BarenakedLadies, NC Weekend May 31 - June 1, 1997
Okay, I know things sound like they are getting out of hand, but I'm enjoying myself onthese Barenaked trips. This time I headed to my home state of NC to visit family and tohead to the BNL shows in Charlotte and Raleigh. The Charlotte show was at Tremont hall andactually had BNL opening for Cowboy Mouth, aLouisiana band, with an equal amount of energy as BNL, but in a totally different formatand vibe. Cowboy Mouth's drummer, Fred, is the lead singer and frontman, and a completemaniac. His pounding rhythms has the crowd rocking and dancing along to their alternativecountry rock sound. The band delivers a positive message about "loving life" andnot letting things get to you, as evidenced in their popular hit, "Jenny Said". But let's get to the real reason for my being there. BNL opened with"Shoebox" and played what they are calling the "longer rock festivalformat", which means no acoustic opening, about 1 hr. 15 min. long, and one encore,which included the addition of "A". Ed did a rap about astrology and Tylerstarted the chorus, "He don't smoke dope, he reads your horoscope." Banter thatnight had to do alot with the area, Steve making the cheap shot of the obvious rhyme ofCarolina and vagina. After one number where Steve walked out onto a speaker near theaudience, he commented that the speaker had been really sticky. Kevin, Jim, and Tyler allchimed in about things they had done to the speaker to make it sticky, including eatingjelly beans, leaving bananas, and smearing peanut butter on it as well as Ed's butt. Laterduring $1M, the banter moved into a theme having to do with hanging out with meat and aslaughterhouse, which led Ed to ask what was Slaughter's hit. They lit into a version ofCulture Club's "Karma Chameleon", and as always, Steve impressed us of knowledgeof 80s lyrics. Somehow he moved into another CC song with "Time Won't Give MeTime...". Steve caught my thrown monkey, and he stuffed him down his pants, with themonkey's cute little face sticking out of his fly. Singing out of Ed's microphone, Steveput his microphone down by the monkey's face as he concluded with his "Memories"solo, which was a very hysterical visual effect. The next day was the G105 Big Shindig in Raleigh at WalnutCreek. This is a huge pavilion and its 22,000 capacity was sold out with BNL as theheadliner. Other acts included Shawn Colvin, Duncan Sheik, Poe, Verve Pipe, Cravin Melon,Cowboy Mouth, and our boys, BNL. Also, on a second stage, I caught Sister Hazel, a new actthat I am really starting to like. Check out my review of them in Houston. The earlier acts were hard to focus on as it was daylight and people were millingaround. I guess it's hard for a performer to get energy going when lots of seats areempty. Shawn Colvin performed solo with just an acoustic guitar and sounded very good, butwith little else in terms of showmanship, probably due to her limited time, 1/2 hour. Nextup, Duncan Sheik found out just how serious the guys at Walnut Creek were about stickingto their schedule, as they pulled his sound during his last song, "She RunsAway". He looked pretty deflated and the pull was obviously unexpected, the fans wereleft confused and flabbergasted. Really uncool on the part of the shows promoters. Anyway,his performance was very good, playing with a full band his current hit, "BarelyBreathing" and others from his CD. I'll have to admit that I didn't pay much attention to some of the other acts. I didsee Verve Pipe, but really only enjoyed the one song "The Freshman", as the restof their stuff was a bit heavy for my taste, more like Smashing Pumpkins than I expected.However, this band from East Lansing, Michigan, had the crowd pretty revved and lead man,Brian, is a pretty hot sight on stage with his guitar. I got another look at Cowboy Mouth, which was a very similar show to the night before.However, lead guy, Fred, disappointed with the crowd's involvement, left the stage thefirst time to encourage some noise by running into the pavilion and shouting that"you're not watching an episode of Seinfeld, you're at a rock concert". That wasexciting enough to get the crowd going, but Fred exited the stage a second time during thehit "Jenny Said" to climb one of the very large pillar like structures in thepavillion. Dressed only in overall shorts and shoeless, this sweaty, hulking figure,climbed about 40 feet above the crowd and continued to talk and sing. Security was goingnuts trying to keep up with the guy. Definitely a high energy, insane performance. Just a few comments about Sister Hazel, who played just before BNL on the second stage.I really am beginning to like this band. Their current hit "All For You" fromthe CD "Somewhere More Familiar" is a happy, peppy tune with an acoustic stylereminiscent of Dave Matthews and Hootie, but with a vibe all their own. They seem to bereally neat, enthusiastic guys, who are tickled pink about their success. I hope to catchthem again soon. BNL hit the stage just as the sun was going down, so the full use of lights and effectswas evident. They were in great form and I am happy to report that the entire crowdincluding the lawn was on their feet, singing and dancing the whole time. Many more peoplethan I would have ever expected knew words and the crowd went crazy during "OldApartment" and "Brian Wilson" which are obviously getting lots of play inthe Raleigh/Durham area. They did the horn vocals again during Enid, which look like amore than temporary change (I love it!!!), but they haven't been doing Jim's "Spiderin My Room" during the past two shows in the interest of time. Jokes started with Edtalking about the race for the fastest man alive between the American, Ben Johnson, and aCanadian (I apologize for not knowing his name). He was proud to announce that Steve Pagewon the race and Steve proceeded to run back and forth on stage as the band played theChariots of Fire theme. Later, Steve mentioned the athletic climb of Cowboy Mouth's Fred,and said that instead of climbing something, he was going to fly around the pavilion witha banner attached to his but that said "Roast Beef Special - 2 for 99 cents".Since it had rained that day, Steve commented on how he got to look at alot of wett-shirted women, but what did the women get in return when they looked at him. Theythanked all the bands that had played that day, Ed saying that Duncan Sheik was a greatlooking guy, and even started "$1M" with Verve Pipe's lyrics from "TheFreshman", "can't be held responsible...". No, none, zero, zilch, not evenone sliver of Kraft Dinner was thrown. I am wondering if people didn't know, couldn't keepup with it all day, or if they were just being BNL correct. Either way, it was fine to notleave with powdered cheese all over the place. I'm very happy to see BNL getting attention in these far reaching places, especially inmy home state. I guess all that hard work and touring is paying off for them. They will beback in NC in two weeks at Ziggy's in Winston-Salem, so that might be my next stop. On That Note, I'm outta here...... C |
