Concerts

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="002285a1erlcgo.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>www.chapmansfriend.com</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="default.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="www.chapmansfriend.com"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Music"><U><B>Music</B></U></A><B>   </B><A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Television"><U><B>Television</B></U></A><B>   </B><A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Movies"><U><B>Movies</B></U></A><B>   </B><A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Traveling Man"><U><B>Traveling Man</B></U></A><B>   </B><A HREF="id7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Our Game"><U><B>"Our Game"</B></U></A><B>   </B><A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Books"><U><B>Books</B></U></A><B>   </B><A HREF="id9.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="001d2c00dkelyh.gif"> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Music"><U>Music</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Concerts</B></div> <div> <B>Beth Orton</B></div> <div> <B>Metro</B></div> <div> <B>Chicago</B></div> <div> <B>June 4, 2002</B></div> <div> <B>    </B>Metro is one of those clubs that's acquired an almost legendary reputation over the years, mostly because that's where the Pumpkins got their start. Once inside, it's surprising how small it is... or rather how oddly shaped it is. There's probably no more than 25 or 30 feet between the front of the stage and the back wall, but there is a lot of standing area extending off to the sides, and really the majority of the crowd is off by the wings. Still, even considering that it's converted from an old theater, the dimensions are unusual, and the original theater couldn't have been anything close to the size of, say, the old Oriental in Milwaukee.</div> <div>     This has no relevance to the actual show, but based on my position near the front of the stage, Beth Orton is much cuter in person than you'd expect... not that she's unattractive on her CD covers, but just... different. She wore a very fetching polka-dot skirt with a red and white striped top-- but hey, this isn't <I>TRL</I>, I'm not Carson Daly, and this isn't a Britney show, so let's focus on the music. It was a little surprising that of her 20-song set, almost half were songs from her as-yet-unreleased new CD, so they were unfamiliar to most everybody. She joked about that a little, mock-apologizing for playing new songs and saying, "Next time I come around, you'd better have learned them!" Actually, I liked getting the advance listen to the songs, and I think it indicates that Beth has a lot of confidence in her audience that they will pay attention to unfamiliar material... which it did, although obviously people were more familiar with older songs.</div> <div>    Like <I>Pass In Time</I>, which was one of the first songs played and sounded great even without the Terry Callier vocals. (She claimed her voice was on-and-off from being on the road, but I didn't catch it.) And other favorites like <I>Stolen Car</I>, <I>Central Reservation</I>, and <I>Best Bit</I>. The show lasted over two hours, and at the end I was lucky enough to snag one of the set lists from the stage. Couldn't stick around to try and meet Ms. Orton and get it autographed, but maybe next time...</div> <div> Since I'm only getting around to writing this two months after the actual show, I can say that the "new" songs from the concert are now available on the CD <I>Daybreaker</I>.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="00701010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>Ryan Adams</B></div> <div> <B>IMU Main Lounge</B></div> <div> <B>Iowa City</B></div> <div> <B>December 6, 2001</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     </B>First of all, I'm bitterly disappointed the show didn't include <I>Cuts Like A Knife</I>.</div> <div>      Oh, that's Ryan, not Bryan. Sorry.</div> <div>      The Main Lounge at the Union building isn't the ideal place for a concert. It's got carpeting and chandeliers and replica 18th century fireplaces along the walls. (And, as we'll see later, no beer sales.) But there aren't very many venues in Iowa City in between the sizes of the basketball arena and Gabe's, so sometimes shows get booked there. I think the last show I saw there was in the mosh pit for X in '85 or '86. The last event of any type I saw there might have been a George Bush Sr. rally on the day he was trounced in the '88 Iowa caucuses. (No mosh pit for that one.)</div> <div>      As I found out only the day before the show, the warmup act was Leona Naess, who I would have considered seeing as a headliner. She has 2 CDs out but is probably better known as the stepdaughter of known egomaniac Diana Ross. She had a good set and did songs mostly from her new CD other than <I>New York Baby </I>and <I>Charm Attack</I>. For most of the set she was only accompanied by her guitarist, but about halfway through she said that she had met some guys that day who wanted to sit in for a few songs, and called them out on to the stage. Through the magic of the internet, I knew what was ahead, but it took awhile for the "drummer" to come out. "I'm gonna kick his ass later," Leona said. Finally he showed up. "Ryan's thinking of quitting what he does and becoming a drummer." Yeah, it was Ryan Adams sitting in on drums for the last few songs. Well, he was okay but he's no Keith Moon.</div> <div>      In between sets I noticed that near the front of the stage was a girl who looked almost exactly like a <I>Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael</I>-era Winona Ryder. A possible distraction for Mr. Adams? (Incidentally, he's now reported to be "involved" with Beth Orton.)</div> <div>      Back in the 70's, they collected a bunch of Elvis' between-songs stage patter and released it as <I>Having Fun On Stage With Elvis</I>. I would love to have the same thing done with Ryan Adams. The man is a walking quote machine. Some samples:</div> <div> <IMG SRC="01d01010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Running gag: "I'm wearing Leona Naess' clothes! Even her underwear!"</div> <div> <IMG SRC="01f01010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">"We're all sick with the flu.... But don't let that stop you if you want to make out with one of the band."</div> <div> <IMG SRC="02101010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">On Iowa City women: "You have some gene pool here... I've got a sore neck from walking around town all day. And I don't mean that in a Motley Crue way, more like a Byron or a Walt Whitman way, except I don't want to sleep with trees." And "To all the guys in the audience... You spoiled rotten bastards. Oh well, if I lived here I'd probably screw it up anyway. Like my mom says to me, 'you could break a bowling ball if it had something to do with a relationship.'"</div> <div> <IMG SRC="02301010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Then there was the beer issue. Early in the show he asked "Can you buy beer here?" No. "Well, that's pretty lame. I wondered why there wasn't any beer backstage. But we'll just have to take quaaludes-- they can't stop us from doing that!"</div> <div> <IMG SRC="02501010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">He asks where there is to go after the show and somebody shouts out "Gabe's!" He promises to go there after the show and buy everybody a beer. He also keeps getting the name wrong throughout the rest of the show-- "Dave's" is one of the names he comes up with. "Well, yeah, he <I>used</I> to be called Dave, but he changed his name in the 80's. He was a roadie for Wham!-- I mean, can you blame him?"</div> <div> <IMG SRC="02701010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Then he gets an idea. "Can we go out and buy them a few 12-packs, will they let us do that?" Apparently nobody took him seriously, but later on he said, "Hey, how's that beer coming? What kind of beer you guys want, Rolling Rock or Budweiser?" Takes a vote of the crowd. Rolling Rock wins out. He whips out his wallet and <I>hands the roadie his credit card</I>, telling him to go out and get 6 12-packs. "You'll all share, right?" In the meantime, somebody gets about six or seven beers out of the tour bus ("You're giving them <I>Heinekens</I>?") and passes them out in front of the stage.</div> <div>      Needless to say, the beer caper is aborted by the security people, and the"beer Nazi" comes comes around to grab up the remaining bottles. "Well, we tried-- but I know at least some of you hid yours away. Right?"</div> <bR> <div>      By the way, in the middle of this, there was a damn good show going on.</div> <div>      He kicked off with <I>New York, New York</I> and mainly stuck to material from <I>Gold</I>. It would have been great to hear <I>Oh My Sweet Carolina</I>, or <I>Jacksonville Skyline </I>from his Whiskeytown days, but hey! The man tried to buy us beer! There were great versions of <I>Tina Toledo</I>, <I>Rescue Blues</I>, and <I>Nobody Girl</I>, which he introduced as a song dedicated to "all the victims of Grammy-nominated actresses." I thought this might be a reference to <I>l'affaire </I>Ryder with him mistakenly saying "Grammy" instead of "Oscar"-- but it turns out he said the exact same thing the night before in Minneapolis. So I don't know.</div> <div>      There were a few covers-- <I>Brown Sugar </I>and Gram Parsons' <I>Sin City</I>. The show was about two hours and probably would have been longer if there wasn't a curfew being that it was an on-campus site. Ryan and the band came back out even though it was past the get-off time, did <I>La Cienega Just Smiled </I>and <I>Firecracker</I>, and the show was over. Don't know if he ever showed up at Dave's-- damn, I mean Gabe's.</div> <div>      Two last things. In addition to the hall being without beer sales, it was also non-smoking-- except for Ryan and the band, who lit up constantly. As his recent songwriting collaborator Alanis might say, "Isn't it ironic?"</div> <div>      Finally, as he was about to leave the stage, Ryan stopped suddenly and went over to talk to one, and only one, fan standing at the front near the stage.</div> <div>      It was the girl who looked like Winona Ryder.</div> <bR> <div> (After I wrote this-- turns out he did go to Gabe's after all!)</div> <div>      </div> <div> <B>Bob Dylan</B></div> <div> <B>United Center</B></div> <div> <B>Chicago</B></div> <div> <B>October 27, 2001</B></div> <div> <IMG SRC="00701010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div>    <I>Strange realization #1: I haven't been to a show at a venue larger than the Park West for almost 10 years. </I></div> <div> <IMG SRC="00701010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I>   Strange realization #2: The first time I saw Bob Dylan play, he was younger than I am now.</I></div> <div> <IMG SRC="00701010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Bob Dylan used to be known for giving sloppy shows, but the last few years he seems to have turned that around. One of the great things about the internet is that you can keep track of what songs somebody is playing on tours, and Dylan has been changing at least 60% of his set list from night to night, so there truly was no way to predict what I'd be hearing for most of the show. I thought going in that I'd kill to hear <I>Positively 4th Street </I>and <I>Tangled Up In Blue</I>, but you can't really complain about hearing <I>It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) </I>and <I>Gotta Serve Somebody</I>.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="02b01010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> And that was just in the first half of his set.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="00701010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> In the <I>second </I>half of the set, Dylan unleashed <I>Don't Think Twice, It's All Right </I>and <I>Visions of Johanna</I>. There were also selections from the new CD (<I>"Love and Theft"</I>), and the funny thing is that the new songs were the ones that sounded most familiar as they were beginning, because he hasn't been playing them long enough to mess around with the arrangements. With the older songs, he has tinkered enough with them so that at first listen, you weren't quite sure what they were. I can understand how playing <I>The Times They Are A-Changin' </I>exactly the same way for 35 years could drive you batty.<I> </I></div> <div> <IMG SRC="00701010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Even though he didn't say a word between songs except to introduce the band (including Charlie Sexson, a "next big thing" from the 80's), Dylan seemed to be enjoying himself. He even tried to move a little bit on stage, although his moves were confined to sticking his foot out at an angle and grinding his shoe on the stage. Someone named this move "squishing the bug".</div> <div> <IMG SRC="00701010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> From seeing the previous set lists, I had a pretty good idea that there would be one encore set of 5 songs, and that would be it. The encore had <I>Like A Rolling Stone</I> and <I>Blowin' In The Wind</I>, and it was especially cool to hear <I>Forever Young</I> on the night of my birthday. Then the band left the stage. I knew that while that had usually been it for the night, in Dylan's previous show he had done one more-- <I>All Along The Watchtower</I>. The band came back out and did <I>Watchtower</I>. Then a funny thing happened. It looked like Dylan didn't want to stop playing. He said a quick word to the band, and then... <I>Knockin' On Heaven's Door</I>. And would be it. </div> <div> <IMG SRC="00701010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> But no! He <I>still </I>doesn't want to leave. <I>Rainy Day Women #12 & 35</I>. Everybody must get stoned. The longest show of his tour, and it happened to be the one I saw. Two and a half hours from a 60 year old. </div> <div> <IMG SRC="02b01010.gif" border=0 width="1" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <B>Freedy Johnson</B></div> <div> <B>Gabe's</B></div> <div> <B>Iowa City</B></div> <div> <B>October 17, 2001</B></div> <bR> <div>    I was lucky enough to be in Iowa City when Freedy Johnston was in town. A solo outing, because, as he said, if you take a band on the road, they want to stay at nice places, like the Super 8. Given that, I shudder to think where he <I>did </I>end up staying.</div> <div>    Going to a show at Gabe's is always an experience. The stage is located on the second floor of the building, above the bar on the ground floor. If I had to compare the bar to one, say, in Milwaukee, it would be the 'Lanche. The music room is definitely not glitzy.           </div> <div>    Again, with the Milwaukee comparision: it makes the Palms look like the Oriental Theater.</div> <div>    I would guess the capacity is around 200 or so, and I've seen Jayhawks and James McMurtry shows there where it was practically full. Tonight, though, there were maybe 40 or 45. Wouldn't you think Freedy has sold more records than, say, McMurtry? But on his last few records, he has been making music that's maybe more mellow than his earlier work. No radio-friendly songs like <I>Bad Reputation</I>, so his image might be lower than it was a few years ago when he had songs on the <I>Kingpin </I>soundtrack.</div> <div>    The show itself was about an hour and a half, with a good chunk of songs from <I>Right Between The Promises</I>, the new CD. "I hope you like to hear sad, depressing songs, beacuse that's mostly what I play," he said. He's got a good sense of humor and stopped the show with jokes a few times, like when he revealed that an ex-con told him that he played <I>Bad Reputation </I>every day while doing time. At one point he stopped, said he lost his train of thought, and said "I should have someone up here to do narration while I'm in between songs." I wanted to shout out, "Acoustic Vaudeville!". </div> <div>    With the exception of <I>Trying To Tell You I Don't Know</I>, he played just about all of what I'd think were his best songs; <I>Lucky One</I>, <I>The Mortician's Daughter</I>, <I>Bad Reputation</I>, <I>This Perfect World</I>, <I>Underwater Life</I>. One of the best moments was <I>Cold Again</I>, with the lines that have a different meaning now than they did before: "Cold again/ Cold again/ Walking over Brooklyn Bridge/ Cold again/ Cold again/ Hey Miss Liberty where have you been."</div> <div>    Not only did he play his cover of <I>Love Grows</I> from the new record, but apparently he is in several cover bands on the side, and was able to do <I>Rocket Man</I> and <I>I Saw The Light</I>. No <I>Wichita Lineman</I>, though.</div> <div>    No after-show meeting, breaking a string that began a year ago with The Jayhawks and continued through Aimee Mann, James McMurtry and Richard Thompson. But realistically, the string was going to end the next week with Bob Dylan anyway...</div> <div>    I can't remember the context, but at one point Freedy said that he was thinking about beginning to believe in Santa Claus again. "With all the weird stuff going on now, I think I'm regressing."</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>