Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Railroad Revival Tour in Marfa - 4/24















Continuing with the theme of Marfa having the best music offerings per capita in the state, or perhaps the country, a number of the biggest bands in the country will be stopping by next month...by train.

Yes, the Railroad Revival tour will be making a stop at El Cosmico in Marfa on April 24th, Easter Sunday, in case you were wondering, with a show featuring Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, and Old Crow Medicine Show. The Marfa show will be the 4th of six stops on the tour, preceded by Oakland, San Pedro, and Chandler, and followed by Austin and New Orleans. Tickets are on sale today, March 9th.

I can only wish them the best of luck, as I once took the same train line from California to Texas, and what might have been a 24-hour drive by car turned into a 58 hour trip by train. Yes, you read that right - fifty-eight. That was from the Bay Area to San Antonio. Long story short, passenger trains on this line must yield to freight trains, who own the tracks, and so at various times we had to take a side rail and wait for a freight train to come through. At certain points, I recall sitting on a train going nowhere for upwards of 2 hours at a time in the middle of the New Mexico desert. I can only hope that the logistics of this situation have been accounted for.

Perhaps they are buying supremacy on the tracks, as tickets for the show will run you between $55 and $203. Sure, it's a real privilege I suppose to see these bands in such a small place, but folks, that's pricey. Let's remember that when Bon Iver played Marfa, tickets were $2.

Then again, if you hadn't heard, Mumford is about the biggest band in the country following their Grammy bump. If you haven't checked out their record Sigh No More, you probably should. It's brilliant. Maybe we should consider $55 a deal.

(UPDATE 3/10: Marfa sold out already. Guessing the Marfa show is going to be a lot of Austin people who couldn't get tickets there.)

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