LOCATION: Wells Street Festival, Chicago, IL
LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Jack
REVIEW BY: various listees
Ah, the Wells St. performance... When we got to the mainstage the band before Over the Rhine was still performing; those in attendance seemed more interested in the beer tent than the music. By the time Karin, Linford, and Jack finished setting up things began to settle. While a few partiers lingered the crowd seemed to be more polite. I am amazed with how good OtR sounded in a rather poor acoustic setting. If I tried to play in the alley behind a bar I think the dogs would start howling...:-p Of course I've seen them play four times now and each show has had a different flavor, and I've been impressed and amazed anew by what amazing musicians Karin, Linford, and Jack are...Kylie Wilkerson:
Well, Kylie's first OtR show...what a beautiful concert it turned out to be. After a 3 1/2 hour drive my sister and I arrived at Wells St about 9 pm. The stage was set up in an alley behind a bar. Once we got back there, Kim and I were stopped by this young guy asking for a 'light' and then he asked if we wanted a beer, we declined as she was driving, and I don't drink. He kept talking, and I'm thinking, "I've gotta get closer to to the stage...what am I doing". So then I got to meet John(JB), lurker Joe and his family(hey!) (undeniably)Michael, and Dawn. Talked with them some. ;) The band was doing the whole sound check thing, so the actual concert didn't start until like 9:30. Just ask John how many times I said I couldn't believe I was actually there. :) We stood relatively close and off to the rite for a while, until some huge oger guy came and stood rite in front of me. (how nice of him) So then I saw a little space closer to the stage. Like there were folks leaning on the stage...I was behind them. After playing a few songs, I was in a tizzy and had to take a stinkin potty break. I think I missed 2 songs.(Jack's Vtine and something else) I'll tell ya...restrooms are hard to come by in Chicago. So finally when I came back, everything was all good. They played some more, and said goodbye...of course no one agreed. And Karin came out to perform Give Me Strength on the keys. Beautiful. Then she left the stage. :( Most people dispersed pretty quickly. My sis and I went over to the merch table to check things out...while talking to the Cade's I noticed my sister was gone. As I was looking around I noticed a small group of people in front of the stage talking to Karin. And, there was Kim. :) She had gotten her autograph on a napkin.(now, my sister isn't an OtR fan...just not her kind of music) Apparently when Kim walked up to her, one of the guys introduced her as Kylie's sister, and I guess Karin said, "Ooh, I know you". :) So as I'm walking up, Karin looks at us both and says, "Are you Kylie?" Hehe. As if I weren't blown away by the concert...then this! ;) (Sup Karin?) We all talked a little. And then Kim and I got a picture with her. Talked a bit more, and then she left. After THAT, Kim and I had the opp to meet Jack. Basically we just wanted to hear him talk as we both love Scottish/English accents. I'm sure he didn't know what to think. :) And ps, Jack is the Jedi in Rhineland. Anyhoo we left to go get the car. And as we were driving down the main drag there, I notice Linford standing on the corner and Jack, and then Karin...so I'm like Heeeeyyy!!! Waving and smiling. They all waved and smiled back like we were old friends. :) Made my nite...again. Ooh, I forgot to tell you....Michael snagged a setlist for me. (i can always count on that guy) Joe(the lurker)is faxing his b/c he got it autographed. :) Thanks again, Joe...for everything! The Setlist All I Need - (just what I expected) Anything at All I Radio Heaven - (aaaamaaazing and so much more) Jesus in New Orleans - (looooove this song) Green-Clouded Swallowtail - (mmm mmm) Little Blue River/In the Garden - (wow...) Fever - (Karin, Karin, Karin...sooo cool) Lucy - -- The World Can Wait - (potty break) The Seahorse - -- Latter Days Miles Jack's Valentine - (potty break) Encore GMS-Karin Sorry for the commentary on the setlist if that annoyed you. :) You just need to know what I thought about each of them. :) Thank you for reading...I know it's long, but hey...it was my first concert! :) I officically feel like one of you now. My obsession with their beautiful music has grown. What is a girl to do? Anyhoo...I hope I didn't leave anything out. There is soo much more I could share, but I won't. Any questions?? ;) Thank you Linford and Karin(and Jack). Loves.Michael Cade:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was kind of like watching your Mercedes roll off of a cliff......with your mother-in-law inside. I think we decided on the ride home that "mixed emotions" best described the experience. Where to begin? It was great meeting Kylie and sis, Joe is always a blast and John, as I think Kevin said is always a "wild card". The fest itself was really good, some really talented artists and good food as well. The weather could not have been any better. But the show........ First let me say I would rather go to an OTR concert more than about anything else available. I think my wife and I went round and round for a couple of weeks about whether to attend a wedding of a close friend or go to a concert last year. This had to be the shortest show I have seen. I doubt if OTR was on stage an hour. The set list Kylie posted was incorrect (your "break" didn't cost you as many songs as you thought, they just didn't play them). The set list actually went like this: All I Need Anything At All I Radio Heaven Jesus in New Orleans Green Clouded Swallowtail Little Blue River/In the Garden Fever (not My Love is a Fever as I thought from looking at the list - but the old classic) Lucy Jack's Valentine Miles Latter Days - -- Give Me Strength They totally skipped The World Can Wait, The Seahorse and there was one other song on the set list that was supposed to be after GMS but now I can't remember what it was. So they cut an already short set by 3 songs. Things were running late so I'm sure it was a time thing but disappointing never the less. So it was a short set, way too many people were more interested in guzzling beer, swapping pick-up lines and goofing around to enjoy the show real well. The sound was about as could be expected in an alley behind a bar. If you got up close the sound was terrible, if you were back far enough to get a fairly decent mix, there was too much else going on around you. All I Need was great. Anything At All was pretty good I Radio Heaven was probably the best song of the night- Jack did some really fine guitar work on this one Jesus in N.O. was just OK Green Clouded Swallowtail isn't one of my favorites and was just fair. Little Blue River/In the Garden lacked the usual power I see in it. Fever had really bad sound. I would have liked to hear Karin do it in a better venue, could have been incredible but seemed to limp along. Lucy had a little bit of a different arrangement, I didn't even recognize it until Karin started to sing. Jack's V was really bad, I couldn't hear/understand Linford hardly at all Miles seemed slower than usual - I think I have been spoiled by Jesse's version. Latter Days was incredible, one of the best I've heard GMS with Karin alone on keys was excellent! We moved up close to the stage to be very close to Karin. Linford did a lot of guitar playing, more than I have ever seen. I wish all the other listees would have stopped by to introduce themselves. I saw a couple of people looking at us when we were all together like they were thinking "oh it's the listees" or possibly "who's that bunch of goofs acting like long lost friends", not sure which. I did see Jana up close to the stage at the end of the night. We went back and helped out selling some CDs, I think it was more of an afterthought than anything else. They only brought out FFR and GDBD. Pretty lackluster sales from what I am accustomed to doing. But it appeared as if they knew that it wouldn't be much of a sales night. It seemed that most of the crowd wasn't there for OTR and since it was pretty much a free concert with beer close at hand I can understand that. about halfway through the show people started trickling away till there were very few folks at the end. After Karin sang GMS (and we were waiting for another song cuz we saw it on the set list) there was about 5 seconds of applause and people scattered like the plague was coming. So all in all, it was one of my least favorite shows, but if you asked where I would rather be, I'd say nowhere.JB:
Anyway I have a few thoughts on the show as well.First one being it's very tough on musicians doing these festival type shows being that the bands are kind of rushed on and off with very little setup time and NO soundcheck.I forgot how important a sound check is (VERY !!!)The first 4 songs were basically THE soundcheck and believe me the sound guy could barely get a handle on our trio.One thing about it is the musicians onstage do not know what it sounds like "in the house" because they only here they're own monitors so they were oblivious to the fact that during these 4 songs Karin was barely audible.I left Kylie and her sister at the front to move back so I could hear or not hear as the case was.Then in the middle of "Jesus" all of the front lights on stage go out(Thats about 10 par cans for all of you who know out there)Leaving our trio performing on stage IN THE DARK !!!!Lucky those parking lot emrgency lights were on.By this time I was standing in the back and the movie "Spinal Tap" came to mind. I felt bad for our guys but they played through it like troopers(good for you guys!!!)Jack turns to the monitor soundman to ask for a little more guitar in his monitor but alas the monitor guy is nowhere to be found cause he's trying to fix the lights!!...LOL Anyway by the time "Little Blue River" started everything was "dialed in"(lights and sound)and things started to jell. Karin said they just finished recording a cover song for some compilation CD coming out and they did the song "Fever" you know the one "you give me fever......" and the way she sang it I can guarantee you was absolutely AWESOME!!! Bottom line: She gave me fever!!!"Fever all through the night".There was a point in the show where I was sitting on lawn chair only about 10 rows back off to the left and a girl walks up to me and says "Who is this ?? How come nobody's dancing or moving ?? I said "That's Over The Rhine and mostly we all just always stand there and watch mesmerised. But they don't play danceable music anyway, they play music to sway to.I don't know what the setlist said but Kylie I can assure you,you didn't miss "The world can wait" or "The Seahorse" they were not played."Latter Days" was one of the more interesting experiments of the evening.Linford chose to play it on guitar instead of piano for some reason and let me tell you it was quite "avante-guard" is that the right word? Actually I have to frank as I always am on here it was, how can I put it nicely? BRUTAL.But thats ok Linford you come to Chicago 6 times a year you can experiment all you want!My highlight of the evening as always was standing 4 feet from Karin while she sat at the piano playing "Give me strength".(I'm still in a trance Michael)Overall the night was very enjoyable hangin out with the listees and just seeing the smile on Kylie's face when they took the stage was priceless.Why I didn't stick around after the show I'll never know,I'm bummed now.Sometimes I feel funny about that sort of thing at my age,but someday I will get the courage to walk up and say thankyou for the music and for coming to Chicago so often.But if you guys ARE reading this, Thankyou