LOCATION: York Street Cafe
LINEUP:
REVIEW BY: Bruce Lachey
Hey, just thought I'd post a review from the Saturday (17 Oct) Monk show at York Street. First of all, the venue is WAY BETTER than I thought it was. I have no idea why I had such crappy preconceived notions about York Street, but happily they were all false. Todd manned the booth, which now includes the Quiver and Hush discs, the new-ish CD sized Ric-ego boosting booklet with a lot of pro-Monk quotes and Wilson photography (never a bad thing). Also making their first appearance (to my eyes) were two Monk shirts, and a pretty Monk gear order sheet. There was a string trio opener; they were pretty good. I think they were surprised to be opening for a rock-based band, and more surprised by the applause after each song. The venue wasn't packed, but was generally well attended. Mr. Mike Wilson and wife sat behind me. The setlist: Willoughby Circle of Quiet One Eye Open *Maker *Speak w/ Can't Drink the Water Womb of God Melancholy Room TML *** encore *** This Train (Didn't play this but was listed) Little Wing Set/misc commentary: Willougby kinda is fun in it's countrified version. Once he started singing Circle, I knew I had made the right choice coming to the show. It's awesome! His voice is like 150% better than the last time I'd seen Monk live (with Brian on drums, back in '96 or before; whatever the Ripley's show was where Karin got up and sang the encore). The two songs listed above with "*" are cover songs (as is Hendrix's Little Wing) but he didn't mention the original artist. Ric was amazing, definitely into the performance. The bassist (Dave) and drummer (Josiah) are awesome. I spoke with Josiah after the show; he's a University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music music comp major senior, and it's pretty apparent in his drumming.