William Fitzsimmons at the Cedar, Minneapolis (07 May 2014)

Setlist Speak Centralia Beautiful Girl Josie's Song From You The Tide Pulls from the Moon Took Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (The Smiths cover) Bird of Winter Prey When You Were Young Just Not Each Other Fade and Then Return Fortune Blood/Chest Hold On Umbrella (Rihanna cover) Lions After Afterall You Broke My Heart -- Encore -- I Don't Feel It Anymore Passion Play Wildflowers (Tom Petty cover) Everything Has Changed If You Would Come Back Home Goodmorning Read More William Fitzsimmons Singer/songwriter William Fitzsimmons is currently out on tour in support of his recently released LP Lions (out now on Nettwerk Records). Ben Sollee is listed as opener.…

William Fitzsimmons admitted that the Cedar Cultural Center was quickly his most favorite place to play... then quickly throwing in a joke that this was his "third time in Cleveland."

While talking on stage, Fitzsimmons came to the realization that his speaking voice was quite different from his singing voice, which is "girlie" as he said. All of his songs are on the tender/gentle side... and yes, even dark and sad. That's an accomplishment, considering Fitzsimmons could even make Rihanna's pop song "Umbrella" listenable.

So, let's rewind a bit, singer/songwriter William Fitzsimmons just released Lions on Nettwerk Records, and in typical promotion, is currently out on tour. The Cedar Cultural Center is known for its acoustic and the venue is really one for sitting down and listening. Not so much for rowdy rock shows as Stephen Malkmus pointed out recently. For folk music fans, the Cedar is where it is at.

Setlist

Fitzsimmons is in a wonderful mood, despite the fact that all his songs are about breakup and love and lost and sadness and "boner jams" as he joked. After playing "Took", which is about his adoptive children, the band left the stage. Fitzsimmons then played The Smiths' classic song "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want."

As you can see from the printed setlist, Fitzsimmons has a tendency to go off the map, adding in various cover songs and extending his encore from the scheduled four to six songs. While no one in the audience was complaining or seemed to mind it, I personally think it went on a little too long (the whole Fitzsimmons set ran over two hours and ten minutes). For fans, especially the ones that requested the encore songs, that's all part of the fun of attending live shows.

William Fitzsimmons continues his Lions tour:

05/10/14 Denver, CO Daniels Hall
05/11/14 Boulder, CO Etown Hall
05/13/14 Salt Lake City, UT The State Room
05/15/14 Seattle, WA The Triple Door
05/16/14 Bellingham, WA Wild Buffalo
05/17/14 Vancouver, BC Biltmore Cabaret
05/18/14 Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge
05/19/14 Eugene, OR WOW Hall
05/21/14 Sacramento, CA Harlow's Night Club
05/22/14 San Francisco, CA The Independent
05/23/14 Los Angeles, CA Largo
05/24/14 West Hollywood, CA Troubadour
05/25/14 Pomona, CA Glass House
05/27/14 Las Vegas, NV Vinyl @ Hard Rock Hotel
05/28/14 Phoenix, AZ Crescent Ballroom
05/30/14 Dallas, TX Kessler Theater
05/31/14 Austin, TX Parish
06/01/14 Houston, TX Eleanor Tinsley Park
06/05/14 St. Louis, MO Gramophone
06/06/14 Chicago, IL Old Town School
06/07/14 Ann Arbor, MI The Ark
06/08/14 Toronto, ON Virgin Mobile Mod Club
06/09/14 Buffalo, NY Buffalo Iron Works
06/11/14 Quebec City, QC Le Cercle
06/12/14 Montreal, QC Cafe Campus
06/13/14 Burlington, VT Signal Kitchen
06/14/14 Northampton, MA Iron Horse Music Hall
06/15/14 Cambridge, MA The Sinclair

William Fitzsimmons at the Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (07 May 2014)

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