Barenaked Ladies,Cleveland, OH and Minneapolis, MN Labor Day Weekend 1997
Opening Acts: Tara MacLean After depriving myself of BNL for the majority of the summer, I decided to make up forlost time by planning a Labor Day mini tour. The first stop would be Cleveland on August30, where they were playing the festival Taste of Cleveland and I could visit some oldfriends. Second stop would be Minneapolis to take in the Mill City Festival and meet upwith some other friends from Houston that were visiting family in the area. The Cleveland show turned out to be a full set including encore, which is unusual forthese festival set ups. BNL was the last band of the day. Just before them, Tara MacLeanwent on for her last time with BNL on this tour. In addition to the great stuff she didfor the Seattle show she also asked Jim Creeggan to join her forone song and then with Jim still hanging around, got Kevin to join for another. It was abrilliant performance. This time it was only Tara and her guitar for the other songs andshe seemed to have a greater ease with the crowd, telling stories about the inspirationfor her songs. I definitely recommend checking out this other talented Canadian. BNL hit the stage around 10pm and proceeded to play much the same as the Seattle showreferenced above, but with lots of Cleveland comments about how salty the food was at theTaste. Ed also talked about how he visited a Science Museum that day and Tyler describedhow you could touch a button that 10,000 other kids had touched and get their same cold.In his usual fashion, Steve did some rap about preparing meals with bodily fluids. Themusic was great, the night was lovely, so what more could one ask for. So after a lovely day hanging out with my friend's family in Cleveland on Sunday, I wasoff to Minneapolis. I arrived a little late at the festival but was able to pick up piecesof other acts including some stuff on the blues stage, and very good folk band, ViolentFemmes, and Del Amitri, who impressed the heck out of me with their performance. I owned afew of their CDs, but didn't realize what great performers they were. They had some reallyrockin' songs and had a good rapport with the audience. The BNLs took the stage around 7:30pm with plans for the abbreviated set. Somefavorites were left out like "These Apples" and "Blame It On Me", butthe set was still great. The funniest point of banter was when Ed noticed a guy up in theoffice building that was working at his computer. He beckoned him to come to the windowand wave. He did and the entire crowd yelled up to him. Steve told him he'd give him $20to drop his pants. They then proceeded to talk about what he was working on (downloadingporn in his underwear) or that he was the Satan of Minneapolis and Ed had just crowned himthe coolest guy at the festival. During $1M, Steve got pelted with a box of Kraft Dinner as well as other things, whichappeared to put him in a fowl mood. I, in my enthusiasm, regretfully launched my standardmonkey (during the "Haven't you ever wanted a monkey" portion of the song) whichcame precariously close to Steve and, I guess, scared him. My apology to him wasgraciously accepted, but I have nevertheless, retired my "Monkey Throwing Arm".Again, a great show, I'm hoping the boys will get some rest, do some writing of newmaterial, and then hit the road again to promote their new single for "BrianWilson". Check your late-night record shops soon. In Minneapolis, I was very happy to have met up with some people that I first met at an Underwater People show in Chicago. Asalways, it is great to meet BNL fans around the country. By the way, UwP is a great bandthat does BNL covers as well as Poi Dog Pondering, Bodeans, and Samples. If you're ever inthe Chicago area, check them out. I'll probably take a break myself from BNL shows and catch a few things nearby, but Ihave plans for Boston in October and then a new Christmas tour in Dec. On That Note, I'm outta here...... C |
