After a three and a half week holiday break, the Kevin Morby /Cate Le Bon tour that started in San Francisco in early December is back on the road. Thursday’s stop in NYC was special because it marked Morby’s first show as a solo artist in the big city he no longer calls home. Morby moved to LA last fall after seven years in New York City.

The set Morby played Thursday night at a sold-out Mercury Lounge mirrored song-for-song the one he performed on the tour’s opening night. The only major difference was that headliner Cate Le Bon did not come out to sing her lines on Slow Train as she did in SF. I had heard reports that this was the case at recent shows elsewhere and my hunch is that it simply became too much of a pre-show routine buster for Le Bon. I mean the cordiality between the two remains obvious as Le Bon dedicated the final song of Thursday’s main set to Morby. The only other subtle difference between night one of the tour and the great Morby performance Thursday night was the natural seasoning he and has band have added while on the road. The songs sound fuller. Tastier.

Here’s the 1-16-14 Morby set list. Running time was 38 minutes. I’ve made up the titles for the three non-Harlem River songs so wildly popular with the audience based on the bobbing of heads and dancing in place that goes on during them.

1. The Jester
2. The Count-up song
3. Sucker in the Void
4. Harlem River (Morby: “This is a song about and for New York.” Timed at 6 minutes, 50 seconds)
5. Wild Side (Dedicated to somebody. I didn’t catch the name)
6. Slow Train (Beautiful opening bass line that Evans reworked since the SF show. Also more creative improv-sounding organ spots from Canzoneri)
7. Miles, Miles, Miles
8. Call My Name or Love My Life

After playing Harlem River, Morby asked the crowd for a show of hands from those who thought he looked nervous. Nobody raised their hand. A woman in the front said: “A little bit, Kev.”

Morby never looks nervous. As front-man, he continues to have the mostly emotionless face of a bass player. If anything, he looked a bit tired. But in response to the woman he knew who answered his show-of-hands question, he acknowledged a touch of the butterflies. “It’s only because I see so many faces that I love,” said Morby.

Among those in the crowd were Babies bandmates Cassie Ramone and Brian Schleyer. Woodist founder and Woods colleague Jeremy Earl was also there. Just a week earlier, Earl announced a string of 18 live shows to follow the 4-15-14 release of the new Woods record With Light and With Love. Morby has confirmed he will not participate in that tour given the full attention he’s devoting to his solo endeavor.

The three songs Morby is currently performing live that do not appear on his debut release are clear-cut keepers that you’d expect will become the building blocks for his next record. In a Tweeted response to a fan who asked about the number that closed his set Thursday night, Morby said that it will indeed be included on LP #2.

The devoted recording engineer, Woods fan and Morby supporter Acid Jack was at Mercury Lounge Thursday night working his devices. He gained permission from Le Bon’s camp a day or two prior so expect both sets to go up on NYCTaper in the coming days.

This was an early show. With service charges, the advanced ticket cost $14.90. Doors opened at 630 PM. Morby went on at 7. Le Bon took the stage at 8 and finished about 9. The room was then cleared for a second, separate admission performance by Les Racquet and Dangermuffin. To maximize a night’s take, rock clubs will sometimes try to cram two events into a single evening which can often rush the proceedings on the front end – or make it a late night on the back end – or both. In this case, the unusually early start to Morby/Le Bon worked out fine since both acts have honed their timing and the audience seemed to know the set time details in advance. Personally, the early start – and early finish – was great for me since I had to work at 4 AM Friday. Had it been a standard 9 PM, 10 PM or later launch to the show, I may not have been able to pull it off.

Barring some kind of too-high-to-climb travel hurdle, I plan to hit next week’s Toronto Morby/Le Bon show.

Kevin Morby’s first club performance as a solo artist in San Francisco Tuesday evening had all the earmarks of the way he carried out his important roles in both The Babies and Woods. With hundreds of dates played as a member of those two bands in just the last few years, Morby now glides onto a stage, sets it up and then wows you. He has done it night after night with lots of miles in between. The fan on the floor doesn’t see the routine before the show. The practice, the sound check, the van rides and the internal deliberations as the tour hits inevitable potholes. What’s great about this current endeavor is that Morby now owns it for the stretch he‘s up there. He runs it. He writes it. He sings it. He strums it. And he does it with the bar set high on fullness of sound from surrounding personnel who seem to share Morby’s humble but serious stage presence.

The show at Rickshaw Stop on Fell Street near SF City Hall was the first of 30 scheduled gigs Morby will do as the opener for the great Welsh rock and roller Cate Le Bon. What’s interesting about Morby’s pairing with Le Bon is that the two share multi-instrumentalists Huw Evans and Will Canzoneri. In addition, Le Bon (real name is Cate Timothy) makes an appearance during Morby’s set to sing her part on the song Slow Train. The collaborative connection between the two acts (each have their own unique drummer) is deep and likely an enjoyable and more economical way to pull off a long tour.

There was no apparent nervousness from Morby as he went on about 915 PM with Evans and drummer Justin Sullivan. The crowd was late-arriving, kinda small but enthusiastic. Morby played eight songs over a period of 37 minutes. Three of the eight do not appear on Morby’s new record Harlem River and could pass for Babies tunes given their pacing and energy. The number Morby opened with was super catchy and I wanna hear it again. The only Harlem River songs omitted from the set were Reign, Dead Don’t Come Back and If You Leave.

Here’s the set list:

Two non-album tunes. Both great.
3. Sucker in the Void
4. Harlem River (Canzoneri comes on.  Great bass riff from Evans. Running time of only six and a half minutes vs. nine plus on the record
5. Wild Side
6. Slow Train (Le Bon on)
7. Miles, Miles, Miles (Great Morby jam) 
8. Non-album song.  Call My Name or My Life?

The crowd swelled a bit for Le Bon’s set. She played Sisters (my favorite tune off Mug Museum) early on. The trippy guitar sound makes the song. Le Bon called this show her “first time” playing San Francisco because her only previous appearance in SF “sucked.” Said Le Bon: “We’re gonna wipe the slate clean and say this is our first time.”

Admission to the show was just $10. The venue was good. It may have been a little oversized but the sound was solid. I first arrived at the show at about 815 PM. It was completely empty so I exited and wandered west on Market to look for a tavern where I could pass about 45 minutes. I ended up at Martuni’s and ordered a “Martuni.” This was a big mistake. The drink was excellent but the amount of booze in it detonated a near-immediate downward pull into a vortex of intoxication. It set the stage for big mistake #2 which was a decision to order a special jumbo brown liquor combo cocktail at Rickshaw just before Morby went on. The combined net effect of the two drinks well exceeded the potency of what I’m currently able to process. Badly debilitated from the alcohol by night’s end, I failed to convey my appreciation of the performance in a coherent manner when I spoke to Morby after the show.

If there’s any silver lining to the over-consumption, it would have to be the absence of any apprehension about the midnight walk through the Tenderloin back to the hotel.

I stayed at the Adante on Geary which is where my Dad and I stayed for a baseball trip earlier this year. The elevator wasn’t working but the price was right and the room was clean. I love the location. It sits just below a steep hill so you never really get over-taxed physically to reach it.

I had fish tacos at Pancho Villa Tacqueria on 16th Street before the show. Excellente.

A vendor sold mistletoe on Powell near the cable car turnaround and the city had plenty of Christmas vibe. You’re starting to see evidence of the massive subway construction project in the city‘s center. Known as the “Central Subway” project, San Francisco is digging huge underground tunnels that will enable train service linking the Caltrain Station near the ballpark all the way up to Chinatown and perhaps beyond. Still about five years from completion, it’s refreshing to see such an ambitious public transit improvement underway in one of this country’s great cities.

The coast-to-coast airplane rides just 24 hours apart were a study in contrast. On the way out, I sat in an aisle seat in the second-to-last row of the airplane. When people exited the rear lavatory across the aisle, many seemed to pinball off me given the lack of balance one can feel in that setting. Something about that particular seat seems to be a magnet for accidental contact. Add to that several crying babies and the six-hour Westbound trip was definitely not as good as the five-hour return. Coming back to New York, I sat on a window in the back with the middle seat empty and got really comfortable. The cabin was quiet and gradually darkened with a couple hours to go in the trip.

The Morby / Le Bon tour doesn’t make it to NYC until January 16, 2014.