LOCATION: Tin Angel, Philadelphia, PA
LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Jack, Terri, Chris Donohue, Dale Baker
REVIEW BY: Ysobelle
Anyway, yes, I WAS at both Over the Rhine shows last night at the Tin Angel. And
I was excessively glad I did so. I saw the band last night that dragged me out
of Florida to traipse all over the country-- to OHIO, for G-d's sake!-- in quest
of a perfect musical experience. And boy howdy, did I get it. Wooty woot!
Augmented by Chris Donahue (sp?) on bass and Dale Baker from SNtR on drums, last
night's OtR rocked the house big-time. Halfway through the show, I realised how
much my expectations have been diminished by the simple fact that there's been
no rhythm section the last half-dozen times I've seem them over the years. And
it's really a different band when that happens. Not that it's bad, but it's not,
to me, up to its potential.
For the first show, I was at a table halfway back with a friend of mine and her
husband-- complete OtR virgins both. They had no idea what to expect since, as I
think you all know, OtR is rather difficult to describe. I, of course, began a
running setlist on the back of a purloined "Reserved" table card. After the
opener, a very funny young woman named Jennifer Marks who did a song called
"High School Reunion" which was definitely worth the price of admission,
Linford, walking through the rather tightly-packed space, whomped into the back
of my seat. I turned around to apologise for having my arm in the way, and he,
in turn, apologised for said whomping. Endearingly, he introduced himself to me,
as if I wouldn't know who he was. He did admit, though, that he was pretty sure
we'd met a few times before, to which I agreed. He leaned over the table to see
what I was writing, and laughed that I was keeping a setlist. "Well," I laughed
back, "SOMEONE has to tell the list." I'm going to pretend I didn't see a trace
of naked fear in his face as he backed away from one of those damn Lostees,
always following and haunting him...muhaha!
Anyway.
Everyone was quite casually dressed-- jeans all 'round. Sophie, who is French
and therefore the final arbiter of all fashion, quite approved of Karin's
multi-print red top with the flared cuffs, though I thought it looked a bit like
a crowd of rabid bandannas had attacked her. Jack's jeans hems were halfway to
his knees. The avowed collarbones-worshippers among us would have drooled over
Terri's nearly off-the-shoulder, clingy top, by the way.
They opened the first set with "Latter Days." A pretty hip, rockin' LD that set
the stage for a fast, upbeat show. Everything was faster, looser, and hipper.
VERY good dogs. And very, very bad doggies, too. Woowoo!
As follows:
Latter Days
All I Need is Everything
(in the margin, I here wrote, "Does Karin look like Joni Mitchell?" It's gotta
be the hair.)
Anything At All
Little Blue River/Hymn
(Linford said that on the new record, this is the longest song they thing
they've ever recorded, mostly because during recording, Karin improvised a hymn
at the end of it. It was written, he said, years ago on a trip home from
Chicago.)
Anyway
(Karin told the story of meeting Rose at their father's funeral, then revealed
that Rose then used this song as her wedding dance.)
Fairpoint Diary
(Which I hadn't heard before. YUM!)
Silent Night
Mary's Waltz-- Karin & Linford alone
(Linford started telling a long, rambling Linfordesque story about how people
always ask if the story's true, and how when you write, you create characters
that just seem so real, and then you live with them, and then you nurture them,
and then you... "Kill them," Karin cut in.)
Rhapsodie (by request)
Cowboy Junkies' "Now I Know," with Jack rejoining them.
Faithfully Dangerous ("We've never played this yet on this tour, but we always
look at the room and decide what the room wants-- so we pulled this one out of
the closet," said Linford.)
Poughkeepsie (I didn't know this song COULD rock, but it did. Even got me a
little teary.)
And Can It Be
They left to whoops and hollers, and came back to what Linford at one point
described at one of the smallest stages they'd ever seen. I agree-- if the stage
were the bedroom in an apartment you were shown, you surely wouldn't rent the
place. It's roughly nine by nine at most, and there were six of them up there.
Poor Dale had to literally climb over his own drum kit to get out. It was
packed. At any rate, upon their return, Karin growled at the crowd that we could
now "take our polite shoes off."
My Love Is A Fever
Daaaaamn. Yummy!
The second show was much the same, although poor Jennifer Marks was quite thrown
off her mark by the soundguy for the venue scrambling up behind her as she sang
and somehow causing some terrible noise to crash out in the middle of her song
at its funniest line. There were about six of us who'd seen her first set, and
we were now right up next to the stage, perched on bar stools not four feet from
the mic. We laughed encouragingly with her, and smiled at her, and she later
said she couldn't have gotten through the show without us. I felt like I'd done
my good deed for the evening. She even signed the copy of her CD I bought with
warm thanks to me for "all the smiles and for having the coolest nose ring." I
did indeed wear the chain. She remarked between sets that she'd never have the
guts to get a nosering herself, and one girl laughed and pointed out that she
gets onstage and sings her soul to complete strangers every night.
Very oddly, the whole place seemed to smell like the dorm room of my best friend
in college-- strange pot pourri and candles and other undefinable but comfy
things one doesn't normally expect to find in what is, essentially, a bar. And
at one point, "Fairpoint Diary," I believe, I was reminded of a grey day "down
the shore," as we say here, at Cape May, perhaps, driving down past the old
Victorian summer homes-- even though I don't think I've ever actually done so.
At any rate, I found it amusing that during the second set, after Linford
introdued "Anything At All" by saying it's one karin wrote, and it's been on his
mind a lot lately while he tries to figure out what it means, that he mentioned
it'd been written in Indiana, which caused a whoop from a member of the
audience. Said whooper was revealed to be from West Lafayette, where the band
had, apparently, been just the week before (bink?). All parties concerned seemed
to have no problems with Indiana. No one mentioned NASCAR or their favourite
sexual position.
And yes, according to Linford and Karin, the release date for "Films for Radio"
is March 13th.
They switched "Etcetera Whatever" for the CJ's song, and once again closed with
"My Love is a Fever." The setlist, which I quickly purloined, had "lake a
radidlio" listed at the very end but, alas, it was not to be.
So I had fun. I saw the OtR of old-- a fun band that I thoroughly enjoyed, with
a lot of fun people and good vibes all round. It was a rather sensuous,
immersing show, if that makes sense. I got the feeling of swimming in good music
on a warm evening under clear, bright stars. Jack has become such a seamless
part of Over the Rhine v4.0 that I'm able now to throroughly enjoy his excellent
guitar work without constantly thinking of Ric anymore. Different, very
different-- but equally excellent. I had a good time absorbing everything. If
the chocolate silk cake hadn't been decidedly prohibitively expensive ($6 for
CAKE???) it would have been a perfect accent to a perfect evening. But as it is,
I'm fine without the calories and I left quite content.
And yes, the bunnies ARE adorable.