LOCATION: National City Pavilion, Cincinnati, OH
LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Mickey Grimm, Jake Bradley, Kenny Hutson
REVIEW BY:
BPD
What I'll Remember Most
Show Me
Jesus In New Orleans
Ohio
Suitcase
Anything At All
Professional Daydreamer
Lifelong Fling
Changes Come
-intermission-
Long Lost Brother
She
Nobody Number One
Cruel and Pretty
Remind Us
How Long Have You Been Stoned
When You Save Love
Fool
Hometown Boy
Bothered
Idea #21
---
My City Was Gone
Miss Ohio
If A Song Could Be President
Jonathan Andrews:
My City Was Gone" had such an amazing groove. I thought it blew the
Pretender's version out of the water.
mpgarr:
As usual--another great show by OtR---it was a bit different for me
to see them play in a bigger venue as opposed to playing in a more intimate
one like Canal Street, but it was cool to see them up on a big stage, being
put up on the video monitors and such---and it was interesting to hear
an entire "album" done from beginning to end.
The encores were interesting as well--the first was a version of Chrissy Hynde and the Pretenders of their song "Ohio" then a version of Gillian Welch's "Miss Ohio."
It is interesting--a few years ago---Niki Dakota on WYSO started doing a thing on Fridays--she asked for listeners to create a "final five for Fridays"--I sent in a set of five songs and mine was the first to be done--that set was to start off: The Pretenders "Ohio" followed by Neil Young's "Ohio" then OtR's "Ohio" followed by Welch's "Miss Ohio" and ending with Randy Newman's "Dayton, Ohio 1903"
Due to seating and the fact that this venue has some odd rules about camera's--unless you are media-you can't have a decent camera--only throw away film cameras and small point and shoot digital and of course cell phone cams---I did sneak mine in and took some shots---but I got found out and had to put it away--at least for a time till I snuck it back out and got a few more photos--but since my seat position was back in the second tier of seats and way off to stage right--my angle sucked--I did not get any decent pics really.
b_lachey:
I think the only one was Idea 21. Linford talked about it a bit after
the show. They'd done the others on the Ohio tour at least once. Plus,
they'd done things like How Long Have You Been Stoned? at the Kerry benefit
in 2004 etc., but even then it was only done as a two piece.
My quick notes:
Idea 21 was stunning as a three piece.
Pretenders My City Was Gone was a great great choice, as was Gillian Welch's Look At Miss Ohio. And awesomely executed. I hope at least the Gillian Welch tune stays in the rotation for a bit.
I love hearing new things live from a band, or neft-heard things. BPD was awesome as a show opener, and they did it as they'd done on the Ohio tour where people strolled on stage just in time for their parts. I can't say enough about Professional Daydreamer and Changes Come live, they were beyond great.
Karin sang the verses on Nobody #1 better than I ever remember. Cruel and Pretty is still great to hear live. Karin played Remind Us on a Rhodes instead of the regular piano, which was a perfect way to hear her voice. Nicholas Radina from Cincinnati's Tropicoso played percussion on a few tunes, and he and Mickey turned How Long Have You Been Stoned? into an awesome rhythmic powerhouse. That song has gotta stay in the playlist! It's THE election year, people!
Kenny Hutson from Vigilantes of Love played steel guitar and dobro and electric on a few songs, and is really talented.
Even When You Say Love was executed perfectly, who knew it'd translate into such a fun live song. Fool was beautiful.
The stage was a little high so I fell back to about 25 rows back to take it all in. I'd say the venue was over half full? 2000 people or so? It was perfect weather.
Holy smokes, what a well sequenced album that it flows so well into a live show. Well done!
WalrusOct9:
* Kinda surprised they didn't slip "Last Night On Earth" in the encore
somewhere, since it's from the Ohio sessions. The encore was pretty sweet,
but was just something I was thinking about on the drive up to Cinci.
* The venue needs some front fill speakers badly...the first 3 or 4 rows don't really have a direct hearing line to the main speaker stacks and so it was a weird mix of reverberating PA sound and actual sound from the stage. Most larger theaters or arena shows put a couple of smaller monitor-size speakers up at the front of the stage to remedy this problem for the first few rows. Eventually my ears adjusted a bit (and I think the mix got better) but I hope it's something the venue thinks about fixing this now that they're done actually building the place.
* Show itself was awesome. I forgot how much I loved that album. "Professional Daydreamer" and "How Long Have You Been Stoned" were the highlights for me, since after near-40 shows, I had still never heard either one live, and they were really great. "Daydreamer" especially...i'm not sure why that one never became a concert mainstay. Finally hearing the 'real' version of "Bothered" live, in its full-band glory, was a nice highlight too, although the ending was a bit weird.
* Of the more commonly played tunes, I'm backing Bruce up..."Nobody Number One" was awesome. Maybe the best performance of the night.
* I think Linford was playing a Nord keyboard on top of his piano, which must be a new toy for him, since I'd never seen it before onstage...can anyone (Bill?) back this up? I'm just curious...those things are bad ass.
* Pretenders cover = AWESOME. I really hope that gets played again,
and released at some point, regardless of what they do with the rest of
the show. It took me awhile to even place the song, since it's so rare
for OTR to reach outside their "safe zone" of americana/folk-ish songs
for a cover version.
Now, with the "dude, they played 'Ohio' start to finish and it was awesome' bias out of the way...they were a bit tentative. I don't think "nervous" is the right word...everyone was tight and Karin sang her butt off, as usual, but until the last 4 or 5 songs of disc two that I felt like the band really let itself go and cut loose. I think "Stoned" was really the turning point, with the drum/percussion solo kind of waking everyone up onstage and letting the band have a little fun. It didn't make it a bad performance, by any means, just a bit different from most of the OTR shows I've been to.
I think part of it was that there were a half dozen or so songs that
had rarely, if ever, been performed live, but I think the bigger factor
was that 3/5 of the band onstage had never played most of those songs at
all prior to the last month. It definitely wasn't a throwback to the Ohio
tour, since most of the band was different, and so in a lot of ways it
was kind of a "first show" for this particular band...I'd guess, including
the encore, the Karin/Linford/Jake/Mickey lineup did 17-odd debuts in a
24 song set last night. It was a ballsy move, and they did great...I know
it's supposed to be a one-off but I do hope they consider doing one or
two more performances like this down the line, since I think with the opening-night
jitters out of the way, a second or third show would be off the charts.