LOCATION: Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL
LINEUP: Karin, Linford
REVIEW BY: Various Listees
Well like I always said there's nothing better than having Karin & Linford come into literally my neighborhood for an intimate show. It had been close to 2 yrs since they last played here at Wheaton college (which was my first time at that time)so they were due. Upon arriving and figuring out that they had moved up the latter here on campus from the small little 150 seat theater(last time) to the what seemed cavernous 1000 or so seat chapel.But that's cool it is really beautiful and has very good sound.I sat in the 4th row center. By the time they came on there was around 400 people I'm guessing. They opened with the new song "Jesus & Mary". Only god knows why anyone opens a show with a song noones heard.If any of you are really close with the "big" guy ask him for me will you. ;) But anyway I can't really rememeber the song right now 2 days later but I remember Karin was wearing a cute little black skirt with a dark maroon kind of jacket.Her hair was down and I remember thinking she looks so refreshed and younger. On into "Bothered" we go and the sound was incredible. It's so great to hear them on a nice big system that sounds good rather than err...Shuba's. I don't have the exact playlist so I'll just give random thoughts that I can remember. At one point Karin said they were working on the new album and it was killing her NOT to play the material.I'm guessing and I'm sure we all know why it's not that wise to play unreleased stuff live anymore. Especially when there's 4 video cameras(DVD crew & more)recording all this. The crowd was a little more subdued than the normal Shuba's crowd, applauding politely after each song except for the occasional "Woot"!! from the guys to which Karin said in her cute little accent "That's ok you guys can do that,I like it...hahaha". She said they had rented a car to make the drive rather than the van, so they were gonna drive it fast cause it was a rental but she kept telling Linford to slow down. One of the things that kind of bothered me was that when Linford played the opening notes to "The World Can Wait" everyone usually claps and hoots but there was absolute silence yet when Karin launched into "Orphan Girl" the crowd the crowd screams? Go figure ??Another time Karin thanked us all because "without you all we'd be homeless literally" meaning what I always knew.The live shows pay the mortgage and put food in Willows bowl. Karin walked over the piano to do her solo thing where she did "Give Me Strength"(A little rushed)and "Ohio"- incredible as always. The encore was "When I Go" just Linford on piano(no guitar)and Karin "nailed" the best I've ever heard it!! Over all a very nice show,they sounded great,looked great and were in good moods....But in the end it left me longing for a real electric full band show later in the year. Setlist - not exact 1.Jesus & Mary 2.Bothered 3.Etcetera Whatever 4.The Seahorse 5.Fever 6.Anything At All 7.Love Is A Fever 8.Orphan Girl 9.Give Me Strength 10.Ohio 11.Lucy 12.When I Go (encore)
It was a good concert, not a great concert, but good. It seemed to me to be pretty short, I didn't get a set list but I think JB was pretty close. I must say the sound was great, I was a little worried because the sound was terrible for the warm up act. The venue had great acoustics and the benefit of being able to sit and relax in a smoke-free environment (as opposed to Schubas) was great. I also was surprised that the crown went wild when they played Orphan Girl. Must be a lot of Gillian Welch fans out there. I picked up a GW cd just to get her version of OG, since I love the OTR version I've heard a lot lately. I've not a great deal to say other than repeat that it was a good show, but IMO not a great show. If they did the same exact show over again, I would for sure attend however. Kind of like the pizza analogy "when it is really good, it is really good, and even when it isn't great, you're still glad you got some". This does apply to other things of course but pizza is the PC topic.