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| BNL in 'Bama Call me crazy, call me insane, call me a good travel agent, but I couldn'tresist a chance to do a Barenaked engagement in Birmingham, AL earlier this week. Having been to several of their large venue performances this year (which I mightadd are wonderful in their own right), I longed for the days of smaller, intimate venues,and started searching the tour schedule for something on the less than 1000 person size. The pre-Christmas radio shows offered a few choice selections, so with the magic ofInternet airfares, my friend, Renee and I were on our way to Birmingham with plans toarrive just before the show started and leave early in the am, in time to get back to workon Wednesday. Sometimes a quickie is all you need. The show was sponsored by WRAX in Birmingham, a station that has supportedBNL for a long time. Opening act, Train from San Francisco, was somewhatunimpressive to me, sounding like Black Crows meet Kenny G. and playing covers of both LedZeppelin and Seal. They seemed talented, with a variety of instruments, but thesound was not my style. BNL came on at about 10:30pm, opening with "The Old Apartment"obviously a Birmingham favorite. The crowd was singing along from word one. The room, typically able to hold 500 was bursting at the seams with the over 1000that the radio station crammed in there. The crowd was mostly frat boys in baseballcaps and sweet little southern girls (at least on the exterior). After the first fewsongs, Ed told a story about his flight in from Toronto in which he tried to go to thebathroom in a stall that was marked vacant. He tried to push the door open, but metwith some resistance, so he tried again, and again, and again....Finally he heard thisdeep voice say "Help". As he tells this story, the rest of the band joinin with a little ditty about helping someone take a s*&t, complete with Jim's highfalsetto of "help, help" in the background. Later, Ed told about their dinner at John Bishop's Ribs. Beingcelebrities, they were escorted to a special room, and said that they had the honor ofactually eating one of John Bishop's actual ribs (he has now passed on). The crowdwas fairly grossed out by this, but nevertheless, chuckled in the morose humor. Also, Edmade fun of the small TV screens that were on each side of the stage and how, no matterhow far away you were from the stage, the actual band on stage was much more visible thanthe view from those screens. He then talked about a new sitcom starring a rock bandand Steve joins in for a song complete with "the sun always shines on TV." BNL played about a two hour set, crowd favorites were the gems from thenew CD, Stunt, One Week, It's All Been Done, and Alcohol. Old favorites,Jane and Brian Wilson made it along too, and so did the obligatory $1M, this time withbanter about Alabama Taco Machine (a local restaurant), with Ed making it sound like itwas an ATM that dispensed tacos. So, as the song says "Who Needs Sleep", especially when I cantrade sleep for a night with BNL. Next stop on my BNL itinerary will be thePittsburgh show after Christmas and I plan to tour with BNL through New Years. It'sgoing to be a Happy Holiday. Seasons Greetings to all. On That Note, I'm outta here...... C |
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