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Taft Show
Hey.
I, for one, thought the Taft show was a blast. The songs were played much
more upbeat than they have traditionally been played in the past 5 years.
Not sure if it was Dale Baker's influence, or what. Dale set the tempo for
a lot of the tunes, and smashed the crud out of each crash cymbal hit. Very
nice.
Sixpence is groovy; a lot of the new stuff seemed very nice. They mentioned
that they hope to have the completed album out by April, and were very
appreciative of playing with Ron and OtR. Leigh said that she had written
Karin a long time ago, early in their careers, and she was so happy to
receive a personal reply.
It seemed to me that Leigh was even flightier than the last time I'd seen
them live (Oct 98). They performed two Christmas songs, "God Rest Ye Merry
Gentlemen" and "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear". Leigh read lyrics from a
book for both songs, and the arrangement of "...Gentlemen" was VERY
innovative with Matt playing interesting chord changes on an acoustic, and
"...Clear" was really nice.
Ron Sexsmith kicked major songwriting butt, and has a strange stage
presence. My friend Trish at the concert thought Mr. Sexsmith is cute
without being cute, and that seems about right. I could envision his set as
boring to people that didn't already know the songs, but at least his
between-song talk was fun.
There was no real major equipment changes throughout the evening. Sixpence
used Linford's Hammond organ and Wurlitzer keyboard, the grand piano and
drum kit. Ron used his own acoustic guitar.
Karin had sensible blonde hair and about a quarter ounce of clothing on her
upper body. In the foggy theater with the ominous blue lighting behind
them, her silhouette appeared as though she had forgotten to fully dress.
Terry was underused again, but glad to see her there.
Possibly the reason Linford is considering moving is maybe they can't find
any restaurant in town with food they enjoy - Karin and Linford seem to be
vying for some "skinniest spouse in the land" contest. But that's all
conjecture.
If I would have been a few meters closer, I would have rushed the stage and
smashed Jeff Byrd's mandolin about halfway into the show. It's neat and
all, but every once in a while through a regular song you'd get that "I'm
floating down a gondola in Venice" feel, and one should only experience that
feeling so many times in a single evening.
Linford said something about "being a great day" or "marking it on his
calendar" when Karin says she has a song, and basically complimented her on
being a great songwriter, to which she replied "yeah, right!". Then they
played "Anything at All" which hasn't been recorded yet.
"Sleep Baby Jane" rocked live, very nice. Drums were far louder throughout
the song than on Eve or as played live by Brian in the past.
"If Nothing Else" had a bunch of "la la la" bits from Terri and Karin at the
beginning and ending, and drum pattern changes were all throughout the song,
unlike the 'beatbox' thing that was available on their website a few months
ago. Someone should tell them that they don't HAVE to have four sets of "la
la la" lines in a row all the time.
"Silent Night" was similar to the Ric/Karin version on DNotY, but with some
keen keyboard/pop bits at the beginning.
Matt Slocum joined Karin and Linford on stage to play cello for two songs,
"Mary's Waltz" and "Rhapsodie". Karin and Linford apparently played at
Matt's wedding.
Karin admitted to having two "hairbrained" ideas, and both were executed
well. The first was to have Ron Sexsmith join them to sing a duet on Jack
Henderson song. Karin said she "loves" Ron's voice. He joined the stage
with a sheet of the song's lyrics, looking a little pensive. It was a
beautiful song about a couple running away together. And Ron kinda had that
look like he might just flee the stage at any moment... The song was called
"This Darling Light".
The setlist indicated "Like a Radio" would be the second song of the encore.
Unless I had a narcoleptic episode or suppressed it like I tried to for
"Poughkeepsie", they didn't play it.
The other hairbrained Karin idea was the encore, the "Happy Xmas/War is
Over" Lennon thing, with Leigh and Ron taking the stage, with their printed
lyrics, and singing the song. With each taking turns at verses, Karin's
chorus, and Terri's "war is over" background, it was way more fun live than
it probably sounds like just reading this.
The theater was kinda hazy 'cos of all the smoke billowing out of the
ambience-creating smoke machines.
That's about all I can think of to write about the show for now. I'll post
seperately re: the listee stuff.
B
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