The winter cold returned for a visit to Atlanta and it put Over the Rhine into a winter mood. The wind howled outside, but inside Smith’s Old Bar it was warm and packed full with as many people as the upstairs room could hold. Over the Rhine seems to be steadily building a fanbase in the Atlanta area and it would appear that it has outgrown the small room that has held so many previous Over the Rhine shows.
Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist brought a Georgia connection with them to the show. Athens native Jake Bradley, formerly of the Vigilantes of Love, played bass guitar, electric guitar, and upright bass on many of the songs while the talented Mickey Grimm played drums. Detweiler switched between keyboards and bass guitar on songs while Bergquist provided her trademark vocals. In between two albums, the band played some of the cold weather themed songs from their winter (it’s not fair to say Christmas) album Snow Angels and gave the audience a preview of song of their new songs from the upcoming album The Trumpet Child.
The night started out a little subdued with slower songs from their previous albums, but by the time they reached the title track for the upcoming album, the band was rollicking. Grimm displayed his considerable chops on drums on the song “The Trumpet Child” and the crowd started to get excitable. Over the Rhine even gave a nod to Jake Bradley’s hometown with a cover of R.E.M.’s “The One I Love”, a slow burn song featuring powerful vocals by Bergquist on the chorus.
The band obliged the crowd with an encore of the steamy song “North Pole Man” to warm up the cold night and then a new folk ditty name-checking some of their favorite musicians in “If A Song Could Be President.” They didn’t stop there, coming back for another encore, feeling the winter mood with a tounge-in-cheek cover of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” leaving the crowd with a wry grin on their face for the evening.
SETLIST
-Born
-Long Lost Brother
-Spark
-I’m On A Roll
-I Don’t Want to Waste Your Time
-Nothing Is Innocent Now
-The Trumpet Child
– Who Am I Kidding?
-We’re Gonna Pull Through
-The One I Love
-Last Night on Earth, Again
-Firefly
-B.P.D.
-Orphan Girl
Encore 1
-North Pole Man
-If a Song Could be President
Encore 2
-Hush Now (Stella’s Tarantella)
-Baby It’s cold Outside
Pictures of the concert are on my Flickr site. Unfortunately, my location wasn’t really conducive to taking pictures and the place was packed so full that I didn’t feel like shoving my way to the front, so unfortunately, they are what they are.
Postscript: I should add that the night before I went with my lovely wife and a good friend of ours to see Patty Griffin at The Tabernacle. Adriene is a much bigger fan of Griffin than I am, so I was just along for the ride and spending the night on the town with two lovely ladies was a nice bonus. I found, however, that I enjoyed the show much, much more than I thought I would. The band was great and the songs were engaging. Even the opener, Scott Miller, was fun for his short set. We all had a great time.