| Harper Ave. rychard's rants, raves + reviews |
| "Playing On A Stool" Review: Jude: Live At Largo - April 02, 2002 (Los Angeles, CA) (This review was originally posted to the jude discuss yahoo group.) When my friend and I arrived at the club, I was surprised to see it rather empty. We were seated at our table, and I was even more surprised to find that throughout the night, the club didn�t get any fuller. There were at least six tables empty (and not just the two-seater tables, I�m talking the four-people tables) And at one point during the show...actually, during �I Do,� I counted the people in the club and there seemed to be just over 40. Apparently Tuesday�s aren�t a good night for Jude. (I almost didn�t go myself, but luckily Buffy and Smallville were reruns, and my mom offered to record 24 for me on the VCR.) Anyway, the small crowd probably did little to impress my friend Zach, who prior to the night was pretty much a Jude virgin (I�d given him a copy of King Of Yesterday, but in retrospect, should have given him a copy of No One Is Really Beautiful.) But I digress...I felt kinda dumb, praising Jude on the ride up there, then entering a practically empty club. Luckily, Jude made up for it with an intimate, quiet performance. Flannigan, Largo�s owner, introduced the show as �Welcome Jude and his orchestra,� his orchestra consisted solely of Ben Kashava on guitar and occasionally bass. The two of them were sitting on stools throughout the show. 01. Sit Ups - He changed a few of the lyrics in this song...for example, the chorus changed to �You can tell me that I�m gonna be the king of the world...� and instead of singing �you�re my friend but you�re not,� he simply sang �let�s take a shot.� After �Sit Ups,� he went into how he hasn�t performed on a stool in a good while...he guessed a good five or six years...though I know for sure he played on a stool at the Sunset Strip show in 1999. He said that when he usually plays on a stool, it�s at a radio station, and how whenever he does radio shows, the DJ always says (in his cheesiest DJ voice) �Next up is Jude, who�s one helluva songwriter and I really like his stuff. Right after this.� And as soon as they were off the air, the DJ usually more often than not was like �okay, now who are you?� And Jude�s like �Uh, Jude.� And the DJ: �Right, whatever. When we come back just make it f*cking quick, okay?� After this, he went into his next song, saying that if he moves around a lot on the stool, we�ll know why. 02. Your Eyes - at last, this song has a bridge. I�ll try and get the lyrics posted on my site later this week. 03. Dog Story - After �Your Eyes,� he had to tune his guitar (a staple at all his recent shows...I think we should all tip in and buy this guy an electric tuner...lol) But anyway, as he was tuning the guitar, he told us a rather sad story about his dog having to be put to sleep. He acknowledged it wasn�t the most lighthearted story to open the show with, but went ahead anyway. He said how he took the dog into the vet (dressed all in black and looking like Liza Minneli�s husband) and waited for the doctor, who came out and asked if he was ready, and Jude was like �No way,� and took the dog home, celebrating as if he�d just broken outta jail or something. He went again the next day and again, went home when the vet appeared. Finally, the last day, after being hounded by a woman who kept insisting that the dog was �going to a better place with fire fighters and hydrants,� he finally got the dog into the vet�s office. After shaving a section of the dog�s paw, the vet was trying to find a vein to insert a needle into (Jude says...don�t worry, this story gets happy in a minute.) So the vet is essentially stabbing the dog, trying to find a vein, and Jude finally says, �Hey that�s not working, dude, are you a vet.� And they guy goes �Well, I�m training to be.� And Jude goes �You�re training to be? But you are gonna be a vet, right?� And the guy replies �Yeah, if my agent doesn�t call.� Cue laughter. He then breaks into the next song: 04. George 05. I�m Sorry Now 06. You Mama You - after this song, he introduced Ben Kashava on the guitar and said, �we should stick in our country vein now.� 07. Mexico - he told another Nashville story, again about the songwriting teams, and their input into his unfinished songs. He said how he had read in a Nashville newspaper about how you�ll never hear a song about Mexico in Nashville, so he went in the next morning with a bit of a song about Mexico. �M-m-m-mexico, M-m-m-Maria.� It was a classic funny Jude song to go up there with �Gay Cowboy� and �Dance Floor.� He sang a bit more of the song. Again, hopefully I�ll have the lyrics up later this week. Oh, I almost forgot, it features a lovely guitar solo by Ben. Jude joked around about the Mexican cook in the kitchen of Largo being pissed off about this song, but then said that he was only joking. After this, he marveled at the wonders of this particular night�s setlist, and encouraged requests. However, after every song title someone yelled out for, he�d just say �No.� Everything from �Gay Cowboy,� �Cuba, �I Do, �Out Of LA, �Heart Shaped Box,� etc. were all greeted by �No.� Finally someone yelled out for �Rick James,� and he said �maybe,� then broke into �Indian Lover.� 08. Indian Lover - he said that Ben whispered this to him (as a request) Interesting moment in the bridge...�aesthetic discipline�...instead of singing it in falsetto he sang it in a deep bass. Made for a nice change. After this, Ben needed to tune his guitar so Jude told him to go tune it and he�d play piano. At the piano, he went into a reprise of �Mexico,� again, in a heavy Texan accent. 09. Mexico (Reprise) - He jokingly sang it in a crying cowboy voice...high falsetto, on the verge of tears...funny stuff. But just as he was really getting into it, he was like �Ah, stop.� 10. King Of Yesterday 11. The Asshole Song - KOY�s final note segued into the first note of this song. People applauded and he said that he appreciates that we appreciate the song, but at this moment, he was thinking of Liza Minelli�s husband, and if he could, he�d get that thought out of his head, but he couldn�t. He seemed kinda stuck on this whole Liza wedding thing. After that song, he looked for Ben, who wasn�t ready, so he went back to an earlier request and sang Megaladon, or how he now refers to it, �The Shark Song.� 12. Megaladon - he added a tag to the end of this about the guy who wrote a Jaws rip-off, but then blew his $2 million dollar advance from the studio. After this, he welcomed Ben back on stage, and joked about how some people will banter back and forth with you onstage, but Ben�s not that guy, and you�ll never hear about the great comedy team of Jude and Ben. (At this point, they were back on the stools with guitars....though actually Ben may have had his bass, I�m not sure) 13. Love Letters 14. Rick James 15. I Know The last three songs all blended into each other with no appropriate space for audience applause. After �I Know,� he said, �okay, let�s try this again, what do you want to hear?� And a guy in the back yelled out for �Oh Boy,� and Jude was like �oh man...(to Ben)...Do you know this one?� He was relunctant to play it, but he did anyway!!!! 16. Oh Boy - the first time I�ve heard this live...and acoustic, it is simply amazing...far superior to the over-produced KOY version. He changed one of the lines in the chorus to �you had to hire a publicist to tell the world exactly who you are.� At the bridge, he slightly paniced as he realized he didn�t know how to play the bridge...people were feeding him the lyrics, but he was like �I messed up the guitar I know the words� in the melody of the song. Then at the end of the song, he changed the chorus to: �Oh girl, I�ll never be the man now Oh girl you wanted me to be a star Oh girl I�m only Peter Pan now Look at now exactly where we are.� Then, as an added treat, he added a improvised version of �MMMBop,� which was pretty hilarious, because on the ride to Largo me and my friend were debating the validity of Hanson vs Spice Girls. Jude didn�t know the words to �MMMBop,� though, so he just hummed along, added in the words �pretty hair,� then sang the chorus. 17. Cuba - Ben was playing bass on this one, but in the middle of the song, Jude asked him to play guitar, because it was just getting too depressing and he wanted to bring back that �MMMbop� feeling. 18. Everything�s All Right - no audience participation :-( After this he said �Well I�m going to play a couple of new songs if that�s alright,� which was greeted by cheers. 19. My Love Won�t End - That�s an unofficial title...but the song is simply beautiful. It�ll definitely be one of next week�s three MP3s Of The Week. I�ll try and get the lyrics soon! 20. Love Love Love/Brad And Suzy - He cleverly segued the end of Love Love Love into a slightly different version of B&S, but gave up the new version to play the B&S we all know. He also added in another quick reprise of �Mexico.� After this, he once again brought up the failure of the comedy team of Jude and Ben, and how they just keep dying city to city, state to state. He asked again what anybody wanted to hear, and �I Do� became the popular choice. 21. I Do 22. In Between He said he�d play just a few more songs, and thanked us for coming out tonight, and listening to his bull-sh*t made up lyrics. Then he started to introduce a song that he said he�s been working on for a while. 23. Easy (Like A Sunday Morning) - of course he was just joking, and he didn�t even know half the lyrics to this song (originally by Lionel Richie and The Commodores ) But he wanted Ben to play the neat guitar solo, but Ben didn�t know how, so he had the audience hum the solo, and Ben still didn�t know how...Jude was laughing, saying this was one of his all-time favorite moments on stage. Seeing that the joke was going nowhere, he quickly went into Gay Cowboy, saying �when in doubt...� 24. Gay Cowboy - He told Ben he was sorry for putting him through that, and said he�d like to sing him a special song he wrote for him (Gay Cowboy). Towards the end of the song he said that he�s finally figured out that he doesn�t want to be known as the gay cowboy guy, so as of tonight, he�s putting the song in moratorium, so for everyone to sing it out loud one more time, because after tonight, he�s going back in the closet and coming out as straight again. (He said �Gay�s going away, I�m coming out straight!�) We�ll see about that...lol He went into a story about how he�s gotten in trouble with the wait staff at the club for his jokes about tipping. So he said he�ll just leave it at �Tip big.� He asked if that was okay, but apparently the bar-lady shook her head now, so Jude went into a long drawn-out story about the history of Ellen, the bartender, including her stays at Studio 54, throwing rocks at the Roxy and so forth. So he finished by saying that when we fill out our tips at the end of the night, remember to give a lot because we�ve all got dreams and he wants us to help make her�s come true. 25. Red Room 26. Out Of LA - with the usual tag at the end, plus a bit of �Life Lays Me Down� thrown in for good measure, as well as some new �add-on� lyrics, one about signing a confidentiality agreement about dancing with the devil (hmmmm...whatever could he mean by that?) After this he left the stage, and I was convinced that was it, because he�d pretty much played everything that he might possibly play in the encore. But he did come out for a quick encore (quick as in one song.) Someone yelled out for �Free Bird,� and he said �Please, just stop saying Free Bird. Please.� Then �I�ll play you one you don�t know, how about that?� And then he went into a brand spanking new song. 27. The Perfect Plank - again, a title that�s unofficial, because based on the song, there�s no real stand-out title. I�ll have lyrics up soon. After this song, he thanked us again for coming out, we applauded, and he left. After the show, I asked my friend what he thought, and he was impressed. He had promised before the show to be honest (after I told him that it�s okay for me to have friends that don�t like Jude...lol) and I am sure he was really impressed. So all in all...a pretty good show...the lack of a crowd was made up for with a very intimate feeling performance and a few new and rarely performed songs! |