LOCATION: Symposium, Cleveland, OH
LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Dave, Terri, Jack, Jeff Byrd
REVIEW BY: jg
Jason Dennie comes out to play, and there's a man in the room over by the mirrorred wall who's conversation is being inconvienienced by the playing. His conversation is evidently more important though, because he begins to shout to his companion in order to be heard. I'm sure the companion appreciated that. I know i did! i'm looking around for ppl i know. so far nobody. i was kinda hoping for the brady crowd or Tracey Thomas or the Yummy Chicks. then Bonny says " there's DM and Jen!" i look, but i don't see them. Sooner or later, though, i get a hug and i turn to see DM, and there's Jen and there's Alyssa (are you still on the list, Alyssa? haven't seen a post from you in a long while.) and Heather. When i hug Heather i feel this nice buttery soft leather, and i comment on her coat. she tells me it's her new coat, and etc. Little did i know this is a portent to her evening, as you already know 'cause she posted first and you've read it by now. The shouting guy is not finished with his important conversation, so i turn to Jen and mention the need for the tranquilizer gun. Another venue, another tranquilizer dart required. why is this? I wish i could give credit where credit is due here: was it Jen? was it Heather? but someone said later this was a night for the tranquilizer machine gun. how true that is! we needed an airborne toxin that night to take out lots of people. in retrospect, the shouting guy wasn't all that bad. DM asked if we were gonna jump in front of the stage and block the view of all these ppl in the tables, and i said that that was my working plan, yes. I thought he was gonna come, too, but they stayed in the back to get beer spilled on them. (Note to Brady gang: you would have had beer spilled on you up front as well. you didn't miss anything.) Jason Dennie was the man who practically sat on our laps at the last show we saw him play here (you can check the archives). He came down to watch OtR play then, and he came down into the audience to see them play now, also. I wondered if he'd remember us. (yes, he did. we spoke after the show.) Fom stage Dennie said something hint-like, like "carry on with your conversations. i'll just play for a while." to the remotely-sensitive, that should have shut them up, but these ppl were just nasty. the din continued. Between sets, we made our way up to the stage, and plopped down on the acrylic covered floor in front of the first row of tables. Other people followed, including the gorgeous Japanese guy that i remember seeing at the last Symposium OtR show. i think he was seated on the floor at the same spot. or close. (at some point i tapped db on the shoulder to see if she'd noticed the cute guy (she would do the same for me) and she said, "oh, yes! i've been distracted all night!". I had a stranger seated next to me. db, andy, bonny were to my right. Right when OtR took the stage and i moved to sit up and clap, i knocked over Stranger's beer. Being helpful, i tried to turn his beer back upright, so he'd lose as little as possible, but remember how dark i said it was? Turns out that when i couldn't quite get the beer to sit right on the floor, i took a good hard look and saw that i was actually holding the bottle upside-down! beer was running all over the place. Luckily i was just wearing a little sweatsuit grey fleece jacket (not leather!) so it was able to soak up some beer (no, i haven't laundered it yet. it's thrown in the trunk, smelling yummy, i'm sure.) I got up to get him another beer but he sat me down. said not to worry about it, enjoy the show. nice guy. trouble is i couldn't enjoy the show because i had this spilled-the-neighbour's- beer guilt trip hanging over me, so at the end of the second song (all i need is everything) i bought him another beer and grabbed a bar towel for more sopping. this was a pleasant accident, and no fists entered walls. Karin was in a medium dark blue patterned long skirt, ankle length ( a good choice since she was seated for the whole concert and there we were on the floor in front of her.), an off the shoulder very dark blue clingyknit top, and her hair was deep deep rich coppery -auburn red. who remembers Lynzi's hair at Moonlight? I think that's the colour of Karin's hair. Looked nice, i approve. Dave had the extremely casual look going on, as i've seen him sport everytime i've seen him including the Monk gig, but this time he had a black winter knit cap pulled on. Ohio nights in November, even warmish ones like this, are prolly chilly to a Louisiana boy. Terri had on a black top with a black ~sweater~ (not the right word) and the sweater was buttoned only at the top button, the rest opening up further as it went lower. I forget the pants. i kept watching for smiles, and she smiled several times. yay! Terri's happy again. Linford: jeans, black boots, a t-shirt underneath a button down coloured oxford shirt, i think a jacket. Jack wore Levi's with about 4" (112mm) of cuff rolled up, a patterned blue shirt (we all know what kinds of patterns he likes by now, so you have that pictured in your minds, right?) and the gold chain thing. He also played chewing a toothpick most of the night. slightly funny bit #1: at Moonlight, dbas told db that Jack looks like he's a kid with a new toy when he gets a-playing that guitar. at some point db turned to me and then i saw it too. there's that look he gets.... slightly even more funny bit #2: Andy turns and says, "remember that TV show Family Ties? Remember Nick, Mallory's boyfriend in that show? i nod in the affirmative, and he slyly points up at Jack. Bingo!!! i never saw it before, but it's unavoidable now. Jack = Nick. Nick = Jack. take a look for yourself at the next gig. report your findings here. i'll be waiting. Percussion was provided by Cowboy Junkies Jeff Bird. he played shakers, tambourine, cymbals, other things but my view of him was blocked by Karin (not that i'd complain about that exchange). Whatever he was wearing i remember struck me as "odd". Karin was the best dressed of the evening. (IMO, of course) The setlist, stolen after the show, in their own handwriting, as written, on the back of a green WSL Rollerjam flyer at the CSU Convocation Center . Come see the NY Enforcers vs. the California Quakes. (haha, not "Quakers"). Remember watching Roller Derby on Saturday TV when you were a kid? i do. Anyway, the setlist: "Go Down EZ All I Need is E Goodbye (i love this song. we didn't fall for the faux ending this time. we're pro's now.) Little Blue River (trailer park song) It's Never Quite What it Seems Moth Poughkeepsie (Karin introduced this by saying the night's set has a rather melancholy mood to it tonight, but at least this song is uplifting in the end. When she was saying something about the melancholy, someone yelled out "rhapsodie". Karin laughed and said, "no, not that one!" (or something like that).) (Rhapsodie was on the setlist, however, as you'll soon see. it was not played.) Orphan Girl (to make db happy) The Seahorse (Karin and Jeff) Bothered (no bass) (bothered went over really well with my spilled beer neighbour, who at some point, let's say now, got up to get another beer and came back with another Rolling Rock for me. Nice guy! but i remember that he cheered especially loudly for bothered.) (and the cute Japanese guy was singing along most of the lyrics, too. Monica looked around and spotted Yummy Chick Nikki. Yay! Nikki made it. we looked for Yummy Chick Alex and db spotted her too. oops, sorry, back to the setlist:) Anyway June (June was good, it was kinda funked up and playful) Faithfully Dangerous Lucy Jack's Valentine (Linford sang it. comment from db: It wasn't his best. he seemed like he didn't want to do it. rush through it, get it over with, move on) Circle of Quiet (potty break for me. as i got up i spilled the newer Rolling Rock. more sopping with the towel i had thrown over there by the monitors. rats! when i got back, somebody else's beer had spilled and i flopped the side of my foot and my lower pantleg down in a puddle of beer. more sopping.) this was a beer soaked night! Chris Emery's favourite: Latter Days ________________________________________________ Encore : Jack's Lust Etc. Whatever Rhapsodie" evidently nobody was getting married that night. At one of my potty breaks, DM said "this has to be the worst sounding concert i've seen. I'm standing right by the soundboard, and i'm thinking, C'mon guy, adjust the mix! make it sound good!" (i put that in quotes, but i'm sure it's a paraphrase. something like that anyway.) we had nice enough sound up front. DM, sorry you didn't go up with us. you prolly should have. next time! I spent some time hugging Yummy Chick Alex. she's a sweetheart. i'm glad she came to the gig. She had to leave for another event at 12:30 she said, but she stayed over by about 10 minutes, so i hope her carriage didn't turn into a pumpkin. She made it through almost the entire set by 12:40 anyway. Heather came and found us while they were leaving and told us of the horrible time they had at the other end of the room. So i got a preview of that post i read this morning. Sorry, Heather. We didn't have it much better than you, but there was no bitchy people on our end, which i suppose is a point in the positive direction. I agree that the Symposium sucks, and IIRC i mentioned this in the last Symposium review. It truly is horrible there. I was shy and i knew there was nobody there to accompany my "I love you, Terri" shout with an "I love you ______" shout, so i kept my mouth shut until after the gig was over, during the load-out. Monica prompted me to shout it up then, and then Terri beckoned me over to the stage, and we talked about stuff. she said she saw us there on the floor. i asked her about the record company thing. she said that a subsidiary of Virgin Records is talking with them, ( she mentioned them by name but i forgot) . They want to re-release GDBD with an additional track and some different artwork. (completists take note of that last sentence). db asked her if she was gonna be on that album, but Terri said no, "she's just on the live performance" end of things. i told her i'd start a petition, she said thanks. i forget what else we talked about. she's a sweetie too. We talked with Linford. he said he's insisting that GDBD be re-released as part of the contract with (whatever interested) record company, as he feels it is his due with Brian and Ric, as that album never had a national push behind it, and it should have that for them. So that's a bargaining factor, but it looks good with this new record company, and it also looks that they are willing to re-release __Eve__ and __Patience__ (hi, Jessyka.... you still awake to read that?). we talked for awhile with Jason Dennie. he remembered us from last time and he remembered us from the Ark gig too. That was better than i remembered. i forgot we saw him at the Ark. He loves that place. (we do too). In fact, he moved there! well, Yspsilanti, but that's close enough. He teaches guitar lessons in Ann Arbor somewhere downtown. hey kids, grab your checkbooks! this guy can play guitar! he didn't sit on our laps this night however. he sat on the beery floor, with some hottie chicks against the mirror wall. nice choice, Jason! they were cute! On the way out Karin was sitting on stage right talking with Yummy Chick Nikki and we had a few meaningless small-talk words with them, too. I told her (Karin) i liked her new hair. (and i did. it looks nice.) Nikki had never been to the Ark for a gig. I told her she simply ~must~ go there, i'll even drive her up there. I doubt she'll take me up on that offer. We made our goodnights and that was that, until the wind blew the car door in Bonny's face, and she had to go back in for an ice bag. Bonny, hope you're o.k.!!! (note to Bonny: yes, you did leave your Jason Dennie disc in the car and no, i'm not gonna steal it. i'll return it to you very soon, maybe even today i won't even open it and play it on the way there. Thanks for going out with us again, you guys are great fun! Love!) (another note to Bonny: Bonny, call Tracey!! do it soon, so it won't be like that missed OtR opportunity at the Brady you could have had, or the Chai thing. You wouldn't want Tracey to have to play the Symposium, would you!?? :-)