LOCATION: Taft Theater, Cincinnati, OH
LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Devon Ashley, Rick Plant, Kim Taylor
REVIEW BY:
Cincinnati Enquirer:
Over the Rhine show a great holiday gift
Concert review
By Chris Varias
Enquirer contributor
Linford Detweiler reported that his wife almost took a steroid shot to the throat in order to make the show. However, it is clear Karin Bergquist doesn't require needling in order to play their biggest gig of the year.
Detweiler and Bergquist's band Over the Rhine was forced to cancel a pair of out-of-town shows earlier in the week after Bergquist lost her voice, but the local favorites rallied for their annual Christmastime date at the Taft Theatre Saturday night.
Bergquist, the group's singer, didn't show any signs of illness during the two-hour performance before an appreciative capacity crowd. (This marks the 11th year of the Over the Rhine Christmas show and the sixth at the Taft. A Taft official said it's the first time the event has sold out.)
In fact, if there's a singer who can get by on less than full strength it would be Bergquist. She can flash a powerful voice, but she's not a belter. With her band's subdued spin on folk-rock prevailing through the night, Bergquist sailed along without incident. If there happened to be a slight catch in a note from time to time it would only add to the wistful musical aesthetic to which she aspires.
Bergquist and the band - helmed by Detweiler at piano with Rick Plant on guitar, Devon Ashley on drums and local singer-songwriter Kim Taylor on guitar and backing vocals - played several songs from the last two Over the Rhine studio albums, 2003's "Ohio" and this year's "Drunkard's Prayer." There were lots of stark ballads along the way, like the latter's title track, which closed out the second and final encore. It made those few occasions when OTR chose to pick up the pace more than welcome, such as "Lookin' Forward" and a cover of Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man."
As for seasonal selections, the band did what's probably its best-known Christmas song, "All I Ever Get for Christmas is Blue," along with a new one titled "White Horse." An ensemble featuring Amy Rigby, one of two support acts, took on "Merry Christmas Baby" in the first encore.
Rigby's solo-acoustic set was a Christmas gift for which to be thankful. Beginning with her landmark 1996 release "Diary of a Mod Housewife" on through the new "Little Fugitive," the little-known singer-songwriter has been on an impressive run of record-making.
Her nine-song set provided a perfect crash course for the crowd, who
ate up the devastatingly funny tales about dating, marriage, second-marriages
and the dissolution of all of the above.
Taylor opened the show with a half-hour set of her own.
She played songs from a forthcoming album, as her lone backing, guitarist Jimmy Zhivago, made all sorts of noises to flesh out the haunting nature of Taylor's music.