LOCATION: Canal Street Tavern
LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Jack, Wade Jaynes, Dale Baker
REVIEW BY: Megan Linton
So as usual, I arrived insanely early to Canal Street. I was armed with dinner, a litre of water, (don't get excited, Bruce, it was a 1L bottle, you are not winning me over), a jacket and two books. And has anyone else seen this bus they're riding around in nowadays? It's crazy! You'd think they were...I dunno. Popular or something. But they're still pulling the little red, somewhat graffitied trailer right behind. I met some nice people while waiting in line, who didn't even seem to mind all that much that it was raining a good bit. Meeting people in line is, of course, customary. In fact the gentleman who ended up right behind me had snagged the last two tickets for the show last night. Another sold-out show at Canal Street. On to the show..... Willard Grant Conspiracy opened up for them. They're from Boston and not the kind of people you'd expect to see in a band. I didn't catch their names, but the singer guy said that their band has about 26 people in it. We saw two of them last night. Their set list had about 10 songs and one encore song listed. I think they played 7 songs. No encore. Well, no, they weren't THAT bad. I've decided there are different levels of bad. They weren't the kind of bad that you couldn't handle another minute of listening to because no one up there on stage seems to have any idea what musical talent is. They weren't bad musicians, per se. There just wasn't any energy on stage. And I didn't think the songwriting was very good. But in their defense, the singer guy said that it was the first time they had played with just the two of them--singer guy and guitar guy. The singer guy also became harmonica guy for one song. So I would assume some of the songwriting/energy problems would be solved with more people on stage. But then, there are some people who drip with energy by themselves on stage--Peter Mulvey and Jason Dennie come to mind. Anyway, I think the kind of bad exuded here was the "please don't play your whole set list because I'm really not very into your music and I came here to see OtR and I would really like for them to start soon" bad. Willard Grant Conspiracy will be opening for OtR for a lot of their current tour dates. In between sets, the announcer guy at Canal Street let us know that it was OtR's twentieth show there dating back to '93 or '94. The first time I saw them there was February of '95 and I think I've probably seen half of their shows there, if not more. It's definitely my favorite venue for them (Moonlite Gardens as a second choice) and most people in line with me that night agreed. Alright. Down to business. The lineup: Karin Linford Jack Dale Baker on Drums/Percussion Wade Jaynes on Bass (I'm pretty sure I spelled at least one of his names wrong.) The set: When I Go I Radio Heaven Little Blue River The World Can Wait If Nothing Else All I Need Is Everything Fairpoint Diary Anyway Birds Moth Anything At All Faithfully Dangerous Fever Goodbye - ----------- Latter Days GM Strength - ----------- Rhapsodie K & L I think the set is pretty similar to what's been going on out there on tour lately. But I haven't been paying attention because I've been ticked of that they didn't play Birds, TWCW or GMS at the Goshen show. All your set lists have only made me more sad and upset that I hadn't seen those songs live yet (well, I hadn't seen Birds since before Ric left). So I'm now content and can resume reading reviews. Anyway, some thoughts. They had a new sound guy, Jason Boboin. I think he'll be with them for a while. He was getting used to everything. In terms of sound, I thought that in most cases, Jack was too loud in the mix and Karin was too low. But then, I usually feel that way, and it probably has something to do with sitting almost on the stage with them and catching a lot of the monitor spill. It is at this point that I must publicly chastise anyone who waited too long to get tix for this show...or decided that Sting was more important. Yeah, I know. It's Sting. But trust me, you missed out. As most of you probably know from us Ohioans rambling, Canal Street is a very intimate setting in which to see OtR. It's very small and the stage is about as big as my bedroom. That's not very big. I don't think I've ever seen them perform standing up at CST. It's always very casual and very much sitting in chairs. Well, not last night. Karin, Jack and Wade stood the entire show (except when Jack was playing the lap steel). Karin mentioned that they had played similar sets there most times they'd played and that they decided to change that up a bit. And how. To put it simply, they were rockin'. Absolutely rockin'. When I Go was a full band number. It was a little too rhythmic, I think, but sounded great. I Radio Heaven was just an amazing, full sound. Like if my car stereo suddenly bred five more amps and put out that much more power than before. And perfect stereo balance. The sound was completely engulfing. My only complaint on this one is that Karin was hard to hear. Little Blue River. Well, why is it that my least favorite songs get played at every show? Circle of Quiet...Poughkeepsie...Little Blue River. But last night, I started thinking I might be starting to like that song. And then ten minutes later, I decided I had made a mistake in thinking that. I started wondering if we'd ever hear the rest of the set because that song just would not end. And I don't have a problem with long songs. I could listen to Daddy Untwisted or If I'm Drowning for hours. It's just something about that song that I can't handle it for more than 4:36. Fairpoint Diary. I miss the tinker piano. Birds. Wow. Beautiful. Some changed up chords and rhythms from the Eve recording. A little jam. Little. I love this song. Moth. Rockin'. Latter Days. Piano intro. I love it when he does that. And of course, I could only see the reflection of his fingers playing in that little slit of light between the keyboard and the hammond which was sitting on top. I started thinking about how many dreams I've had where Linford is playing this lick. Sometimes he lets me see what he's playing, sometimes he doesn't. And I was really hoping at that moment, as I was sitting there listening to that great piano part, that I've never told Linford that I have those dreams. Because that's just the kind of stupid, crazed-fan thing I would say to him. GM Strength. Wow. Ohmigosh. This one was amazing. And (I'm sure this isn't the first time they did this, but I'm kind of glad I haven't been reading reviews because it wouldn't have been a surprise) they just sort of casually fall into a few bars of "If I'm Drowning," right in the middle of it all. They didn't play the second encore. Pah. Although, if it were me, I wouldn't have played it either. Getting on and off stage was too much of a pain in the ass. Especially for Karin (who was wearing a skirt) and Dale (who had to tight wire in front of the drum shield to get to the "going down" part of the stage. He almost fell over one time and had to step on a table to keep from falling into the crowd). Noteworthy observations: The floor of the stage is now fully carpeted. Karin was wearing cow shoes. Thick heel, furry, blue and black cow pattern. Linford was wearing thick, black, big orange-tinted glasses. It seemed to be jacket night. Everyone participated with some sort of leather, denimn or velour except for Dale (guess which was Jack's selection). Most of the jackets came of sometime during the set. It was hot in there. I've decided that every OtR show is my favorite one, but for different reasons. Some are my favorites because Linford tells a cool story...or Karin forgets the words... or Jack screws up and makes a funny face. Some are my favorites because they play a song I haven't heard in forever. Or there's just an amazing amount of chemistry and fun on stage. Or because of who is sitting next to me. But mostly, every OtR show is my favorite because it's the one that I'm at right now. Good show. No. Great show.