Peter Meade

Father John Misty, Cal Coast Ampitheater at San Diego State — Well, our sixth FJM show, sadly, did not meet our expectations. It's crazy but our seats were too close and dead-on to the stage-right speaker stack, leaving us bathed in distorted, volume-11 sound and annoying stage lighting. Moving to the top of the 4,600-seat outdoor structure (that was easy, the show was far from sold out) toward the end was the fix, plus it let us enjoy the amazingly diverse audience, many of whom turned out specifically to see second-opener Lucinda Williams, who has bravely battled back from a stroke in 2020.