LOCATION: The Birchmere, Washington, DC
LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Devon Ashley, Rick Plant
REVIEW BY:
danny316:
Washington D.C. show at The Birchmere - June 8, 2006
SET LIST:
1) Latter Days (from Good Dog Bad Dog)
2) I Want You To Be My Love (from Drunkard’s Prayer)
3) Born (from Drunkard’s Prayer)
4) Lookin’ Forward (from Drunkard’s Prayer)
5) What I’ll Remember Most (from Ohio)
6) I’m On A Roll (new song)
7) Entertaining Thoughts (new song)
8) I Don’t Want to Waste Your Time (new song)
9) Linford Piano Solo (possibly a variation of “I Should Have Kept
Going” from I Don’t
Think There’s No Need to Bring Nothin’ but he played it after talking
about Unspoken Requests)
10) Little Did I Know (from Drunkard’s Prayer) – included a lengthy
instrumental with
A piano solo, then some guitar & drums.
11) Trouble (new song) – Karin talked about this being inspired by
Linford’s sexy
five o’clock shadow. She mentioned that she has been calling him “Mr.
Smart Parts."
12) Firefly (from Drunkard’s Prayer)
13) Show Me (from Ohio)
14) Drunkard’s Prayer (from Drunkard’s Prayer)
Encore:
1) Cruel & Pretty (from Ohio)
2) When I Go (from Films For Radio) – included a guitar solo by Rick
Plant, who has
released children’s album “The Mud Cakes.”
Over the Rhine created some beautiful spots of time* this evening, stirring and absorbing. The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA is just a short distance from Washington D.C. proper; HEM opened the show at 7:30, and Over the Rhine was playing by 9:15. The Birchmere’s music-hall ambiance references a German beer hall with its long tables and large plastic pitchers, but the stage offers a more jazz-like scenario, faux brick and alley windows painted onto the back wall. HEM’s set was nice, though fairly mediocre, and rife with some pitch problems from their beautiful red-haired lead singer. I did love seeing the string bass and the mandolin put to such lovely use, however.
The Over the Rhine show sweetened as it progressed. Karin’s vocals seemed a little clipped in the first couple of songs, but then she relaxed into the lilting, mesmerizing voice that I know. As always, the most fun elements of the show were when Linford gave a glimpse of his crazy-brilliant thoughts and stories. (Is everything that man says poetic?) He talked about the blind piano player at his church as a child, and how drawn he was to learn the magic of all the keys and pedals. One of his solo piano albums is titled after the occasional “unspoken request” by which someone in the church would ask for prayer. Linford also showed his versatility tonight by playing bass guitar and acoustic guitar as well as keyboard. Both Karin and Linford’s comments from stage were more personal than those of previous concerts I had attended. They spoke about their own process of writing songs, and about their marriage. In talking about creating “I’m On A Roll,” Linford mentioned the girlie lyrics of the verse he wrote, and said: “It’s fun to write for a girl.” Karin then teasingly indicated that Linford is masculine, too. “He did used to play hockey.” Linford: “I used to be a right-winger.” Karin: “Times have changed.”
The most magical moments of the show were “This is What I Remember Most” and “Firefly”, the latter with Karin on keys. These are the delicious and haunting moments that separate Over the Rhine from other bands, and make them so magnetic. It’s no surprise that my friend’s baby in utero could be felt moving during the show; I’d like to think it was from prenatal exposure to Over the Rhine, but I suppose that’s a little silly. It’s also no surprise that Drunkard’s Prayer was recently one of the top 20 albums in New Zealand, and that OTR was recently invited to the White House. Their brilliance elicits recognition.
OTR also did several new songs, which I was excited to hear. Apparently Karin & Linford will be recording a new album soon, which follows their prolific pattern of the last several years. Karin quipped that they are “not working through any marital, financial…or any other kind of trap” so “it’s going to be a happy record.”
* William Wordsworth, from “The Prelude”:
”There are in our existence spots of time
Which with distinct preeminence retain
A fructifying virtue, whence, depressed
By trivial occupations and the round
Of ordinary intercourse, our minds –
Especially the imaginative power –
Are nourished and invisibly repaired.”