LOCATION: Brady's, Kent, OH
LINEUP:
REVIEW BY: Chirs Emery
The setup: Well, for starters, I forgot a tiny little detail in my directions to Brady's, so I missed the turn onto 59 in Kent. After the Emerymobile and I returned from venturing far to the north of Kent, we eventually arrived at Brady's. For those of you who've never seen Brady's, it's a small, intimate coffee shop with lots of atmosphere and architectural ambiguities. After stopping for a moment to chat with Todd Kearby at the merch stand, I quickly located jg & crew among the dozen or so members of the audience. jg had brought along his dearly beloved, who was the quick recipient of a hug. Also in attendance were listie Amy Watson (adorable!) with husband Phil in tow. Turns out I only missed the first two songs, as well as some rather compelling games of hangman - evidenced by the many napkins strewn about. (Purple belt?) The band: Same as the last two times I've seen Monk. These guys are tight. Dave LaBruyere: 4 string Fender bass and bemused looks Josiah Wolf: Drums, percussion, and Ray Charles-esque head-bobbin. Ric Hordinski: Vocals, witty repartee, and guitar wizardry. The setlist: Willoughby Circle Of Quiet One Eye Open That's My Love/Jam Uncle Frederick's Farm (excerpt) Eyes Of The Maker Speaking With The Angel (Ron Sexsmith cover) Little Wing/Jam/Drum solo-while-tuning-guitar Womb Of God That's My Love (might be some ordering errors early in the setlist) The scoop: *Willoughby/Circle Of Quiet jg filled me in on these that I missed. Apparently, they played Willoughby for about 45 minutes for a warmup/soundcheck. Circle Of Quiet was winding up when I walked in. *One Eye Open Still my favorite track from _Quiver_. Ric mixed it up a little by playing the main hook up an octave. *That's My Love/Jam This is another great from _Quiver_. The band is really starting to loosen up at this point, and they go off into an extended jam for a while, which is where they really shine. More on this in a little bit. At this point, Ric asked for requests half-jokingly. I shouted out for 'Squonk', the Genesis song from _Trick Of The Tail_, and he played a few opening bars. Of course, I had inside info that Ric is an old Genesis fan from way back. Someone else shouted out a request that led to: *Uncle Frederick's Farm (excerpt) Ric played the first 2 verses of this old song from the _Serpents And Gloves_ video. He claimed that's all he remembered. Does anyone know if this has been performed live before? I can't recall that it has. *Eyes Of The Maker *Speaking With The Angel Couple of covers, including a new one for me, the Ron Sexsmith cover which was a song that seemed to be about preserving innocence. *Little Wing/Jam This was a fairly faithful cover of the Jimi Hendrix song, maybe a tiny bit more like the Sting version than the original. What I liked was the way that Ric can take the band (and audience) along with him out into the ether on a sonic journey, and just about the time you realize that you've left all the familiar ground behind, things start to get recognizable again, and you're back where you started. I have only on two occasions seen what I considered to be true improvisation at a rock concert twice: the first was the ProjeKct Two show with Fripp/Belew/Gunn; the other is a Monk show. *Womb Of God *That's My Love Ric wound up the show with a couple more tracks from _Quiver_. 'Twas well done, and a strong finish to the night's show. The summary: A good performance from seasoned artists. The small showing was disappointing, but understandable in light of two factors: a) it was Kent State University's Homecoming that night, and b) the Cleveland Indians were playing a playoff game. Those things considered, 12 or 15 people isn't such a bad turnout at Brady's in Kent on a Saturday night. Ric is really opening up and seems much less hesitant to open things up and explore new ground while on stage. Also, Ric is one hell of a nice guy, and spent quite a bit of time just chatting with us afterwards. He confirmed the Nov. 11 show in Columbus. (YAY!) As always, I highly recommend you check out Monk any chance you get. You won't be disappointed.