Hem and Over the Rhine at Variety Playhouse, June 3, 2006

Pictures of the concert are on my Flickr site

Set list:
Latter Days
I Want You To Be My Love
Born
Looking Forward
Jesus In New Orleans
I’m On A Roll
Entertaining Thoughts
I Don’t Want To Waste Your Time
Is It Too Late To Start?
Little Did I Know
Firefly
Show Me
Trouble
Drunkard’s Prayer
—
The Seahorse
When I Go
—
Hush Now

Detailed review:

Little Five Points is a wacky little part of Atlanta and as I’ve written before, befits Over the Rhine quite well. The last time we saw OtR at the Variety Playhouse during their “Films For Radio” tour, the theatre was pretty sparse, but this time around the theater was quite full and there were even quite a few people sitting up in the balcony.

This tour is with Hem. They aren’t that different from Over the Rhine which made them a pretty good compliment to OtR. Hem was techinically proficient and sounded very nice, but almost all of their songs were about the same tempo and with no percussion section, the songs weren’t driven along by much.
I liked them ok, but after a couple songs, I found myself wondering if they were going to do anything different.

On to Over the Rhine’s show. Karin and Linford are currently touring with the smooth drumming Devon Ashley and the multi-talented Rick Plant who swtiched between bass guitar, electric guitar, and an accoustic bass and regular acoustic six string guitar all night.

Latter Days

Karin remarked that if you put HEM and OTR together, you get mother which either means this is going to be a very nuturing tour or one mother of a tour. She said it was more the first than the last.

I Want You To Be My Love
Karin on acoustic. Linford on keys. Rick on acoustic bass. I liked Linford’s background vocals.

Born
Rick on electic guitar. Devon sings background vocals.

Looking Foward
Linford plays electric bass.

Linford tells a little story about going to school in Canada and playing piano and remarks how much nicer it is to be playing in front of people instead of in an empty auditorium.

“I think about stuff.” – Linford

Karin said one of Linford’s favorite bass players called him “Smart Parts” Karin said she might adopt that name too and embarrassed herself.

Jesus In New Orleans

I’m On A Roll
Rick plays an acoustic guitar with a slide while Linford played acoustic guitar. Karin played the little pickler shaker thingy. Karin says they aren’t working through any “heavy crap” this time around, so the next record should be a little lighter.

Linford talked a little bit about the process of writing the song and remarked, “it’s fun to write for a girl.”

Entertaining Thoughts
Rick played electric with a slide. Linford and Karin both played acoustic guitar. This song has another false ending ala “Goodbye”, but I like it, it’s bouncy and fun.

I Don’t Want to Waste Your Time
This song was inspired by a comment by Dave (T.D. Juicy) “If you a’int gonna go deep, don’t go at all.” It’s the most poignant of the new songs, just Linford on keys and Karin’s voice.

Linford talked about how his father’s church and how they would have prayer meetings and people would raise their hands and say they had an “unspoken request”. He liked that and used it as the title of one of his CD’s. He then played a track from one of his piano CD’s.

Is It Too Late To Start

Little Did I Know
Long piano solo by Linford in the middle of this song.

Firefly
Karin on the keys. Linford on bass. Rick on electric guitar. Rick has added a nice little guitar solo to this song. Karin tells us that Rick has a children’s CD out.

Show Me
Karin on acoustic guitar. Linford on bass. Rick on electric guitar. Devon provides “la la la” background vocals. This tour is really showing off Rick’s strength as an electric guitar player.

Trouble
I love this song, from the “sexy cocktail hour stubble” lyirc to the cutsey keyboard patch.

Drunkard’s Prayer

—

Karin and Linford returned for the encore each with an acoustic guitar.

The Seahorse – Summertime

When I Go
Rick Plant really takes off here with a long guitar solo.

—

Karin and Linford return for a second encore

Hush Now (Stella’s Tarantella)