LOCATION: Taft Theater, Cincinnati, OH

LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Matt Slocum, Devon Ashley, Rick Plant

REVIEW BY: Various Listees

OTR's Bergquist debuts new rocker persona 

By Larry Nager
The Cincinnati Enquirer


Over The Rhine made it back to the Taft Theatre for the band's annual 
Christmas show this year with a real surprise for the faithful - Karin 
Bergquist's voice. 

A decade or so of listening to OTR didn't prepare me for what she would do 
Friday. Looser and more confident than ever before, she delivered a passionate, 
powerhouse performance that cut straight to the heart. The ethereal folkie was 
gone, replaced by a fiery rock 'n' soul singer. Coincidentally, it was her 
birthday Saturday, and they brought a candlelit cake onstage, providing a 
tangible symbol of her breakthrough to a bigger and more mature sound. 

Although she and her husband/musical partner Linford Detweiler postponed 
their fall tour citing their unwillingness to "sacrifice our relationship 
and marriage on the altar of a career," there were no signs of friction as 
they shared the stage full of prayer candles and bouquets (the latter gifts 
from fans). 

Detweiler was sporting a Leslie Isaiah Gaines model black Homburg as he sat 
behind his bank of keyboards and led his three-man backup group (guitarist 
Matt Slocum of Sixpence None the Richer, bassist Rick Plant and drummer Devon 
Ashley) through its paces. 

Most of the show was culled from 2003's excellent two-CD set, Ohio. But 
Bergquist's voice has blossomed since she recorded those songs and they 
sounded fuller and more vibrant in the live setting. From the rolling opener, 
"Hometown Boy," to her wrenching broken-heart ballad, "She" to the bouncy 
pop of "Show Me" to her thoughtful solo piano turn on "Ohio" the material 
had new energy and resonance. At times she seemed to be channeling Aretha 
as she just let that glorious voice soar to the Taft's ceiling. 

In keeping with the season, OTR did some Yule tunes, but even there, they 
let the older, polite stuff go, sticking to higher energy originals like the 
giddy "Christmas is Coming" and jazzy "All I Ever Get for Christmas is Blue," 
as well as their techno-folk reinvention of "Silent Night." 

But the best holiday song - the single best performance of the night - was 
a radiant cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," made famous by the late Jeff 
Buckley. Done with subtle acoustic piano and cello, Bergquist made the song 
her own, perfectly capturing Cohen's blend of the spiritual and the erotic. 
She was so good that after the song ended, it was met with s few seconds of 
stunned silence before the crowd of 1,800 broke into wild applause. 

From there, almost everything was anticlimax, even a beautiful finale of "Let It Be," 
featuring opening act David Bazan of Pedro the Lion. 

Then it was time for the encores, as Detweiler's beatnik opus, "Jack's Valentine" 
was given an anthemic rock interlude by the band, before Bergquist closed the 
night with a lovely "Latter Days." 

The night began with Irish singer/songwriter Susan Enan in a solo 20-minute set 
that left one wondering what she would sound like with her regular band. 

Then Pedro the Lion was up, an unusual duo that features Bazan's voice and guitar 
and drummer T.W. Walsh, who also triggered the electronic bass, allowing the 
pair to sound like a trio. They did a compelling 45-minute set that mixed wry, 
meaningful lyrics and strong hooks. 

Hey All,
It is roughly 2am and I'm just arriving home from the Taft show. Before another 
busy day on the road takes over, I wanted and needed to thank you all for coming 
to the show and making it such a fantastic night. We felt the love in the room. 
And you listees... I don't know how you got one over on me, but you did. And I was 
completely surprised. The birthday roses were SO beautiful! I couldn't even 
begin to count them all, but there must have been over 20 dozen(?). Unbelievable. 
You made this girl's heart break right in two. It took me a moment to compose 
myself before walking onto the stage once I saw the incredible sight. Thank you 
so much. And thank you too Bill for orchestrating the whole event! 

We heard through the merch grapevine that the CD catalogue giveaway caused quite a 
ruckus. Hopefully no blood was shed. I think the winner/survivor was either 
someone that had come all the way from New Zealand or another traveller who came 
from Guam? What happened to the guy from Italy? Holy.

Anyway, thanks to all of you who travelled near and far.

We'll tuck three more shows under our belt and call it a year.

One very incredible year.

Merry Christmas to you
and Happy New Year,
Karin

I pulled into Cinci (from Dayton) around 3:50, and found a parking garage at 5th 
and Main, in the Chem-med building, just across the street from the theatre. I 
had plans to meet my friends, Joe & Tracy who were coming down from Columbus (and 
staying overnight at the Hyatt, 6 blocks down the street) in their hotel lobby 
at 5:15. Time, however, means nothing to Tracy, and as I suspected, they didn't 
show up until after 5:30. 

We had dinner reservations 2 blocks away at Redfish, an Americanized-Cajun 
restaurant. I had a nice shrip & crab pasta & was surprised that Joe & Tracy 
paid for my dinner to thank me for getting the tickets . Which was ludicrous, 
because they did pay me for them, and all I had to do was go into my local 
Kroger's and use the Ticketmaster service. But, hey, free food!

Like I said, time doesn't mean much to Tracy, and at 7:42, Joe & I had to drag 
her out of the warm restaurant into the cold night air. We walked the 8 blocks 
to the Taft, and took our seats at 7:58. I put my coat on my seat & went to 
find the ladies room, and when I came back about two minutes later, Susan Enan 
had started.

Pedro the Lion played somewhere in the vicinity of 8 to 10 songs.

OTR played an excellent, if fairly short, show. (I'm comparing to my previous 
Christmas show experience in 1999, where they played all the stuff they'd been 
playing that Christmas tour, and then some. This time, it was the same stuff, 
without the some, but -- except for Poughkeepsie, which I had steeled myself 
to hear-- it was all good stuff, to me. One of the listees was saying the sound 
was perfect, but I thought it seemed a little bass-heavy to me, and occasionally 
Karin's voice was hard to make out over the instruments.

Set list:
Hometown Boy
Show Me
She
Nobody # 1
Anything At All
Darlin' Christmas Is Comin' (with the very funny Cleveland story. I really love this song.)
All I Ever Get For Christmas Is Blue
I Radio Heaven
Hallelujah (Karin, Linford and Matt)
Ohio (Karin)
BPD (starting with just Karin then adding the band)
Silent Night (rocking harder than I've ever heard this one from OTR)
Poughkeepsie
Let It Be (with Karin trading verses with Daniel B. of Pedro the Lion -- absolutely amazing)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Jack's Valentine (first time I've heard this with a drum solo)
Latter Days

(My friend Joe found a set list on stage after the show that somehow got missed, 
which he gave to me. Give Me Strength was supposed to be the first encore, but it 
wasn't done. I suspect possibly time constraints.)

Linford said early in the show, that Karin always like to see who came furthest 
to see the show. So she asked, and there was much cacaphony, especially when she 
said that the winner could have their complete cd catalog. At the time, the furthest 
Karin heard was Italy, but apparently after the show there were also people from 
Guam & New Zealand, so I don't know exactly how that all ended up.

A bizarre highlight came near the end of BPD, when everyone was seriously wailing 
away, one of the tall candles in a jar behind Karin & Linford fell over. I didn't 
see the candle fall, but I saw the flying wax and wasn't sure what had happened 
until Linford made it clear after the song. Karin took some hot wax on her bare 
right shoulder & arm, and apparently Linford got some on his neck, because Karin 
commented on it later. Linford pronounced it a "kinky" moment, and the show proceeded, 
although he was concerned that maybe the piano would have some sticky keys. 

They rocked.  I suppose since Cincinnati is the adopted home of the band, the 
first word in the title of the first song was "hometown."

I don't know if it was nerves or bravado but Karin sang the HELL out of the very 
first chorus.  (Normally they do that Beatlesque thing of building.  Each chorus 
is a bit more embellished that the previous one.)  Anyway, she was in fine voice, 
as always.  Gees, the thing is that doesn't happen with every band ya know?  Can 
I get an amen?

I SAID, "CAN I GET AN AMEN?"

That's better.  I think someone said that she took "She" by herself to great 
effect.  That didn't happen tonight becuase it was a full band number.  

Best story of the night belonged to her though:

"Last night we got in from a show in Atlanta.  So, this morning I woke up in my 
own bed...  I turned on the radio and WNKU had on this next song.  That was a 
nice thing to wake up to, I'll tell ya..."  Then she smoked the place on "Ohio" 
by herself and just about everything else.

I was doing air drums in the 2nd balcony.  Tonight the universe is fully balanced.

We just walked in ourselves from the Rock Bottom-- Anita, bink and Beth, and I-- 
and it's time to try to sleep before Inn The Woods tomorrow morning. We certainly 
are food-oriented, aren't we?

Yes, tonight was utterly fabulous, though a serious damper for me was the trio of 
chimpanzees directly behind me who, with voices like breaking glass, talked all 
through Susan Enan's lovely, spare set, and all through Pedro the Lion (whom I 
liked mildly until the last song and his parting political commentary, which, 
screaming liberal that I am, I loved) and began to talk all through the first 
few songs of OtR, until Anita finally turned in her best mommy face and shh'd 
them-- FAR more politely than I would have done. Said trio gave her ugly looks, 
and one snapped, "Well, stop flipping your hair!" which I can only assume was 
directed to me. Their logic was obviously as sub-par as their manners. 

I feel better now.

Karin got a special birthday gift tonight, aside from the cake and the singing 
of Happy Borthday: as she was finishing-- what was it? the one our fabulous duo 
both does on the keys-- one of the tall glass pillar candles tipped right off 
the organ and splashed both Karin and Linford with hot wax. Now, in context, 
that's kinda kinky, yeah, but I can imagine it being a tad disruptive. Troupers 
that they are, they finished bravely and soldiered on.

Oh, what a lovely evening. I finally got to put faces with names: Eric, Zayne, 
Kylie, Johnny, and-- finally!-- Rhys! amongst others. And getting to see Jay and 
Lynz, Dan and Margarita, Rick, Debbie, Drew and Wendy, Bru-Say, bink and Beth of 
course, and so many others-- that's what it's all about for me. Okay, that plus 
the show.

One comment making the rounds, though, was about one face not present this evening: 
Paul "Smoky" Moak. Matt Slocum did a fabulous job on guitars, along with Devon 
Ashley on drums and Rick Plant on bass. But after seeing the tear-it-up job 
Paul did at the North Star in October, I have to admit I missed him badly. And 
no, not just cos he's cute. He was astonishing  on the many instruments he played, 
and the bottom of my jaw was rubbed raw from the North Star's hardwood floors when 
he was done. He was the only thing-- with the exception of a soundproof wall 
behind me-- that could have made this evening better.

Though if the rest of the Lostees here manage to get the fire in Bru-Say's hearth 
going without structural damage, I'm gonna be pretty jazzed about that, too.

Return to the Over the Rhine History Page