Andrew Bird's Bowl Of Fire 12/31/02 Beat Kitchen Chicago, IL Source: SBD > CDR 79:03 1. Countdown Way Out West 2. Capital I 3. Skin 4. Why? 5. Opposite Day 6. Action/Adventure 7. La Orangutan 8. A Belen le Toca 9. Banking On A Myth 10. Two Way Action 11. Headsoak 12. Indiscreet 13. Dear Old Greenland 14. Depression-Pasillo - Encore - 15. Happy Day 16. Right On Time 17. Eugene a review: (Julia Chambers) Hey everyone! Here's a run-down of the Beat Kitchen show for those of you unable to make an appearance. Well, of course the bands were in fine form, lots of energy in the room. The audience was as exuberant as I've ever heard. Lots of loyal fans were present. It's interesting to note that it was a very noisy, but well-behaved crowd. Not much talking during songs, which is always a welcome relief. That's usually a sign that everyone is there for the band, not just to hang out and chat with their friends. Anyway, the Quality 6 were only 5 last night. Chris Green was sadly absent (and a suitably strange reason for his absence was provided by Kevin, but I won't go into it here). But Josh Hirsh, original bassist for both the Q6 and BOF was present, and sat in for the first song. Kevin gave us one of his devilishly funny stories (rant? monologue? whatever you want to call it). The Q6 finished at about 11:45, and then there was a flurry of activity as the BOF hurried to be onstage by midnight. At about 2 minutes 'til, the band was ready to go, and we got a nice little build up, complete with musical noodlings (a little "waiting for midnight to arrive" improvising) and a boisterous countdown started by Bird. Then after much hooting and hollering, they launched into "Way Out West", the first song of the new year. The posting on the official site about the show led me to believe that there was going to be a dusting off of some older tunes, but they pretty much stuck to the current set list. They did play "Depression" and "Eugene", but those two still get played pretty regularly. DON'T GET ME WRONG! It was a marvelous set, complete with a little Colin Bunn led latin interlude which included the song "La Orangutan" and another Los Hombres Perdidos tune which I've heard before but don't know the title of. Nora was also sadly absent, and her vocal stylings were missed, but the presence of Colin (and Josh for a few numbers) added a whole new (yet decidedly old) feel to the arrangements. Having Colin on guitar made the set feel very loose and a little raw, yet the abundance of musical skill present onstage combined to form a powerful and beautiful evening of songs. During "Greenland" you could even hear the audience singing Nora's part (and not too badly either!). I think the biggest treat for me was the rendition of "Happy Day" that Bird and Colin played. They played it without using the pickups on their instruments, and instead played straight into their vocal mics, which gave the song a marvelous sound. Like listening to an old field recording from the 30's or 40's. It was a brilliant ploy. On more than one occasion, Bird had lyric problems, namely that he was flubbing them. However, the grimaces, flailing arms and eye-rolling that accompanied his lyrical lapses were quite entertaining. Even when he messes up, he still sounds better than most performers out there. We also got to see the return of L'il Smokey (his electric mandolin), which I personally haven't seen him play in over a year. He brought it out for "Indiscreet" (if I remember correctly), and it sounded great, but he seemed to be having a little trouble with it. The audience was in ecstasy, the bands were hot and sweaty and it was a perfect end to, and beginning of the year! So, I know a lot of you out there had your fingers crossed for a recording of the show, and there is one out there. I wasn't able to record it myself, someone got to the board before I did, and my brand new microphone wasn't working. BUT, I made the guy who recorded it promise to get me a copy, which I will gladly forward to anyone who's interested. There were some other candyshoppers there and I expect them (you know who you are) to report in as well...to add to, or contradict my very biased account of the evenings doings. Julia PS- On a side note, present at the club last night was one of Andrew's siblings, his younger brother Christian. Those of us who met and talked to him after the show debated on the subject of a family resemblance, which, to me, was clear when they were standing side by side...and smiling. another review: (Joshua Smelser) Okay, so here's my review of the New Year's Eve show at The Beat Kitchen: I was wandering around the city lost all day and didn't want to miss the show (I mean that why I flew up and all), so I headed to the venue a little earlier than planned. I got there at about 7:45pm and ordered some food. I asked the waitress where I could pick up my ticket that I ordered on-line and she said they weren't set up yet. So as I ate my dinner I saw fan by fan trickle in. Now there weren't but 15 tables and the bar, so space was limited. The concert was in the back room, so I thought I was pretty safe to have a table near that door. I got to speak with Kevin and Andrew before the show. Kevin told me that he had been in rehearsal all day for a play that he was writing music for. He said that he had to have it recorded by Friday, so he was quite busy. I asked him if he was coming to Nashville on the 11th and he initially said yes. But then he told me that we actually won't be there for the show, he's coming in the next week because Andrew won't need him until then (I guess Andrew is doing some recording while he is in Nashville). About 8:30 the place was filled and a line formed from the back room to the front entrance. People were starting to get a little irritated because nobody had tickets and there was no organization as to how people were going to be let in. Well, at about 9:15 I heard a whisper that if you went up to the front and got your hand stamped by the owner you could get in, so I did such. I claimed my space at the front of the stage and waited. The opening band, Pedal Steel Transmission, wasn't bad but not really my cup of tea. I liked their last song, but that was all that really caught my interest. Next up was the Quality Six! It was a great set, Josh Hirsch was called up for the first song. After that it was just Andrew Bird, Kevin O'Donnell, Colin Bunn, Josh Bell, and a upright bassist who I didn't catch the name of. During the beginning of the show Kevin noted that Chris Greene wasn't there and he'd tell why later. At the beginning of Mope Kevin went into a hilarious monologue about the reason Chris wasn't there. I can't type it word for word for it was almost pornographic, but soooo funny. He told us how Chris and he were lovers and that they recently broke up. He said that he couldn't play with him on stage at the same time because he would remember all the times that they spent together, Chris' fingers twirling through Kevin's chest hair and they way Chris would grasp Kevin's buttocks. He later elaborated that they have both now decided they like girls. I'm sure Kevin's girlfriend would have loved to hear the story. The last song they played was "El Cuarto de Tula" which is a Latin tune I have heard the Bowl of Fire play back in the olden days. You can find it on a Buena Vista Social Club CD, I think it's about fire breaking out in a girl named Tula's bedroom. The Bowl of Fire started right with the New Year. From the setlist you can see they only played 2 old BOF songs. Colin had made a comment at some time about the blurb being put on the website "due to lack of content". I think Kevin told me at one time that Colin was doing the website now instead of Josh Hirsch. They brought Josh Hirsch & Josh Bell on stage for the Latin "party-songs" "La Orangutan" & "A Belen le Toca". Later on came "How Indiscreet". Does anyone else know that when the old band was together the song was called "The Afterschool Special"? I was asking Julia if she knew why they changed the name, but she wasn't sure. Maybe I'll ask Andrew if I make it to Nashville next weekend. Andrew whipped out his electric mandolin which he attempted to play with a Kinko's card. Colin gave him a pick but that didn't seem to work very well either. Andrew jokingly made a comment that playing the electric mandolin was his new career. It was also brought up that there will be a few shows the next month...a show with Jelly (or Jellyfish, can't remember), a Quality Six show, and the release of "Weather Systems" on April 1st (with the release party being at the Old Towne School of Folk Music). The encore of "Happy Day" with the intro of "Precious Little Gold Nugget" was played much to the delight of many fans. Well, that was about the sum of it! + + + Bowl Of Fire, Quality Six with Pedal Steel Tranmission $20 advance, $25 day of show, 9 PM, included champagne toast at midnight, 21+ App\Http\Controllers\Api\FileDownloadController::download(): Return value must be of type string, none returned