LOCATION: Sojourner's Festival, Wheaton, IL
LINEUP: Karin, Linford
REVIEW BY: Mandy Fowler, Micheal and Dawn Cade
Went to the Sojourner's Festival show at Wheaton College last night. It was such a unique show (and I mean that in a good way, not like "Oh, that was . . . unique . . ."), I had to decloak and post something. Surprised by two things: 1)That it turned out to be just Karin and Linford. 2)That they were very chatty and hilarious during the concert. I mean, they were both being REALLY funny. Like some kind of old-timey vaudeville act, singing songs and telling jokes in between. (There was no softshoeing involved, however.) One of the funniest moments was when Linford mentioned that they had some Cd's they were selling up front, and some "souvenirs." And Karin said, "Like little Eiffel Towers." heh. Also, Linford started playing something I couldn't recognize, and it turned out to be a really odd version of My Love is a Fever. I guess Karin thought it was odd, too, because about a quarter of the way through the song, she stopped and said, "I can't remember the words at this tempo. . . I can only pretend for so long." And he just keeps playing, and she's shaking her head and saying, "It's just gone." Somebody yells out "Migraines!" And she's like, "Yeah, something about migraines, I have one right now." Finally, she jumps in, somewhere around "hob's nob." When the end came, where she repeats the lines from the beginning, she trails off in the middle of it and says "All I can remember is my love is a fever." And then everyone cheered and clapped. It was pretty entertaining. They pulled some oldies out of their bag, some songs from Patience and Till We Have Faces. Played Rhapsodie (among others), which made me very happy. And Orphan of God, or whatever the name of that song is. Definitely got my five bucks' worth, and some change . . . I kind of do wish they sold little Eiffel Towers, though. I think I would buy one.
Sorry to be so late with this, was out of town and didn't have scanner access. I forgot who called the show "bordering on mad-cap hilarity" but I think they hit it straight on. We have been following OTR since 92 I believe (we even have a candle from a performance) and have seen them roughly 20 times. Pretty good for someone not from Cincy. But My wife and I agreed that this was probably our favorite show ever. Setlist as follows (click on the attachment for a scanned copy of the original) Latter Days The World Can Wait Bothered Etc Whatever Orphan Girl Cast Me Away Little Blue River/In the Garden All I Need Poughkeepsie Faithfully Dangerous My Love is a Fever Rhapsody ***encore*** Like a Radio the setlist shows If Nothing Else but they didn't do it. This show really seemed to give the audience a taste of who the people behind OTR are. There was a lot of dialogue between Karin and Linford and they both talked to the audience way more than the usual "Thank you all for coming..." Linford talked about growing up, not having a TV as a child, going over to see Billy Graham on a neighbor's TV, the day they moved the piano "right up inside the house" etc. On the set list, Karin had written a few notes to herself to interject into the show. The goose story was when they had been at Wheaton a while back she stopped to feed some geese bread and a lady pulled up to her and began railing at her because she was feeding the geese and goose feces is full of all kinds of bacteria and disease. Karin seemed a little confused that someone would just come up to her and start in on her. The WWTO was of a story she told that on the way to Wheaton, she was talking (rambling) to Linford and she could tell he was listening to radio station WWTO "wifey, wifey tune out". So she called him on it and he said if she wanted to compete for his attention, what she needed to do was make sure what he was saying could hold his attention. "So I shut up". The "Turn" she wrote may have been a stage move or something, I have no clue what it refers to "Michelle - California people" referred to a couple who came all the way from CA they said just to see the show and to meet K & L. Karin dedicated My Love is a Fever to them. We were standing in line with Michelle before the show and talked to her for a while. She's a musician and is "totally absorbed" with OTR. I have no idea what the numbers are in front of a couple of the songs - anyone? One of the best parts of the show was when Karin totally blanked out on My Love is a Fever. She attempted to throw in a few made up lines and then said she couldn't fake it any longer. She just stood there while Linford played on. She told him now would be a good time for him to do a solo. He just had such a big grin on his face, it was hysterical. She finally waved her arm and said "it's just gone, honey...whoosh". When he didn't come to her aid she said "he can't remember it either and he wrote it". She finally got bits and pieces of it and finished. When she breathed out "and fireflies" we were feeling the relief and breathed out as well. they also had a little part when Linford asked if they were keeping to the set list or skipping the next song. She asked what made him think they were skipping anything. He said the way she waved her hand by her head made him think that they were skipping. She made another waving gesture and said "Now that means we are skipping a song, THIS means for you to talk a little while I get ready". It was just a fun, personal, come on in and sit on the sofa for a while and get to know us and our music kind of night. OK sorry for the long one, but it was just such a great night.