty much sums it up. Underneath his signature low-brimmed hat, Todd sports an enormous smile. One of the greatest things a performer can do to engage an audience is to simply enjoy themselves on stage. Todd does this better than anybody and it’s infectious. In summary, this was a phenomenal show that easily topped each of the two performances I had seen prior to this one. The South seems to be a lot more receptive to this style of music and I am happy that I had the chance to be a part of it. At the very least, this show offered the “90-minute distraction” that Todd promised us the second he walked on stage. At the end of the show, Todd brought Bobby Bare back out on stage and the duo did a hilariously bad version of Dr. Hook’s “Cover of the Rolling Stone” in which Bobby declared “We were drunk when we thought this would be a good idea”. But Elvis took the cake with a surprise guest appearance at the closing of this one. The icing on the cake.