Mark Knopfler stops time in Sugar Land

Mark Knopfler at the Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land on Sept. 6, 2019. Photo by David W. Clements. Mark Knopfler at the Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land on Sept. 6, 2019. Photo by David W. Clements. Photo: David W. Clements Photo: David W. Clements Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Mark Knopfler stops time in Sugar Land 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Six songs into his set in Sugar Land last night, Mark Knopfler stopped to tell the tale of "Matchstick Man."

The song is a new one by the Dire Straits frontman and reluctant Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

HOUSTON'S WEEKEND: John Mayer fans flock to Toyota Center

And he wrote it about the leanest of lean years – patched together from a memory of playing a gig far from home, way south in England on Christmas Eve, only to have to hitchhike home the next day in the snow. It's a lovely tune, and those who haven't listened to his new record should check it out.

But what caught my attention was Knopfler's description of those early gigs. He mentioned how the occasional pint glass would come sailing at the stage, but he used a phrase that was perfect. I failed to write it down, but I believe he said the glasses "would gently sail past."

HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Folk legend Jack Elliott rambles onto the big screen and into town

That right there, to my mind, is Knopfler's secret. To take some drunken and violent act and imbue it with calm meditation. Admittedly the near capacity Smart Financial Centre crowd was stirred to a frenzy by the obligatory "Money for Nothing" encore, which remains the least-Knopfler Knopfler song – certainly musically if not lyrically.

But Knopfler's great gift is slowing down time, allowing you to find a weird beauty in something like a hurled beer mug or a song that ends not with a chorus but a coda, a gently swelling part that goes from spark to fire to ashes, with little flecks of red suggesting the fire isn't over. "On Every Street" was the best example on this night, a near sold-out show at the Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land. The old gumshoe trope is one Knopfler works every so often. He hinted at it earlier this evening with "Your Latest Trick." But "On Every Street" is a concept executed to perfection: a few mumbled verses delivered as though Humphrey Bogart were a singer. And then a little guitar figure. That guitar figure locks in with a second guitar, bass and drum. The effect is mesmerizing and he's good at it as anybody else out there.

The version Friday night was unlike any I'd heard. Typically the pedal steel guitar becomes the crying counterpart to the coda. But Richard Bennett played pedal steel for the song's early stage, then grabbed a six-string of his own to lock into the guitar line with Knopfler and the saxophone did the crying.

Something old felt new. I suppose some go to concerts purely for nostalgia. But I prefer this approach.

Speaking of that slo-mo effect and also of Richard Bennett, watching Knopfler interact with an astounding 10-member backing band was like observing an oceanic ecosystem. Everything felt slowed down just perfectly so you could savor the intricacy of the interaction. With few exceptions, Knopfler traded solos in a call-and-response format rather than drawing all the attention to himself. But his instrument was at the center all night, just subtly. I was struck by how his tone as an instrumentalist is so consistent regardless of what he's playing. The clarity of his playing remains remarkable. The notes feel like bubbles loosened in the water, which drift and then pop. But each its own thing.

While his peers and predecessors were all trying to amplify Chicago blues, Knopfler sat back in the pocket drawn more to Chet Atkins and Charlie Christian. And yes, also J.J. Cale, who serves as something of an Oklahoman doppleganger for Knopfler.

But he found his sound in an age when most great guitarists of his generation went to the same fount. And I don't wish to get hung up too long on Bennett, but those who don't know his work should give him a Google search. During a week where we lost Jimmy Johnson – a guitarist whose name nobody knows, but whose guitar parts everybody knows – I feel Bennett deserves a bit of shine. I could list credits on his resume, but we'd run out of space. But among the hundreds, he's the guy whose guitar provided the architecture that turned Steve Earle's "Guitar Town" into a Guitar Skyline. On this night, he was constantly contributing little musical figures that lingered, without distracting from the effect of the song. When Knopfler swapped out a resonator guitar for another electric in the middle of "Romeo and Juliet," Bennett's playing was the flotation device that kept the fragile song afloat.

Knopfler's entire band deserves the five-minute break he granted them for introductions. There's a beautiful mix of old England and Music City in the band's makeup. It made the group forceful when it needed to be, but more importantly malleable.

Knopfler pointed out at one point during the night that the 11 members of the band, himself included, could play 49 instruments. And he could play one.

But it's a joy to hear him play it because live Knopfler is such a rare commodity. He comes across as more inclined to play for himself than to take it on the road.

Knopfler could create a building made out of money if he just did a classic Dire Straits type tour. But that no more appeals to him at 70 than it did at 60 or 50 or 40.... I mean, he was a quite successful before "Brothers in Arms." But that album codified him as a reluctant, unlikely rock star. He hasn't really changed the formula dramatically since. But he looks more comfortable doing what he's doing than playing the guitar on the MTV.

He was always a weird fit in that world. But like ZZ Top, Dire Straits had people in their circle that were savvy about the value of video at the time.

But those are the big broad strokes of his career. And more often Knopfler has steered toward quieter territory: movie scores, collaborations with guys like Chet Atkins, and a set of solo albums that don't throttle you with more blues-based rock songs. Instead, he takes a more measured approach. Which isn't to say the songs lacked bite. "Why Aye Man" from "Ragpicker's Dream" proved a sturdy opener. And "Speedway at Nazareth" – a standout from his "Sailing to Philadelphia" album closed the set with zeal. That record is ripe for revisiting, for those not plugged in to the post-Straits work. The interplay between Knopfler and Bennett on that song alone was something I could've listened to for hours.

Then this large band left the stage and returned for "Money for Nothing," a song that very much feels tied to a time and place. But plenty of songs from the '60s have endured despite their time markers. It's funny, I couldn't quite tell if Knopfler's band was constantly throwing little themes from his other songs into the set just for those paying attention. I could swear a horn line in "Why Aye Man" tipped to "Tunnel of Love" (which didn't get played, this show got a further reggae-fied "Once Upon a Time in the West" instead) and "Romeo and Juliet" (which DID get played).

I'd like to think he then closed the show with "Going Home," the theme he wrote and recorded for the film "Local Hero" because that film is book-ended with scenes set in Houston. But it's been the closer most of the tour. Still it proved a beautiful piece of music to wrap up a two-hour performance. And its slow swells better represent a discography of beautiful slow-moving songs that now spans more than 40 years; he took his time then, and he takes his time now.