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Irving Plaza (OTR in NYC)
{{{{Did anyone go to the CJ/OTR show at Irving Plaza this Friday? I was
planning on going but the crappy weather and $30 ticket price kinda
dissuaded me from making the trip into the city. I hope somebody will
tell me that the show wasn't that good so I don't feel guilty for
missing it -- they don't make it out to NY too often.}}}}
Sorry to disappoint, but it was indeed a great show... oh, not their best by
any means, primarily because for the first couple songs Karin's nervousness
was apparent, but even with a fever of 102, I had a hell of a time... and I
didn't even stick around for the Junkies -had to get home & rest up :-(.
Definitely a non-traditional show I'd say, it was just Karin and Linford
and... Jack Byrd, I believe his name was, the Junkies' bassist... no drums, no
guitar other than Karin on a couple songs, all Good Dog Bad Dog except for the
opener, "Bothered." Still, all in all, I'd be surprised if there wasn't a
whole host of Cowboy Junkies fans swarming to check out "that opening band's"
CD after the show. Reception was very warm, especially for an opening act
that wasn't even billed on the ticket, for an NYC show. Y'could tell there
were hardly any showgoers there who'd heard of OTR before though, so for the
most part any fans they had there were won that night. Speaking of which...
have they ever played in New York City before? Hadn't heard of any OTR NYC
shows before and that's one reason I went down even as sick as a dog as I was.
Anyway, brief rundown:
Started out with "Bothered," ending in a keyboard intstrumental probably a
minute long; again, Karin seemed a bit nervous, but her voice still came
through... only majorly noticeable problem with the nervousness was that
sometimes she'd slur her words even more than I'd ever seen her do before, and
sometimes she'd overcompensate on the accentuation. Plus, I'd call her stage
presence that night perhaps a bit less sensual than usual. But otherwise,
they were in good form.
Then came "Faithfully Dangerous," and out of the seven songs this was the one
that was a bit of a disappointment, due to Linford hitting all these circusy,
goofy high notes throughout the song that sorta took away from the sweeping
quality of it, and here Karin again slurred more than usual. After Faithfully
though, it was all gold.
Up next was "Etcetera Whatever" which Karin glided through with unimpeachable
grace, and I'd say it was about halfway through Etcetera that the noises from
the otherwise too-talkative crowd dimmed, and more or less the whole Junkies
audience paid full attention. After the song Karin, who'd said pretty much
nothing other than "thank you"s up until then, introduced the band, mentioned
that they were a four-piece for a long time, then a six-piece, and for much of
that tour had been a six-piece, and she introduced Jack (if that was indeed
his first name), all of this very unpretentiously and soft-spokenly and
warmly, afterwhich point they moved into "All I Need Is Everything," with
Karin more than holding her own with the guitar.
Now, for some backstory, I went to the show with my mother, who'd never been
to a "rock concert" before in her life and will likely never go to another
unless it's Over the Rhine, and two very cool twenty-something women from our
church. The twenty-something women were up in the balcony. Me and mom were
down up front probably about six standing rows from the stage. Mom had been
wondering aloud all week about whether they'd play "Poughkeepsie" on request,
if they wouldn't play it otherwise, and I said I couldn't know for sure, but
we might as well try. There were plenty of requests I'd've had for them, but
"Poughkeepsie" is one of my mother's all-time favorite songs so I'd requested
that right after "Faithfully Dangerous," but just rather quietly, hoping mom
would chime in. Mom was still too shy to for some reason (which really makes
no sense at all; mom is a rather outspoken pastor and community leader who's
surely the most naturally charismatic people you'll ever meet) so after "All I
Need..." I shouted out twice again, rather loudly, "Play Poughkeepsie!" which,
although I guess I don't know the strength of my own voice, apparently the
whole club heard, and Karin said "hey, thanks, we weren't sure what to play
next, you helped us make up our mind" and then said comically, to the laughter
of the audience "this one's by request." So they went through that, very
confidently and in full form, and it was met with extra applause.
After that, Karin said "this next one's something we do for fun... not that
all we do isn't fun, but, well, you'll see" and they launched into "Jack's
Valentine"... which at first I thought was odd, always seemed to me like a
song you'd be more likely to play to your already-devoted fans than to an
unfamiliar crowd of New Yorkers, but then it was Karin doing Linford's part,
which somehow made it immeasurably more accessible, and it was top-notch all
the way though.
I halfheartedly requested "Murder" (wanted to request "If I'm Drowning" but
couldn't quite see Karin handling the guitar on that) but realised they
weren't likely to fit in another request in just an opening set, and was
pleased as punch anyway when they announced that their next & last song'd be
"Latter Days," which they proceeded to prelude with an instrumental bit and
then play perfectly to the end.
All in all, a great show, and I'm awfully glad I didn't miss it for the fever.
I'll be happy the next time I get a chance to see 'em in their own
environment, where they're not so unused to the audience, but it was
definitely a treat to get to cheer 'em on and see 'em kick ass here in the
proverbial big city.
Still rather sickly,
Stefan
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