A CAEDMON'S CALL WEEKEND

Adriene and I enjoyed a great weekend filled with lots of great music.  We were fortunate enough to see Caedmon's Call in concert in Auburn, Alabama on Saturday and also former Caedmon's Call member Derek Webb the night before at Roswell United Methodist.  Talk about a great concert doubleheader!

DEREK WEBB IN CONCERT
Friday night, we were joined by  Josh Bobbitt and  Carla Jean Whitley at the show.
 

We're so money and we don't even know it!
Josh and Jeff

CJ and Adriene: Shopaholics
Adriene and Ceej



Here was my review of the show:
Derek and Sandra performed at the Dodson Youth Center, which essentially looks like two old houses in the Roswell Historic District combined together for use by Roswell United Methodist Church. I'm sure whoever lived in this house at the turn of the century didn't have a basketball court in the middle of their house. Anyhow, the court had a small stage and chairs filling the room for the show.

Sandra started with a short set introducing Derek as her "band."

Setlist and commentary:

No More Tears
Trade My Love
This is probably one of my favorite songs that Derek and Sandra do together (this and "Eve", I'd guess)
High Countries
By request from our own alisabeth, (if you're reading... say hello!)
Probably my favorite song that Sandra has written for CC.
Sunday Morning
Age After Age
Awake My Soul
I have to confess, I think I like this song better when Derek sings lead and Sandra sings backup. Sorry. I think it has more energy with Derek singing lead.

Too bad Sandra's show was so short, so has so much good material now that it must be hard to compress it down to a thirty minute set, but she was a fabulous opener for Derek

Derek took the stage not too long afterwards.

I Want A Broken Heart
Faith My Eyes
Nobody Loves Me
Derek breaks a string only a couple seconds into the song. DaveJac to the rescue! Derek changes to his six-string and starts over.
T-Shirts
This is a great song. Not only are the lyrics good critical commentary,
but the chorus is catchy.

Derek does a "singles/relationships" mini-set

Love Is Different
Table For Two
Before playing this song, Derek tells his incredibly funny story about being in Europe and telling the crowd about IHOP. Well, apparently the *International* House of Pancakes isn't so international, because nobody knew what he was talking about. He suggested titles like House of International Pancakes and Domestic House of Pancakes. Really funny stuff.

Reputation
"The relationship songs don't end after I get married. Oh, no." This was apparently written from the bathroom floor of a hotel in Florida one late night after he and Sandra had a "miscommunication."

Every Grain of Sand
Derek gives a brief rant on our confusion with how the church has confused "explicit" music with "good" music.

Medication
Josh said this was his one of his favorite new songs. I haven't warmed to it as quickly as "Reputation" or "T-Shirts" yet.

Somewhere North of Here
Dance
Lover, Part II
Lover

Derek didn't talk too much about his new album, so I'm very interested to hear what it's going to sound like. Most of the new songs sounded very much like his old work, so they will be interesting to hear with the Wilco-like production that he's giving them on his new album.

Derek Webb
Former Caedmon's Call member, Derek Webb in concert


CAEDMON'S CALL IN CONCERT
As great as Derek's show was, it was just the opening act.  The next day we road-tripped down to Auburn to see his old band, Caedmon's Call in concert.   Jamie Pruitt joined us for the trip down where we met up with  caedmonscall.net guru,  Geof Morris , and "Sweet Home Alabama" singer,  Sandy Johnson.
 

Adriene and Jeff can't wait to see the band.
Here we are, waiting for the show to start.

JP and Geof
Awwww, JP shows Geof some love.

Here was my review of the concert:

Caedmon's Call and Jeremy Casella played a show at the "Auburn Covered Arena" It looked like that kind of place that would host a rodeo more than a concert, but it proved to be an adequate venue for the show. Auburn University had their homecoming game on the same day as this concert. Good: Most of the students from AU that arrived at the show were in a very good mood after Auburn's decisive victory over Louisiana Tech and were really excited and into the show Bad: Many Greek societies and Christian organizations had homecoming-related events already scheduled for the evening, which may have cut into the turnout for the show. Nonetheless, Caedmon's Call delivered a great set for us, chock full of new material.

Setlist and commentary:

Share The Well
The band takes the stage accompanied by three percussionists on tablas and drums with the band. From the very start, the crowd is liking the new songs, that's a good sign.

Only One
Another great song! Featuring some awesome rumbling drums and a very cool guitar solo from Andy. This song sounds very much like a cross between the Indian influences they've gained recently and some of their more recent songs ("Only Hope", "Before there was Time", "You Created" all spring to mind.)

Cliff talks about the Dalit, the "broken people" of India. The Gospel has truly been good news to these people because they are learning that they are equally loved by God as their upper caste peers.

Wings of the Morning
Of the songs they've played so far, this one was the most "Eastern" influenced so far. Andy's guitar part sounded like it could've been straight from a sitar or some sort of wind instrument. Danielle sings the lead for this song.

Sarala
Cliff tells the story about a girl they met named Sarala who moved from India to North Carolina who was a daughter of a Dalit father. This song seems to have a Paul Simon influence to me.

Forty Acres
This is the first "old" song that the band does. So far, all the new stuff has
been great, so it's not like we've been sitting around saying "yeah, yeah, enough with the new songs, let's get to the stuff we know." Obviously, this song gets a great crowd reaction.

Before There Was Time

This World
This sounded less like it did on their last tour (Andy played guitar instead of mandolin) and more like it has on past tours.

Tabla solo by one of the percussionists that the band is touring with on this tour. Afterwards, the Indian musicians accompanied by Josh on a harmonium (kind of like an accordian which is "tuned in the key of M" according to Cliff) perform an Indian song. I don't know the name of this song.

Bombay Rain
Yay! Andy gets to sing lead on a song. This is another songs that has a Paul Simon feel to it. I really like this song.

Cliff talks about being a missionary, in ways more than just going to another country. I found it interesting that in back to back nights, Cliff and Derek have hit upon similar themes. How we Christians are unfortunately known by what we debate and exclude instead of how we love.

Mother India
This is a great, great song. Danielle sings it, as opposed to when Andy used to sing it like on the MP3 on ragamuffin. I liked Andy singing it during the part before the key change, but the part after the key change sounds awesome with Danielle singing lead.

Lead of Love
Hands of the Potter
Josh breaks a mallet!

No encore... they just keep on playing and Cliff says, "this is our encore."

Cliff drops a medley of "stuff he knows on guitar" just to make Geof laugh, and it succeeds. He plays the intro the "Sweet Home Alabama", "Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi which proceeds to crack everyone in the band up.

Hope to Carry On
Liberal use of cowbell to which Andy says, "I have the fever... and it can only be cured...."

Dalit Hymn
A very "political" song, but not political like we think of in America.  This is "peaceful protest" song for the Dalit in India.  The Dalit number over 300 million and are essentially shut out of opportunities in India for education and advancement, and are frequently abused by the upper castes.  An overwhelming majority live in total poverty.  For me, this song was an important reminder that there's more politics than just our country's upcoming election and that there is more suffering and injustice in the world than just Iraq, even though that's all we ever hear about in the news.   Learn more about the Dalit at  Dalit Freedom Network

Hmmm, and now for my commentary about the new music. I thought it all sounded great. If I had to make comparisions, I would invoke the aforementioned Paul Simon, the obvious Indian influences of George Harrison, and also Peter Gabriel. I don't know if Andy is a big fan of  Peter Gabriel, but judging from some his songs from the Normals and now with Caedmon's Call, I would say he is.

Jeff says that the brothers from Ecuador were also supposed to perform with them, but haven't been able to get into the US yet. So, we only heard the "Indian-themed" songs and none of the "South American" themed songs. They are hoping to have them in the show by the Dallas show.

Andy said he's going to be working on a "rock" solo album with folks like Will Sayles, Cason Cooley, and guitar-meister Paul Moak. Color me happy.

There was lots of stealth discoing. Andy AND JP did a Stereo Stealth Disco on Cliff. Cliff responded by firing Andy from the band. Again. Cliff and Emanuel (one of the Indian percussionists) did a Stereo International Stealth disco on Garrett and Todd. We have photos. And video. Stay tuned.

I don't mean to sound melodramatic, but from the way the band talked after the show on Saturday night, they really put their hearts into this album and it's success or failure may have serious implications on the future of the band (of course, all of these feelings may just come from talking to "Doomsday" Miller) I think this album is going to get critical acclaim in online sites and CCM magazine. I just hope it moves enough copies to be a commerical success, too, especially given that they are making no effort to put forth a "radio single." I think it's going to be an amazing album, but I'm unsure how well it's going to be received by the casual Christian music listener.
 


Our photos of the show:

Dirk Calloway... opener extraordanare
Our own Jeremy Casella, a rocksmyfaceoff.net frequenter, opens for the band.

Garrett, Todd, Jeff, Emanuel, and Andy during 'Share The Well'
Garrett, Todd, Jeff, Emanuel, and Andy during 'Share The Well'

Cool drums
The band was joined by an Indian percussionist

Drummers playing 'Only One'
The band was also joined by a Brazillian percussionist named Lissette (sp?)

Cool Tablas!

Andy Osenga rocks
Andy Osenga rocks it during "Bombay Rain"

Caedmon's Call: Rocking us like a rocking thing should
Great band shot

Danielle, Josh, Cliff, and Garrett
Danielle, Josh, Cliff, and Garett

Danielle, Josh, and Cliff
Danielle and Cliff

More of Danielle, Josh, and Cliff
 

Danielle singing during 'Mother India'
Danielle singing during "Mother India"

J-Mo on the drums!
Josh played the drums so hard he broke a mallet during "Hands of the Potter!"


Cliff, Emanuel, and JP


I don't know if this picture does it justice, but we had to take a picture of Emanuel's callous!  He's been playing tabla drums for fifteen years!


Uh oh!  Cliff gets Stealth Discoed by Andy who is getting stealth discoed by JP!  This is what we call a "Stereo Stealth Disco".... Cliff later got his revenge by performing an "International Stealth Disco" with Emanuel on Garrett and Todd.

All in all, a great weekend. Great music performed by wonderful people. This is why I consider myself a fan.

 Adriene posted her thoughts about the conert, too

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