The Last Concert I Saw

I caught most of Willie Nile's set last night at Thursday in the Square, and it was a rocking good time. Nile is a Buffalo native who first came on the scene about thirty years ago. Back then he was promoted, as so many are, as a "new Dylan" and though his career hasn't exactly followed Bob's career trajectory, he's been making fine music pretty consistently ever since, most of it in a lean rock and roll singer-songwriter kind of vein (think of a cross between Joe Strummer and Steve Forbert, or maybe a better comparison would be Alejandro Escovedo)). The band played a bunch of material from his most recent album, called Innocent Ones, and emphasized material from his last few albums as he seems to be enjoying something of a latter career renaissance. The only drawback to the show was that the organizers of this free concert series have decided to ban cameras, which meant I couldn't wander around and take multiple shots for fear of being evicted (I won't say how I managed to get my camera in, but suffice to say it took some secret maneuvering). Considering that these are free outdoor shows in a public square, I find it odd that they are being so strict (especially since it has never been the policy in previous years). One guard told me that Blues Traveler (the headliners whose set I skipped) made the demand, which is too bad. If that's the continuing policy, then I won't be attending the series anymore unless the featured act is someone I really like (which would include Nile, but certainly not Blues Traveler).