Fan Review: John Prine Imperfectly Perfect At The Saban

Annie Eyre is a regular reader of The 9513 and recently won tickets in our giveaway to see John Prine in L.A. You can follow her on Twitter at AnnieBelle3.

Dressed in jacket and tie, John Prine strolled on stage Friday night at the Art Deco-styled L.A. landmark “The Saban” and took the audience on a journey through the ravages of war, love, the state of drunkenness and fishing! With his head down, he came across as unassuming and seldom moved except to change guitars between songs. He was backed by two musicians and spoke little between songs, only doing so to briefly talk about his wife, his dad, and his dislike of being in the studio. The audience was reverently quiet and I wondered if anyone else momentarily forgot to breathe during songs like the heartbreaking “Sam Stone.”

There was plenty of Prine’s sharp wit and humor displayed in songs like “Crazy As A Loon” and “Dear Abby.” His audience benefits from the fact that he is not one of today’s video artists; a storyteller like Prine needs no video support, no pyrotechnics and no flashing bells and whistles to distract from his performance. Unencumbered by those trappings, the audience is left to contemplate lyrics like “Father forgive us for what we must do/You forgive us, we’ll forgive you/We’ll forgive each other ‘til we both turn blue/Then we’ll whistle and go fishing in heaven” from “Fish and Whistle.”

At times his voice sounds boyish, other times ageless, and oftentimes tender and regretful. I am not ashamed to say I shed a few tears during “Angel From Montgomery” and I doubt I was the only one. In his imperfect character study of “Donald And Lydia,” we are reminded that life itself is “imperfectly perfect.” John Prine held the audience in the palm of his hand.