We saw Brandi Carlile and Shawn Colvin last Friday, at the cleverly-named Lincoln Theatre (big mural of Abe driving an old Lincoln on the side of the building). Brandi opened and was terrific: a great voice, great lyrics and terribly catchy songs. She'll be big someday. She should be big already. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something about the chord changes she favors that reminds me of 70's power-pop bands.

Shawn Colvin was ... mm k. Neither Mrs Cleek nor I have really ever dug her stuff, and we only stayed to watch because the great Buddy Miller was playing guitar with her. But even he couldn't get me interested in her songs; it sounded like maybe he wasn't all that familiar with all the songs, and there's just not a lot of room in them for him to do anything but the occasional high-and-reverby lonesome-west accents anyway. He did one song of his own, which was good ... but then Shawn did a few more of her's.

Lesbian couples made up the bulk of the crowd. Nobody smoked, at all.