LOCATION: Club Caprice, Redondo Beach, CA
LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Jack, Jeff Bird
REVIEW BY: OnceBoo@aol.com
I'd hoped that I'd finally get to meet listies Jeff and/or Lydia, but alas, neither was able to attend. Sadly, I wasn't able to convince any of my friends to go either, so I wound up at the concert alone. Believe me, there's nothing quite so thrilling as attending a concert by yourself. By the way, if there are any other lurking listies besides Jeff and Lydia who live here in southern California, please let me know. When I bought my ticket from the ever-popular TicketMaster, I was told that all seating at the concert would be general admission. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the venue, I discovered that only about 5% of seats were general admission, and naturally these were the worst seats in the house. Consequently, I was stuck at the back of the room with the bar sitting between me and the stage, leaving me with an obstructed view about 25% of the time. Everything I'd heard about this show had indicated that Karin & Linford would be performing without the rest of the band, so I was hoping for something a little different from the few other times I've seen OtR perform, even if they were just opening for the Cowboy Junkies. The show began with Karin walking onstage alone and performing "The Seahorse" by herself. Regrettably, the sound at Club Caprice was some of the worst I've ever encountered. Everything was muted and muddled. On top of this, most of the people there seemed to regard Karin as an intrusion upon whatever conversation they happened to be having at the moment, so instead of shutting up when she started playing, they increased the volume at which they were speaking. Needless to say, I was rather frustrated. After "The Seahorse", Linford joined Karin onstage, as did two other guys. The one who picked up a guitar resembled Jack, but I was too far away to make sure that that's indeed who he was. The second guy was a mystery to me, but I was intrigued as he sat down behind an upright bass. "Bothered" and "Etcetera Whatever" were played next, but I was rapidly losing interest due to my inability to really hear what they were playing. After "Etc. Whatever", Karin introduced the bassist, but thanks to the wonderful audio, I had no clue what she said. Several songs later, she also introduced the guitarist, but once again, she was totally incomprehensible. It wasn't until after their set had ended that I was able to find out who these two were by talking to the guy working the merchandise table. Indeed, the guitarist was Jack, who had just flown out to join K&L for some of these west coast performances. The bass player was Jeff Bird, who usually plays a little bit of everything for the Junkies. Next up was "All I Need Is Everything". About halfway through, the sound guys finally got their act together somewhat and managed to coax some more volume out of the speakers. Unfortunately, the quality wasn't any better, it was just louder. "Poughkeepsie" and "Orphan Girl" followed. This was my first chance to hear OtR perform "Orphan Girl", which was nice, but I must say that I think Gillian Welch does it better. "Jack's Valentine" and "Latter Days" closed out the set. Karin did the vocals for "Jack's Valentine", which was an interesting change. Amazingly, when I stopped by the merch table after their set, quite a few people were buying GDBD. The sound quality must have been much, much better wherever those folks were sitting, because I know that if this concert had been my first taste of Over the Rhine, I wouldn't have wanted any more. Although I enjoy the Junkies, I couldn't bring myself to sit through a couple hours of them playing with the same sound problems, so I didn't bother hanging around for their set.