Category: concerts
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Road Trip: Andy O CD Release Show
After hearing the announcement that “much rock will be had”, I decided if I could make it work in my schedule, I’d head on a road trip to Nashville to see Andrew Osenga’s The Morning CD release concert. The schedule worked out, and next thing you know, I was on the road.
It’s not as bad a drive as I’d feared from Cedar Rapids to Nashville. I left at 4:30 am, and with very minimal stoppage I arrived in Nashville by 2:30 pm. I checked into my motel and then left to drive around and aquaint myself with the Nashville area. I drove past one shopping mall that was very dead, and then another one which turned out to be the Green Hills Mall that Andy Gullahorn sings about. After having located Mercy Lounge and how to get there, I went back to my motel to crash.
I apparently gave myself too much time to get down to the Lounge, because I got there about 30 minutes before the published “doors open” time. Deciding to escape the heat and humidity outside, I stuck my head in and managed to hear the end of Andy and the band’s sound check.
There were two openers for Andy; the first was Dave somebody; he sported a Napoleon Dynamite-style afro and a bunch of falsetto vocals with his acoustic guitar. Not bad, but not very memorable. The second act was Matthew Perryman Jones. MPJ is one of the Square Pegs, but I hadn’t heard any of his music until that night. He was very good. He played a few songs solo, then brought Andy O, Cason Cooley, and Eric Weigel up to play with him. Again, very good stuff. I bought his new CD Throwing Punches In The Dark after the show.
Then it was time for Andy. He was playing with a full band: Cason Cooley on keyboards, Eric Chris Weigel on bass, Paul Eckberg on drums, and a guitarist Jason Feller on guitar, and a percussionist whose name escaped me. They played a lot of music from Andy’s new album The Morning, starting out in album order with In Gym Class In High School, After The Garden, and White Dove. He played a few songs from his earlier album Photographs, including Kara and When Will I Run. The highlight of the night was probably his rocking Santa Barbara from the new album. It is a classic roll-the-windows-down rock and roll song, and it was great that night.
I thoroughly enjoyed the show, and also the chance to meet a bunch of folks, some I had already met, some I had not. This is where I name drop (though is it really name dropping if the people are only “names” to a few people?) : Geof Morris (of rmfo.net fame), Ron Davis (aka Ronzilla) of moreron.com, a couple of other dot.netters, and then in addition to the aforementioned band members, there were Jeremy Casella, Chris Mason, Andy Peterson, Ben Shive, Randall Goodgame, and oh yeah, Andy O’s wife Alison. Very cool.
After helping carry Andy’s gear down to his car, I called it a night and crashed hard at the motel. The following day brought me back on the reverse trip from Nashville to Cedar Rapids; again about a 10 hour drive. It was a great time, well worth the drive. As I told Andy, next time I’ll come back, but I’ll bring my wife along. :-)
road tripping
In a bout of insanity, I have decided to take two days off work and drive to Nashville for Andy Osenga’s CD release concert. I don’t know what possessed me. But I’m looking forward to getting to meet Geof and maybe some others, and seeing Andy do a full show with a full band… awesome.
“Much rock will be had.” – Andrew Osenga
:-)
Caedmon's Call, Dubuque, IA, 4/23/06
Last night I had the opportunity to see Caedmon’s Call play in concert at the Five Flags Center in Dubuque, IA. It was a great time. The night started off nicely when I was able to find the venue just fine, and found free parking on the street only two parking places away from the arena. Amazing.
I walked into the arena and my first thought was that it was the worst setup for a concert that I’d ever seen. This particular arena usually is home to ice hockey and basketball. They had the stage set up against one of the long sides, and then had 40 feet of bare floor between it and the seating. And they hadn’t bothered to pull out the low bleachers, so the lowest seats were still about 12 feet off the ground. It was very weird. But the design redeemed itself when I realized that they were going to allow, nay, welcome people to stand on the floor. You could stand right up at the stage. That was pretty cool.
The opening band was a local band called Ineloquent. I’d never heard of ’em before, but they weren’t too bad. They have a husband and wife that are lead singers. He looks like one of the old contestants from The Bachelor, and sounds a bit like Dan Haseltine from Jars of Clay. His wife’s vocals reminded me just a bit of the Cardigans. Anyhow, they played a 6-song set, then the lights came back up for a 20 minute break while the stage was reconfigured.
As they got the stage set up, I talked to Andy Osenga for a quick minute as he was testing to make sure his pedal board was ready to go. He said that he was excited that they had the whole band back together for the show. Andy got his blog post written sooner than I did, so you should go read his thoughts about the show and they fun that they had. It was a blast with the whole band together.
They played 13 songs, by my count, and Andy got to do a solo number in the middle. Here’s a quick rundown:
Lead of Love They started with an oldie. The crowd down around the stage, a group of 200 or so college kids, didn’t know it. But they had fun, anyway.
Before There Was Time This got the crowd cranking, clapping and having a good time. Nice upbeat stuff.
Walk With Me It suprised me a little bit that they’d do this one in concert - but it’s a good song that features Danielle’s lead vocals nicely.
The Talk Then it was time (a bit early, but ok) for the talk. This concert was a fund-raiser for a group of students from the University of Dubuque who are going to minister to the Dalits in India this summer. The cause of the Dalits is near and dear to Caedmon’s heart as well, so Cliff took several minutes to describe what they go through. This led into the next portion of the concert with songs off of the recent Share the Well album.
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes OK, so this isn’t a Caedmon’s song, but they sure enjoy doing it. Cliff pulls off a pretty nice interpretation of the Paul Simon vocal (not an easy task!), and it’s just a fun way to head into the Indian theme.
Share The Well For this one, Garrett moves down to the front of the stage to play the tablas (small Indian drums). They weren’t mic’d very well - at least I couldn’t hear them very well, but still the song was fun. The younger crowd knew this song much better.
Bombay Rain This was Andy’s chance to sing lead, and he did a great job as usual. It started off a little bit weak with only his guitar, but it cranked right up as they hit the first chorus, and it was all good from there.
As that song ended, it was obvious that the next song on their set list was Andy’s solo song. But Cliff called the band back to the stage to do one more India song, since the crowd was enjoying it so much. And Cliff starts out by saying “now this is a song that I really like, but I’m not sure I remember all of it.” To which Andy replies “Is it Bon Jovi?” The crowd cracked up at that, and then Josh in the background started playing a little Bon Jovi on the organ, and Andy kicked in with the guitar, and next thing you know the crowd is singing along with the chorus of Wanted Dead or Alive. It was a hoot. But the song that Cliff really wanted to sing was…
Sarala He had to tell the story about this one first, and talked for a while. But he remembered the song, and it sounded good.
The High School Band This was Andy’s turn to do a solo song. The rest of the band cleared the stage, and Andy stole Cliff’s acoustic guitar to play while he sang. I’ve heard Andy sing this song in concert several times now, and I think this was the best I’ve heard him sound singing it. Those high notes are tough, but he just nailed them last night. My only objection was that he always sings that song - I’ll be glad when the new album is out and he can sing something newer.
Step By Step As the band came back out, Cliff had the crowd sing through this classic Rich Mullins tune a couple of times. Josh was playing the organ, and almost got the crowd lost a couple times with his weird harmonies, which earned him a dirty look from Cliff.
I Will Sing - Hope to Carry On The a capella tune I Will Sing gave Andy, Cliff, and Danielle a chance to shine. They were really into it at this point, and the tight three-part harmonies were wonderful. They used that to lead right into Hope to Carry On, which probably qualifies as the oldest Caedmon’s song of all time. (Of course, it’s really a Rich Mullins song, but…) This was where the crowd really reached its emotional peak of the night. The band was cooking. Andy was ripping it on the electric guitar. He jumped off of the drum riser at the end. It was awesome.
God Of Wonders This brought things back down a bit, but the crowd was still singing right along, and it sounded good.
Hands of the Potter This was a fun way to wrap up the set. Todd, Garrett, and Josh all move to the lower stage to play percussion, and the song wraps up with a long drum solo. Good times.
Dalit Hymn They pulled this out for an encore, and again Cliff said they hadn’t done this one in a while and he hoped he remembered the whole thing. He did seem to have a bit more trouble with it - Danielle was looking at him in bewilderment a couple of times as he sang what must’ve been the wrong lyrics. But still, the crowd knew this one pretty well, and it was a good finish.
I got the chance to talk to Cliff and Andy after the show and thank them for a great evening. I suggested to Andy that we need to be able to buy t-shirts with the artwork from his new album on them… I think they’d be awesome. He said that idea, and others, were in the works, if only they could find some funds to get it kicked off.
As we were talking, Todd came out from packing stuff up with a big box of cookies that somebody had made for the band. He said they were gonna get tossed if nobody ate them, so he was out there handing them out to fans in the lobby. The peanut butter cookie I got was huge and very tasty.
My only regret from last night’s concert is that Becky wasn’t able to come. It was just impossible to find a way to take a one-month-old baby along to the concert, or to leave her home for the evening. Becky hasn’t seen Caedmon’s in concert before, and this would’ve been a great way to introduce her. Well, maybe next time.
See the rest of the concert pics on my flickr set.
going to see Caedmon's...
Thanks to Andrew Osenga’s timely posting of more tour dates, I found that Caedmon’s Call will be playing in Dubuque, IA - only an hour from my home! - this Saturday night. My wife has graciously agreed that she could do without me for the night, so I bought my ticket this morning (curses, Ticketmaster, on being the only game in town! one day there will be a reckoning for your extortionary fees!) and will be there tomorrow night. Should be fun. I’ll try to post some pictures and a review this weekend.
Andy Gullahorn
Geof Morris once referred to him as “Andy ‘It’s really sad that the only thing that the only song of mine that the .net knows is that silly Roast Beef song I did’ Gullahorn”. And up until Saturday, that was pretty much all I knew of him.
(In case you’re wondering, Roast Beef is a silly song Andy wrote about Andy Osenga’s missing (amputated) toe. It is pretty funny.)
Last Saturday I had the privilege of meeting Andy Gullahorn when he came as part of the Behold the Lamb Christmas tour to Cedar Rapids. My first impressions were these:
- He’s tall. Almost as tall as me. That sounds like a funny observation, but compared to the other guys on the tour, who are mostly all short, Andy seems like a giant.
- He’s a heck of a guitar player.
Then I got to hear him in concert, and I discovered two more things:
- He’s really funny.
- He’s a heck of a songwriter, too.
The first song he did was a little piece of satire entitled Holy Flakes. It had the place laughing through the first two verses, and then suddenly quiet when the third verse revealed the moral of the story. I was thrilled. I can’t think of the last time I’ve heard a song so funny and yet so pointed at the same time. The second song he sang was Freedom. It’s a more serious piece, but a masterful bit of songwriting.
When the concert was over, I beat a quick path to the CD table, and purchased both of Andy’s CDs. (My purchasing choices were made a bit easier by the fact that I owned nearly every other CD they had for sale that night.) I don’t think I’ve listened to anything else since Saturday night. The songs are spare, not a lot of fancy production or instrumentation, but the lyrical content is right on. A song like Beginning of the End resonates with me in ways I find hard to describe.
Last Saturday provided me with many wonderful opportunities. But near the top of that list was the chance to become familiar with Andy Gullahorn. You may now count me as a big fan. Oh, and if you get the chance, go visit his website. You will see the humor shining through. :-)
So much to say...
So Saturday night was the Behold the Lamb concert in Cedar Rapids. As you know if you read my previous post, I was the runner for the day. And what a day it was. There are so many aspects I want to write about that they’d make for one absurdly long and multi-faceted blog post. So, I’ll try to split it up a bit.
Let’s start with the basics. I showed up at Kennedy HS about 10:15 Saturday morning to help unload. Pretty much all the gear had been carried in from the bus, but the sound guys were just starting to unload. There were a bunch of people to help unload, though, so it went relatively quickly.
My first run of the day was pretty simple; I took the bus driver (I think his name is Perry?) and Chris Biggs (the sound guy/road manager for the tour) over to the hotel to get everybody checked in. Then the next trip to the hotel was Andy and Jill (Phillips) Gullahorn. Then there was a trip with Andy Peterson, Andy Osenga, Garrett Buell, and Cason Cooley. Then there was a trip with Derek and Sandra (McCracken) Webb. Ben Shive was in there somewhere, too. OK, so I’m name-dropping out the wazoo here. It was just a treat to get to meet all of them and chat a bit.
Later on in the afternoon, as the snow started falling (we got 4 inches of snow that afternoon… fun times driving), I got to drive and go along with Andy P, Andy G, and Jill as they visited the woman who was the inspiration for AP’s song The Queen of Iowa. It was a powerful time. I’ll write a separate post later.
I thought that perhaps by the time we got to the actual concert, it would be anti-climactic. Boy was I wrong. The first half of the concert was time for solo songs. They sang:
Andy O - If I Had Wings, Early in the Morning Andy P - The Queen of Iowa, Let There Be Light Andy G - Holy Flakes, Freedom Derek - A New Law, Lover Jill - I feel horrible about this, but I can’t remember which songs she sang. One of ’em was “so new I haven’t learned the guitar part yet”, so Andy G played it for her. Sandra - Where I’m From, and I don’t remember the other one
During one of the car trips, Jill noted that one of the things she thought was so cool about this tour was hearing how even though they had many of the same musical influences, each of their songwriting styles is still distinct and plays out just a bit differently. That was quite clear at the concert, hearing these songs. I’ll write more about them later, too.
So let me wrap this post up. After the show was over, I helped load stuff up, picked up the bus driver from his day’s sleep at the hotel, and somewhere in there managed to get almost everybody to sign a concert poster which now hangs on my cube wall at work, right next to the Share the Well tour poster that I got signed at a concert last year. They will continue to bring back memories of great days and concerts.
The first time I've ever played a concert with somebody riding a cow in the background...
Last Saturday afternoon I got to see Andrew Peterson and Andy Osenga in concert at “Cornfest” in Clermont, IA. Clermont is a little bitty farm town, and this “Cornfest” thing was pretty much a start-up festival, I think… they had some small Christian music acts going for most of the afternoon, and then their headliner was the aforementined Andys. I’ll note here that it’s a good thing that they booked those guys - probably 70% of the folks that were there for the concert came specifically to hear Andy P.
I felt kinda bad for the Andys that the concert was not very well attended - maybe 150 people, max. They had a large flat-bed trailer for a stage and had to battle bugs all afternoon - asian beetles, bees, other nasty things. Some lady shared some bug spray with them after about the third song and I think that helped things out a bit. And yes, there was somebody riding atop a Holstein cow in the background. Only in Iowa.
Anyhow, it was just three of them - the two Andys and then Ben Shive on keyboards. They did a two-hour set, with lots of stories and bad jokes in between. There were also impromptu versions of the Rawhide theme and an old Spin Doctors song (can’t remember the name…) I’m not familiar with Andy P’s music yet (an omission which I am hurriedly correcting) so I can’t give a song-by-song breakdown. Suffice to say that he did a few songs off of his new album, took several requests, and filled in with other favorites.
The show was marred by a few technical difficulties; Andy was complaining all afternoon that his guitar sounded funny in the monitor (it sounded fine to the audience) and so in the course of several songs they replaced the guitar cable, the direct box, the mic cable that connected the direct box to the board, and then both the 9-volt batteries in his guitar pre-amp. (Andy O had to steal 9-volts out of two of his guitar pedals to make this last fix happen.) The time required for these fixes gave time for Andy O to sing one of his songs (High School Band, so I wasn’t complaining about the other issues. :-)
After the concert the three of them hung around and talked with folks until almost everyone had left. I was really wanting to meet Andy O (having missed him at the Caedmon’s concert last year), and was not disappointed - we talked for a while and had a good time. Ben and Andy P seemed like nice guys, too.
But the best was yet to come. There were a couple little kids who had a couple favorite Andy P songs that they wanted to hear and that he hadn’t done in concert. So, he grabbed his trusty Taylor and proceeded to take requests for another 45 minutes… just him singing and about 20 of us perched on the side of the hill listening. It was awesome. I kept thinking he was about ready to wrap up, but then he’d ask for any more requests, and somebody would ask for a song, and so he’d tell the story about the song, and then sing it… wow. After a while Ben and Andy O came and sacked out on the hill next to the rest of us, just enjoying the music and the beautiful afternoon.
So then towards the end of that “set”, Andy P sang a goofy little song he’d written for his daughter. I don’t know what it’s called, but the chorus has a line about her “one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten pretty little toes”. About halfway through the song Andy O got up and wandered off - I think he was going to pack some gear into his car. But it was too good not to comment on, so after the song was over I asked Andy P if he’d run Andy O off, made him feel inadequate by singing a song about somebody with ten toes. (For the reader unfamiliar with Andy O’s toe situation, see his blog here.) Andy P got a good chuckle out of that, then told the story about Andy O’s run-in with the lawnmower, and mentioned that it was the middle toe, “Roast Beef”, that was missing. So then I had to mention Andy Gullahorn’s song by that name, and so we tried to come up with the lines to that song… but between Andy P, Ben, and myself, we could only come up with the first few lines. It was still pretty funny.
Let me say here just last that I was also hugely blessed by my wife that afternoon; our daughter Laura was getting tired and antsy as only toddlers can. Becky was very gracious and willing to deal with her so that I could take advantage of the chance to enjoy the concert and meet the guys. Fortunately Laura fell asleep right before the acoustic mini-set, so she got to enjoy that time.
I could ramble on for quite a while, but I’ll spare you. Let’s just say I came away from last Saturday with a good sunburn, a heightened appreciation for my wife, and a real blessing from getting to meet one man who is my favorite artist right now, and another who is quickly climbing that list.
(Full-sized photos of the afternoon are available on my flickr page here.)
Serendipity
ser·en·dip·i·ty n. pl. ser·en·dip·i·ties
1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident. 2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries. 3. An instance of making such a discovery.
Practical definition:
Discovering a good concert near your home just a week before said concert.
Specifically? I was browsing Andrew Peterson’s website this morning to get details on his Christmas tour.
OK, just a bit about the Christmas tour first. Andy P will be bringing his “Behold the Lamb” Christmas tour to Cedar Rapids, IA on Saturday, December 2. It apparently is being hosted by Youth for Christ as a fundraiser. Seeing as I know the local director of YFC, I’m going to have to see if they need any volunteer help for the day. :-) Bonus number 1 this morning was finding out that Derek Webb, his wife Sandra McCracken, and Jill Phillips will all be coming along on this tour. (I suppose the die-hards already knew this, but it was news to me.) So, a big woohoo! for Andy, Derek, and Sandra all in concert in my home town.
Now, the other serendipity: Andy P will be playing a concert in Clermont, IA (about a 2-hour drive from my home) on October 1st (a week from Saturday). It looks like it’s an outdoor concert, 3pm, at the “Cornfest” (and yes, I know, that sounds about as stereotypically Iowan as possible) at Heritage Farm Park in Clermont. Sounds like a nice way to spend a fall Saturday: a drive through the countryside, a good concert, who can ask for better? I’d been wishing to hear some of the stuff from The Far Country in concert… now my wish can be fulfilled.
Well, that’s my happy report for the day. Rejoice with me! :-)
another week, another concert...
After thinking things couldn’t get better from last week’s Caedmon’s Call concert, last Friay I took my wife to see Derek Webb at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. The venue was terrific; Wallenberg Hall there at Augustana is small enough that the seats only went back about 10 rows deep; I got a seat on the center aisle in the third row, and was only 6 or 8 feet from the stage (which was only about a foot high). It was awesome. The crowd was warm and receptive, and by the time Derek came out, they were very ready to hear some good tunes. They were not disappointed.
Derek was presenting lots of songs from his new album, I See Things Upside Down. The sound is a departure from his old, Caedmon’s sound (also found on his first album, She Must and Shall Go Free) – none of the acoustic simplicity that was the trademark of the earlier days; this new sound is a much more modern sound, inspired by artists like WILCO and Ryan Adams. It is different, but the excellent songwriting still shines through the wall of sound. They played for nearly 90 minutes, not talking very much in between (a departure of sorts from other Webb concerts). The musical highlight of the night was when things slowed down and Derek performed Nothing Is Ever Enough as a solo with only his electric guitar; an incredible sound on a beautiful song.
Didn’t get to meet Derek afterwards; the band hustled off to somewhere, and we had to head home; the babysitter was waiting. :-) Didn’t get home ’til midnight, and had a great time.