LOCATION: Moonlite Gardens, Coney Island, Cincinnati, OH
LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Will Sayler, Paul Moak, Rick Plant
REVIEW BY: Various Listees
If you're an Over the Rhine fan, there are three places you should see
Over the Rhine
1.) The Taft (or Emery) Theater for a Christmas show
2.) On the farm at Cornerstone
3.) "Down by the river" at Moonlight Gardens
Well, that's now three out of three for me. My wife and I travelled up
to Cinci for the show this past Saturday night.
First of all, what an incredible location for a concert. I loved the
open stone floor in front of the stage, the tables along the sides, and the
balcony above. A beautiful venue for a concert! Plus there was plenty of
room to move around, get drinks, go to merch table, even when the place was
packed full of people.
The openers were Griffin House and The Children's Hour. I wish the order
had been reversed. I could've only taken 20 minutes of The Children's Hour and
sat through 40 minutes of Griffin House. Griffin House was OK, nothing awesome,
but not bad either. Just two guys on accoustic guitar. I was amused when the
singer called his friend from the stage on his cell phone and left the phone while
he played so his friend could hear him perform. The Children's Hour was a woman
yodeling while a guy played guitar. It was OK for one or two songs, but it got
pretty old quickly.
I am still hating myself for the seat location that I chose for the show.
We feared rain would strike in the middle of the show, so we sat under the covered
section instead of sitting out in the middle. This put us sitting in front of
some jabbering morons that spent the entire show drinking beer, talking loudly,
being rude and obnoxious, and in general, not even acknowledging that there was
a band on stage. I expect this kind of behavior at the Styx/Journey/Reo Speedwagon
show, not at an Over the Rhine show. So, if that was any of y'all on the list (I'm SURE
it was not) then I salute you for nearly ruining my experience!
I say nearly because try as they might, the morons could not ruin the show.
Over the Rhine was just that good tonight.
Set List:
Spinning
Bothered
Long Lost Brother
Show Me
She
Nobody Number One
Suitcase
Lifelong Fling
Ohio
BPD
All I Want Is Everything
The World Can Wait
When I Go
ENCORE:
How Long Have You Been Stoned?
Cruel and Pretty
SECOND ENCORE:
Latter Days
Changes Come
Spinning just rocks. What an awesome opener. It just builds tension and suspense
and makes you think "this night is going to be incredible." I love the re-worked
Bothered. I also love Linford leaning over Karin to play the organ while she plays
piano on BPD. While I enjoyed the piano only version of "The World Can Wait", I am
so glad the rockin' version is back. Kick rump.
After the show was over, we had a two hour drive ahead of us back to Lexington, so
I didn't hang around. I wish I could, it would've been nice to meet some of y'all,
just as long as you weren't the yahoos sitting behind me.
I've Been Wined, Dined and Over the Rhined! last night @ moonlight gardens was incredible...good people, good setting, beautiful night, beautiful music. i've been lucky enough to see them 3 times in the last week, each performance better than the one before... a friend, anna reminded karin of the "little kick ass beauty before we die" line in a note on friday night, they must have taken it seriously...these were beautiful kick ass shows. and don't even get me started about the crickets chirping in the background on saturday night during "ohio"...freakin' magical stuff! great respectful crowd, the local paper said 1000-1200, the best line of the night, before the encore of "changes come", some guy shouts out "rock on , guitar boy" to paul moak, the new guitarist, who was responsible for much of the "kick ass" part of the show, the boy can play (linford shot him a nice little smile). the band is very good and seem to play tighter and seemed more comfortable on saturday than (a well played show) on friday...gonna be a fun round of shows. snagged (and got the full band to autograph) karin's setlist and a lyric sheet for "cruel & pretty"...sent some nice photos to keithb to post, more to come later...life is good! karin, linford and the band hung out by the merch table and signed, talked, laughed and seemed to "soak in" the happiness, well intentions, and good feelings of all. karin must have thanked me 5 or 6 times for the flowers the night before and thanked me equally as many times just for coming to both shows. damn nice people. it had to be a blast for them, it seemed like they didn't want the evening to end...[i]hello, ohio, it's so sad to see this evening ennnnnnd![/i] the setlist [typed exactly from karin's setlist]: Spinning Bothered Long lost brother Show me She Nobody #1 Suitcase Lifelong ------ Ohio - (girl) ------ BPD All I Want Is Everything The World Can Wait When I Go ******* Stoned Cruel & Purty Changes Come ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________ on "bpd" karin also played piano, with linford joining her on organ...very cool. they also threw in a very rocking version "latter days" in the final encore too...
the Over the Rhine show last night... well, it ROCKED. openers: Griffin House was good enough to plunk down the remaining funds in my wallet for a CD. Children's House was unique. Over the Rhine started out the show with "Spinning" with Nag Champa floating aall around and a sitar's notes bouncing through the air. Yes, a sitar at an OTR show. Sweet. All in all, they played a lot of OHIO tunes (except I don't know which version of Bothered they played). All were a rockin'. They also played All I Need Is Everything, Latter Days, The World Can Wait, When I Go (solo was bueno), and possibly some others. The new guitarist for this tour (Paul) was killer. I liked him a lot. The sitar, 8 different guitars, xylophone, and Nag Champa-powered Lap Steel... he tore some of the songs up. K&L... bring Paul back often. He rocketh.
This review will be fragmented, etheral, and probably spelled wrong. But I make no apologies, cuz, I hope too, it will be fun. It's the frame of mind I'm in, so here we go. The show did in fact rock. I was so caught up (Jay Harnish calls it totally submersed) that I managed to let some of the set slip away from me. In other words, I totally lost myself in the multi-sensing experience of the awesome music, the incense wafting from the stage, the cool breeze blowing occasionally through the crowd, and the visual stimulation of the lights and the band on stage. So, now that you all know that I have limited memory of the show, let me tell you what I do remember as stand out moments. When the band started to file onstage one at a time, it reminded me of the old days when there was more mystique to the shows. Most of the shows I've seen in the last five years have been kind of perfunctory in the set up. The band just walks out sits down and starts playing. This show was different. Paul opened the show with the sitar, and speaking of visual stimulation, let me tell you, if you've never seen a sitar before--well this one at least, because I've never seen one before either, they're big. I mean huge, like five feet long with all kinds of little slide levers and red lights on it. Paul himself has light brown/blondish short dreds and he was wearing a straw cowboy hat like I imagine Michelle might be sporting soon, and jeans. So, let's just say that bewteen the dreds, the sitar, and the smoke rising from the incense behind him, you could tell this wasn't going to be your dad's over the rhine show. Karin looked gorgeous. She was wearing a black pinstriped jacket and pants with a crimson strapped blouse underneath. The pants were hip hugger, but the shirt was tucked in and she had a black belt completely trimmed in rhinestones that jut said "rock star"--I mean where else can you really get away with this except from a stage? Her pants had about five or six big buttons down the outside of each leg starting at the lower calf. She was wearing high heels, and her jacket was zippered, except it looked like she either had it pinned in the middle, or she had run the zipper about half way up and then the unzipped it from the bottom--it didn't matter much since she took the jacket off after the first or second song. She was wearing a great necklace that looked like a big round stone of some sort with sunburst designs coming out from it--it sparkled in the stage lights. Her hair was down and staight it's still long. It was blonder than I remember since the last time I saw her. Did I mention yet that she was beautiful? I don't know how she would feel about me saying this, but her image really just screams frontwoman--we've all known it, now I'm saying it here. It works. Linford was dressed in what I would call normal Linford fashion. He may have even been dressed down a little. He had on a long sleeved plaid button up shirt, and normal pants. I can't remember what everyone else was wearing except that the bassist had on a t-shirt, and I couldn't see Will very well for the glare from his acrylic sound shield--oh, and the guitar tuner (there were over 10 guitars on stage btw) wore a Ramones tee. I guess someone else has already posted the set list, I acutally lost mine that I snagged from the stage, but all the songs except one or two were from OHIO. I know they played All I Need is Everything. Bruce said the standout tune for him was BPD, I actually can't even remember that song. I was floating somewhere else at that point. I'm pretty sure the version of Bothered they played was close to the album version. Show Me was a lot more lively. I can't really say what they did to it, but it seemed less country, so maybe that's why I liked it more. It's one of my least favourites on the CD, but it really fit here without the back up singers and with Paul on guitar. I remember at one point during *I have no idea what song* I had my eyes closed and I heard Linford start his now trademark funky organ notes that I love, so I opened my eyes to look at him, and when I did, I noticed the bassist was staring at him with a quizzical look on his face. It was great. I honestly can't remember much of the bassist, except that he was from Boston. I'm sure someone will read this and be his greatest fan, but if one person was expendable from Saturday's show, it would be him. Karin did Ohio from the keyboard while the rest of the group left the stage. During the next song, Linford came back a little later than the others (like 20 seconds) and joined her on the organ which, if you're familiar with how he sets his equipment up, was right beside her. He actually had to stand up and play kind of bent over while she was on the keys because there was only one seat. It was my favourite scene from the entire show. I don't know if it was planned or not, but it really brought the group into perspective. Having the both of them playing side by side just served to remind me that no matter how good the other musicians were, the driving creativity behind Over the Rhine is them. I can't explain it, but it was all kinds of things at the same time. I mean how can two people beside each other on stage evoke such an array of emotions. It was powerful, personal and private, it was just beautiul really. That's all I can say. So Paul played about 8 different guitars and sung back up on several songs--Suitcase being the one I remember most vividly. He really jammed out on about three or four songs--I honestly wish I could remember more, but there was several extended jam sessions, Life Long Fling being my favourite. I think the entire audience (even the geese flying overhead) felt a little flushed after that song. I mean talk about Over the Rhine as and aphrodisiac. The thought actually crossed my mind (okay, I entertained it for a bit longer) that this would have been the best show from which to sneak off and have a "romantic interlude" and during this song. Mood music? Exactly. I don't think anyone else mentioned it, but we acutally coaxed a second encore out of them (Karin said we flattered them). It wasn't on the setlist, but they closed the show with Changes Come. Linford intro'd the song as being what he considered a hymn. My jury is still out on this song. I don't want to be one of those who automatically condemn it for its language, and I don't want to swing back the other way either and embrace for simply based on its raw honesty. I think it's one of the most imporant songs of their career, for several reasons, but I still have to let myself come to any conclusions on my own terms. That just hasn't happened yet. After the show, Zayne came up and found us and then Kylie abandoned the merch table hang out with us. Nathan S. was there, Bruce, Drew, Dan, Margarita, and numerous other non-listees. It was great. After the show, Bruce talked us into going out and we ended up at Kaldi's where we saw the Harnishes. I know Bruce was slummin' it at Kaldi's with all the books, but we had fun--that is until we came out to find a $50 parking ticket. I just want to know what city gives parking tickets at 2am on a Saturday? Oh and did I mention that Bruce, who parked right in front of us, didn't get a ticket? The car beside us, did, the car on the other side of Bruce, got one, but where was Bruce's ticket? Here's a word of advice, if you're ever out after midnight in downtown Cincy, just park anywhere and put a sign on your car "Friend of Bruce Lachey, DO NOT TICKET." That's what I'm doing. I did talk to Kris from Montage, and she said that the DVD release date has been pushed back to spring 2004 in order to get more footage of the fall dates. She expects to have over 100 hours of film at that point and will have to boil it down to only two hours of final product. I say we petition for more. MORE. What's wrong with having two hours of performace, two hours of behind the scenes footage, still images, bios, at least one in-studio track footage, a bonus song that didn't make it on the CD (even if audio only), fan interviews, and some hidden menu that gives some freebies away as far as "the story behind the song"?