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Every month, Cosmik Debris brings you many CD and record reviews, but the writers manage to find a little time for other pursuits, like reading, going to movies and watching videos. That's where Everything Else In Review comes in.
CONCERT: Marian McPartland
Jazz Alley, Seattle, WA
Sunday, April 14, 2002
Reviewed by Shaun Dale
At 82, Marian McPartland has been active on the US jazz scene for over a half a century, continuing a career that started in British vaudeville. She's one of the best known figures in jazz thanks to her NPR radio program, Piano Jazz, which she has hosted since 1978. Needless to say, she has reached a level of stature that puts her beyond any need to take chances with a performance, or to even extend real exertion. Let's face it, people love Marian McPartland before they leave the house, and they'll love her without much regard for what she does on stage.
All that makes a Marian McPartland show an even greater pleasure than you might expect, because her dedication to quality performance is genuine, and whether she needs to or not, she's still willing to take chances and able to meet the challenges she sets for herself.
For her show at Seattle's Jazz Alley (I caught the Sunday evening set that closed out a week long residency at the club), she was accompanied by bassist Bill Douglas and drummer Scott Morris. Both are exceptionally capable players, and Morris' brush work was particularly noteworthy. She opened her set by introducing "....a Billy Strayhorn tune. The one Lawrence Welk calls 'take a train"." She opened up "Take The A Train" to make room for each member of the trio to shine from the beginning, and continued to make ample space for the talents of her sidemen throughout the night. The rarely heard Ellington number "Warm Valley" followed, then her own "Twighlight World." After a Stephen Sondheim number, she moved into John Coltrane's "Red Planet," with a dedication to Dennis Rodman, because, she said, "I'm sure he's been there." "Red Planet" is exactly the kind of challenging material that an audience might not expect of McPartland, but her performance was genuinely appreciated by the packed house in Seattle.
She opened "All The Things You Are" as a solo piece, playing in an almost baroque mode before Morris and Douglas picked up the tune in swing time halfway through. That led to one of the highlights of the night, when she called for requests, cautioning the crowd that she would entertain no calls for Andrew Lloyd Weber tunes. As songs were called out from the audience, she selected "A Night In Tunisia," "Lullaby In Birdland" and "Round Midnight" from the suggestions, blending the first two into an appealing medley and performing "Round Midnight" separately, revealing the deepest blues feeling of the night.
Another Strayhorn selection followed, before asking the audience if they thought they could handle a little Ornette. The idea was greeted with enthusiasm, and she perofmred "Turn Around," noting that "It's a blues and not one of his 'dangerous' tunes." As blues go, it was dangerous enough, but it was safe in the hands of her expansive talent.
Another standard, one I should know but couldn't quite pin ("Almost Like Falling In Love" is a likely candidate) preceded the closing number, "Things Ain't What They Used To Be," which she chose because, she said, "They ain't." Well, however things used to be, things are just fine when Marian McPartland approaches the keyboard.
(C) 2002 - Shaun Dale
MOVIE: Fastpitch
Dictatorial Director: Jeremy Spear
Big Shot Movie Stars: real folks
Soundtrack: rural Americana
Reviewed by John Sekerka
Always thought fastpitch was a circus show, a Harlem Globetrotters version of baseball where Fast Eddie would come to town with his caravan, pitch blindfolded from second base and get the kids all worked up. Turns out the game of fastpitch has a long and great American tradition, one of barnstorming legends who travel from town to town, playing a very grown up game. Trouble is the game is dying, and the players left are stubbornly holding on with their fingernails, going down with a sinking ship. This is the story of filmmaker Jeremy Spear who for a lack of anything better to do, decides to test out his once promising baseball skills by joining Ohio’s Ashland fastpitch team. While he finds the game ridiculously hard to master (he is relegated to being a slap hitter, since it takes months to develop timing to catch up with the pitches), he finds a true heartland community and an old fashioned familial vibe. People who give up their jobs, relationships and sometimes countries (the big homer bopper is an Australian) to travel from dusty town to dusty town, playing in barely organized tournaments, often picking up players on the spot to round out the team, all for peanuts. This is the story of the decay of rural America: old fashioned ideals, traditions, love of the game, team families, broken hearts, winners and losers. It’ll make you all misty and warm inside, and long for the good old days when baseball was just a game, and the boys got together afterwards for beers and a barbecue.
(C) 2002 - John Sekerka
DVD: Thirteen Ghosts
Warner Brothers
Reviewed by Bill Holmes
As CSN&Y once introduced a song, "this one starts out slow and then fizzles out altogether." Hey, maybe I didn't get the quote right. Well, the moviemakers didn't get this right. You, however, can escape with your wallet intact before it's too late!
Forget the William Castle comparisons - isn't everything a copy of a previous idea these days anyway? Thirteen Ghosts (I refuse to use the stupid spelling, thanks) fails on its own lack of merit. Tony Shaloub (an underrated actor who does the best he can in this mess) and F. Murray Abraham (not onscreen enough... or did his agent know better?) lead an uninteresting collection of sidekick characters through a formulaic scare plot. There's the sexy but slightly ditzy daughter (Shannon Elizabeth), and the sassy but hip nanny (Rah Digga, whose presence here defines tokenism) for starters. Then add in a slimy and corrupt lawyer, the sugar-dosed kid brother who always gets away from everyone, and worst, a scenery-chewing idiot (an inept Matthew Lillard) who is supposed to link the story together. I was rooting for the ghosts to kill just about everyone; I haven't seen characters this annoying since Shelley Duvall in The Shining.
The ghosts themselves are interesting, with decent makeup and masks, but were so over the top as to never generate real fear. When one character referenced the most evil ghost of all, it turned out to be as lame as the rest. The only star of the picture is the amazing house/machine/prison. If the re-writers put half the effort into the story that the set designer did into the house, this might have been mildly entertaining. While the puzzle-box contraption is well thought out and certainly complex (Hellraiser fans raise your hands),
the series of narrow hallways in place of spooky rooms made this look more like a lethal game of Pac-Man than a haunted house story. Occasionally there are funny lines (the retort when someone asks where the lawyer went is priceless), but overall the dialogue is ridiculously sophomoric and unrealistic. Yes, I know this isn't a documentary, but Halloween III is Shakespeare compared to this drivel. I used to think Ghost Story was the most disappointing horror movie I had ever seen (great book, though!), but this one is worse.
The widescreen presentation is crisp and clear considering how busy the visuals are, and the sound is good overall, with effects happening in back corners when needed. The soundtrack is appropriately loud and crude for a slacker-era remake flick. There are decent extras on the DVD, including audio commentary, web links, a "making-of" featurette and some back-story on each of the ghosts. The latter is a great idea; too bad none of the ghosts seemed to have a personality in the movie. If you must check this out, flip the couple of bucks to rent it. The only scary thing about Thirteen Ghosts is (boo!) paying eight bucks to see it in a theatre or (shudder!) twenty bucks to own it!
(C) 2002 - Bill Holmes
BOOK: Stupid White Men
By Michael Moore
ReganBooks
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
The regular media says our dear Resident Bush's approval rating is still hovering around 80%. If that's really so, how can a book that's so critical of Dubya be a bestseller? Are people really reading the story of the "very American coup" that put him in office, or the massive manipulation by corporate interests and other governmental abuse by him and his buddies? Could it be Bush's popularity really isn't all that strong?
If the above paragraph upset you, forget about reading Stupid White Men. Either your blinders will snap into place and you won't be able to read his words, or you'll just get angry at Michael Moore. If you got past the first paragraph then you'll probably laugh at a lot of Moore's work, but then you'll get angry anyway. At the subject of the book, not the author.
Our rulers have no clothes and Michael Moore, veteran of Roger & Me, The Big One, TV Nation, The Awful Truth and Downsize This, is determined to show you their nakedness in his latest book. Sure he slams Dubya a lot, asking him bluntly if he can "read and write on an adult level" among other things, but he's just as hard on the Democratic gang who sweet-talked us while selling out so many progressive causes. In fact, Moore says, "Clinton was one of the best Republican Presidents we've ever had." Still, Michael's litany of what Bush has done in his first six months dwarfs what Clinton did in eight years.
Michael goes Carlinian (as in George Carlin, is that a word?) on lots of other topics too: the personal habits of men, education, airlines, and in general our beloved nation which "goes out of its way to remain ignorant and stupid." Through all this, he blames our strife on the real villains of our era, White Men. He decries the subtle racism that's been sold to us, that we need to fill new prisons with petty criminals who happen to be black, and proves that the real criminals are all white. "Every person who has ever harmed me in my lifetime," he writes, "...has been a white person." He then rattles off a list of the crimes white men have pulled off as a group, from slavery to pollution to the programming on Fox. His self-deprecating style makes it all a fun, laugh-out-loud read, but the weight of the facts is something you can't ignore.
There's no mention of the World Trade Center Bombing. I imagine Stupid White Men was sent to the publisher just before it happened, or perhaps he's saving his thoughts on that for the next book. In light of current Israeli-Palestinian events however he seems prescient. Moore's been to the Holy Land and seen first hand the squalor the Palestinians are forced to live in. He writes an open letter to Arafat advocating a Gandhi-like solution, telling him to forget the violence and just sit down on the highways of Israel en masse. Moreover he calls for a general strike, for Palestinians to refuse the menial jobs the Israelis offer. He's right, Israel will come to the bargaining table in no time when there's no one to take out the garbage. Beats throwing bombs any day.
The first step in creating a revolution, a populist one in this case, is to create awareness and SWM will make you aware of all kinds of facts that the Powerful would rather you didn't know. Is it enough to inspire a third party strong enough to challenge the two-that-are-one up there now? Only time will tell. About the only thing that I quibble with is the title. Those White Men may be greedy, venal, even dangerous, but not stupid. And they intend to keep their grip on power. Depressing, but there it is. At least it's a sign of hope that a subversive book like this can be a bestseller.
(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes
CONCERT: Bruce Cockburn
March 21, 2002
Aladdin Theater, Portland, OR
Review and Photos by Tim Owen
Hot on the heels of his latest release, Anything, Anytime, Anywhere - The Singles 1974-2002, Bruce Cockburn ended the first leg of his solo acoustic US tour in the Pacific NorthWest. Appearing youthful and fit at 58, he pulled off two strong sets of stripped down acoustic fare showcasing only the three most basic elements of this immensely talented singer/songwriter/guitarist. No charanga, no hand drum, no dobro this time. Gone even were the kick chimes that have for years flanked his mic-stand. Just the man, his voice, 3 acoustic guitars and a stream of creation spanning the last quarter century.
Relaxed and upbeat, Bruce’s sense of humor was intact, as he enjoyed gracious and playful banter with the attentive and respectful audience in this small packed theater setting. His solo performance further accentuates the intelligent and emotional fortitude in the conviction of his music, as intimacy has always seemed to be a key factor that has made him a vital standout amongst his peers.
Among the four new songs Bruce presented throughout the show was one that grew from his response to 9/11, called "Put It In Your Heart." While his work largely reflects his experiences and observations gathered through his ongoing world travels, one might wonder how older songs stand up to world change, particularly the shattering occurrences of 9/11. I would have to say they are more relevant than ever. From the stinging calling-on-the-carpet nature of "Call It Democracy," "Justice," and "The Trouble With Normal," to the bittersweet "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" and "Last Night of the World," to the life celebratory "Lions" and "World of Wonders," to the hopeful "Waiting for a Miracle," these songs struck stark chords of truth, their pertinence renewed and underlined by the changed context in which to relate to them. Other new songs included the title track, "Anything, Anytime, Anywhere," "My Beat" also from the new CD, and one called "Open," performed in public for only the second time.
A guitarist extraordinaire, Bruce Cockburn’s guitar work can be overshadowed by a focus on his immense artistry as a word crafter, but there was no escaping his intricate and innovative stylings, keeping them fresh and interesting. Many numbers were reworked with new guitar intros/arrangements that compensated abundantly for the backing instrumentation offered in the original recordings.
Bruce ended the evening with the tenderly sublime love song, "All the Ways I Want You," before launching into the final reminder of his guitar finesse, instrumental "Down to the Delta." This stream-lined show is a must see and the good news is, we all get a second chance when he hits the road again this summer. So stay tuned.
(C) 2002 - Tim Owen
DVD: TESLA - Five Man Video Band
Universal Music & Video - 76 Minutes
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
In 1990, before MTV started yanking plugs everywhere, Tesla did it themselves in a nightclub in Philly before a packed house of adoring fans who added their own energetic touches to the evening. The band, sitting on chairs up front, except for the drummer Troy Luccketta, obviously had a blast performing their songs in ways they'd never been played before and, just as many bands later discovered on Unplugged, even their toughest tunes took on new life in acoustic settings. Guitarists Frankie Hannon and Tommy Skeoch, who always played so far above the throng that nobody in their right mind could reasonably dismiss Tesla as simply another hair band, prove themselves dynamite acoustic guitarists on every single tune. Hannon provides more than a little slide work, all of it inspirational to any young guitarist who wants to learn how to do it right. Bassist/keyboardist Brian Wheat is solid all the way, and it's a kick to see him playing Hoffner Beatle bass during their cover of "We Can Work It Out." (Okay, it's not entirely "unplugged," but there were no rules yet, now were there?) While all of the above, including the audience, were having a fine time, nobody had a better time than vocalist Jeff Keith. His performance is so joyful that it reminds us what rock and roll is supposed to be about in the first place. I mean besides sex. And besides getting wasted. HAVING A GOOD TIME! C'mon, people, work with me here. Jeff Keith has so much fun it's impossible for you to avoid having fun watching him. There's not much special about the DVD itself other than good sound and image. The show was filmed with the intention of being kept in the band's private collection, but they were talking into releasing it, and that's our good fortune. It's one of the most entertaining concerts you can buy.
Song list:
Comin' Atcha Live-Truckin' * Heaven's Trail (No Way Out) * The Way It Is * We Can Work It Out * Signs, Gettin' Better * Before My Eyes * Paradise * Lodi * Mother's Little Helper * Modern Day Cowboy * Frank Hannon Jam * Love Song * Tommy's Down Home * Little Suzi * Down fo' Boogie
(C) 2002 - DJ Johnson
DVD: SUPERTRAMP - The Story So Far
A&M Home Video - 104 minutes
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
Among my favorite concert memories, the ones I love to tell people about, is the story of seeing Supertramp on their Even In The Quietest Moments tour. I didn't care for that album, but there was a generous helping of music from Crime Of The Century, which I still consider one of the finest pop albums of the 70s. Every moment of that concert was magic. Not a note missed, not a voice cracked, and all kinds of visuals to make it even more amazing. Watching this DVD, which follows the band as they tour at the end of their career about a decade later, I can't decide whether to admire them for allowing a "warts and all" presentation or to whine because we haven't been given a DVD of that OTHER Supertramp, the one where the band earned the first part of their name.
What we do have here isn't bad at all, however. This DVD follows the band on their 1983 world tour, which they played knowing that Roger Hodgson would be leaving the band at the conclusion of. Hodgson, the high-voiced singer, seems the more relaxed of the two leaders, probably due to knowing any stressful situations around the band would be over for him shortly. Rick Davies (keyboards and somewhat lower vocals) seems more stressed and his performances are a bit more jagged, at least on the vocal end when he attempts to reach notes that aren't quite there for him at that moment. Warts and all, though, there they are on the screen and in the speakers when it could have been fixed in the studio. Gutsy. The performances come from all over the world, indoors, outdoors, day and night, but I suspect the running order may be the actual order in which they were played in concert because the rough edges smooth out as the video moves on. By the time they close with "School" and "Crime Of The Century," they sound like the Supertramp of old instead of Supertramp grown old. Seems strange saying this almost twenty years after the tour.
The concert is preceded by interview footage with band members tracing the history of Supertramp and discussing the reasons for Hodgson's departure. The DVD includes bonus goodies, as all DVDs should (but not all DVDs do, unfortunately), in this case post-Hodgson videos, most of which didn't see much MTV time. "Cannonball" is one of the five vids here, and in many people's opinion it was the last interesting Supertramp tune. The other videos are "My Kind Of Lady," "Better Days," "Free As A Bird" and "I'm Begging You."
Overall video quality is fine, sound quality is fine, meaning I never felt like bitching about either, as I have on several DVDs I've recently purchased. It sure does feel like all the labels are putting out DVDs of bands in their twilight years. As I've said before, I'm almost certain the plan is to get us to snap these up just to have a DVD of a band we love, then wait a year and release something from mid-career, watch us snap those up, wait a year and go for the quality early stuff. That's fine. If you really care about a band you should have documentation of the whole career anyway. Supertramp's The Story So Far is a rather misleading title in that it really refers to the interviews and could lead people to believe there are concert clips from their entire career, so get out your black pen and cross out the title and write "The End Of The Story," enjoy it, shelve it and wait for the other volumes of "the story."
TRACK LIST:
Crazy * Ain't Nobody But Me * Breakfast In America * Bloody Well Right * Give A Little Bit * From Now On * The Logical Song * Goodbye Stranger * Dreamer * School * Crime Of The Century
(C) 2002 - DJ Johnson
MOVIE: Paradise Lost 2
Dictatorial Directors: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
Big Shot Movie Stars: real people
Soundtrack: Metallica, grunge, goth
Reviewed by John Sekerka
The rotten case that just won’t go away - three teenagers convicted of grisly murders by way of flimsy evidence - is updated in the sequel to the brilliant original documentary. The case is still drawing interest from a diligent and growing support group (Free the West Memphis Three), but the boneheaded and obstinate Arkansas judicial system seems bent on misdirected persecution despite underwhelming evidence against the threesome (listening to heavy metal was a big factor) and overwhelming evidence against the step-father of one of the deceased. The case was hard enough to swallow at the beginning, but the mounting evidence just makes the wrongs that much more perplexing. Directors Berlinger and Sinofsky are slanting their views, but who can blame them when their cameras naturally follow an obvious path. Paradise Lost is a riveting, engrossing and thoroughly disturbing documentary that plays out like a bad Jerry Springer episode, except that everything is real. You can keep updated on the case at http://www.wm3.org/.
(C) 2002 - John Sekerka
MULTIMEDIA: Trespassing Borders
Between The Lines
Reviewed by Shaun Dale
This is the second edition of this curious publication, which is a cross between a book, a periodical and a catalogue for the ambitious new music label from Frankfurt, Germany, Between The Lines. In addition to thought provoking interviews with BTL artists there are essays worthy of scholarly journals, a conversation with the newly commissioned cover artist for the next 20 BTL releases, biographies of all concerned, a catalogue of the first 20 BTL releases and a 12 track sampler of some of the most adventurous music on the market played by the likes of James Emery, Steve Lacy, Joe Lovano, Franz Koglmann and others.
Between The Lines describes itself as a label for "music beyond categories," and Trespassing Borders is a publication beyond categories. It's worth searching out, and it's bound to send you in search of more music and ideas from the sources it provides a key to.
(C) 2002 - Shaun Dale
MOVIE: National Lampoon's Van Wilder
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Tara Reid,
Tim Matheson, Kal Penn
Directed by Walt Becker
Written by: David Wagner and Brent Goldberg
Tapestry Films
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
Van Wilder is like a grown up Parker Lewis, (Whatever became of that Fox series, Parker Lewis Can't Lose, anyway?) running Coolidge College like his own private resort. He has everything going his way until his dad, played by Tim Matheson, Otter from the original Delta House, realizes that Van's not graduated in seven years. So our hero has to come up with tuition on his own now. Meanwhile a beautiful student reporter is assigned to do a feature on our intrepid party animal, sorry, leisure studies major, just as this crisis begins. And then the fun begins.
Ryan Reynolds plays Van in a self assured but laconic way that makes you wonder if Van is really a smart manipulator destined for greatness or just interested in good times for the hell of pissing off authority. At least there's dichotomy there, most of the other characters are total cardboard, especially his antagonist Dick Bagg, played by Daniel Cosgrove. Yes, you heard the name right. Worse, his fraternity is Delta Iota Kappa or DIK. One longs for this to rise to the level of sophomoric.
The best character is Van's Indian assistant Taj, played with vigor by Kal Penn. Penn is great as a comic foil; I'm not sure why Van's other assistant, played by Teck Holmes, is even there. I cared so little about him I can't even remember the character's name. Guess someone thought they needed a black guy in there somewhere. Tara Reid's reporter character, Gwen, didn't really do all that much to endear me either but at least she gets to write The Article That Saves The Day. I guess only in their world are there campus newspapers that anyone actually reads.
OK, I didn't go to this because I wanted to relive Animal House, honest! I heard that Sugarcult had music on the soundtrack. The music was handled pretty well, what with Jimmy Eat World and other rockers, but there's nothing as good as John Belushi here, or Tom Hulce, Steve Furst, Kevin Bacon, or even Matheson. Still there's a lot of bathroom humor yucks, and a dash of beautiful mountain scenery, the female variety. Not bad for an afternoon's romp while you're waiting for the May blockbusters to arrive, but probably one view is all you'll ever need. On second thought, save your money and just see the video.
(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes
DVD: KISS - Exposed
Universal Music - 90 Minutes
Full Screen (Standard) - 1.33:1
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
Originally released on VHS in 1987, Kiss Exposed has a title that is tempting to play with. "You BET they're exposed: exposed as frauds! Or sexist pigs! Or egomaniacs!" But their embarrassing behavior is so clearly intentional that we can't even have fun with such a great set up line as that. For example, the "interviewer" who follows the four of them around a mansion all day - and by "the four of them," I refer to Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and their gigantic egos, because Paul Kralic and the late Eric Carr are virtually ignored in this video - is actually a character played by Mark Blankfield. If you don't remember the Saturday Night Live ripoff called Fridays, you may remember him from the campy but very funny (and long forgotten) Jekyl & Hyde: Together Again. Here, he has the thankless job of chasing after Simmons and Stanley, acting intimidated by Simmons' "I might be the devil, ya never know" persona, having to fake a blush while interviewing Stanley, who is buried in a sea of barely clad women on his bed, and just basically knowing that he needs a new agent and fast.
They use the fake interviews to set up videos with clumsy "Remember when we made that one video with the chicks with the big bazooms and the fans blowing wind through our hair?" fade shots, most of which lead to rather boring and nearly identical tunes of the period that were mostly distinguished by Carr's drumming. The reason to own this DVD is the sprinkling of live videos from the classic era, like "Deuce" (1975), "Strutter" (1976), "Beth" (1977), "Detroit Rock City" (1980), "I Stole Your Love" (1977), "Ladies Room" (1977) and "Rock and Roll All Night" (1980). The quality isn't always stunning, but it's Kiss, it's rock history and it's on film - now on DVD and in your living room.
Of course, if you're a foaming at the mouth Kiss fan, you have to have this. If you're an NPR listener who is still miffed at Simmons for his behavior on Terry Gross' show a few months back, you'll only get angrier watching this, but you'll have ample visual evidence that his enormous tongue, retracted into the cranium, would obviously take up much of the room needed for an average human brain. See? One DVD, a little something for everyone.
(C) 2002 - DJ Johnson
CONCERT: Stew/Dan Bern
Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA
Tuesday April 16, 2002
Reviewed by Shaun Dale
On hand as a fan of the opening act, I was in a definite minority at the opening date of a short west coast tour featuring Stew of The Negro Problem opening for singer/songwriter Dan Bern. "Who's Stew?" was the common refrain among the people around me in line. Well, Bern's music was nearly as mysterious to me. By the time the night was over, I think all concerned came away happy with both ends of the bill.
Stew was accompanied by Heidi Rodewald, a member of The Negro Problem and a significant presence on both of his solo releases, Guest Host and the recently released The Naked Dutch Painter. With Stew standing before the mike with his acoustic guitar and Rodewald seated nearby on electric bass, they opened with a Negro Problem song, "Ken," which chronicles Barbie's boyfriend's hidden desires for G.I. Joe. The rest of the set was split between material from Stew's two solo albums, with pared back but effectively presented arrangements of "North Bronx French Marie," "Rehab" and "Cold Parade," before Rodewald moved to a small keyboard for the first two songs from The Naked Dutch Painter's trilogy, "The Drug Suite." With Heidi back on bass, they continued through Stew's ode to gentrification, "Come On Everybody," "Love Is Coming Through The Door," "Bijou" and "The Naked Dutch Painter."
As special as his material might be, and I consider Stew one of the most original and creative writers working in pop music today, seeing him in live performance for the first time added a new dimension to my appreciation of his work. The sense of humor that is so palpable in his songwriting is equally evident in his stage patter, and when he sings a song every element of his posture, facial expression and gestures combine in a dramatic presentation that accents and enhances the lyrics. By the time he finished his hour long opening set, he'd made fans of the "Who's Stew?" crowd and further cemented the admiration and affection of those of us who came to see him in the first place.
I was a Dan Bern virgin, so I can't relate a song list for his performance. Alone with acoustic guitar and a harmonica rack around his neck, Bern performed a classic folk/rock set in a style strongly influenced by Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. The set included humorous, topical and personal material and he was clearly beloved by most of the crowded room. Me? I was pleased enough to pick up a Dan Bern CD on my way out the door, so next time around I'll doubtless have more to say about an artist who was good enough at first glance for me to recommend that you take a look, too, when the chance comes around.
(C) 2002 - Shaun Dale