| Harper Ave. rychard's rants, raves + reviews |
| "The Troubadour" Review: Jude @ The Troubadour, August 13, 2002 (this review was originally posted to the jude discuss yahoo list) Okay, so normally I wait a day or two to sit down and write reviews to Jude's shows, but tonight (to borrow from Duncan Sheik) I'm "on a high, on a high, there's nothing else to it." So I'm at the foot of the stage, front and center, with a friend I've met at a few other Jude shows. We both went alone, but got to hang out as a result of that. Anyway, a little before the show began, Jude comes out on stage to set up his guitar and check the mic level and stuff...and me and my friend are just like "uhhhhhhh." We don't play it cool and continue our conversation...instead we choose to stand and watch Jude and a tech guy play around with the guitar equipment, while everyone else around is seemingly oblivious to anyone being on stage who isn't Dave Pirner. A while later, Jude comes back on stage to perform. He's looking good in a long sleeved, collared green shirt (unbuttoned just enough for a slight flash of chest hair...for those of you who might be wondering...lol) Immediately, he starts into "Cuba," which isn't greeted with the usual laughs his core-audience delivers, but still holds the crowds attention. He followed that somewhat downer of an opener with "I'm Sorry Now," which got a better reception from the crowd. (Maybe some people recognized it from the handful of times Star 98.7 played it a couple years back.) Next up came "You Mama You," which with it's fast-paced lyrics and falsettos managed to bring the crowd up even more After a moment's hesitation after "You Mama You," a few people started calling out for a couple songs. That was kind of cool. But Jude decided it was time to break into some of the new songs, and did a beautiful version of "Your Eyes," which featured a different bridge than the one on this week's MP3. Then came an incredibly awesome new song, which features the chorus line: "All I want to do is fall in love with you." That's the title I've given it...lol. He prefaced it by saying that sometimes when you write songs, they come out in batches, and this is one of three that he recently wrote. It was really a very cool song, which unfortunately did not get recorded, because I don't like recording shows in venues I'm not familiar with. Big regret there. :-( But whatever regret I was feeling at the moment soon got swept away, when Jude looked down from the stage directly at me and asked me what I wanted to hear next. To borrow from Adelle, at the moment I became the "deer in headlights." After a beat I managed to say the first song I could think of, which was "Baby Ruth In Atlanta" (which is weird because I very rarely listen to that song and am not really like a huge fan of it or whatever. It's just the first song I thought of.) Anyway, he didn't play it. He gave this look of "say something else." So deciding to play the punk, I then asked for "Everything I Own." He gives me another exasperated look, and says "Is it like a thing for you to call out for the hardest songs?" (or something to that effect.) All the while he's looking right at me. That was another schoolboy moment from me. So after that, I said he should play "Don't Stop Believing." He smiled and started to play it, commenting that it used the same chords as his last song. "Don't Stop Believing" really brought the crowd alive. For those of you who heard the MP3 a couple weeks ago, it was very similar to that performance....the audience singing the lines Jude didn't know. And then at the chorus, instead of singing it all out...he held back and totally under-sang it in a low monotone voice, changing the lyrics to something along the lines of: "I know you were surprised that I under-sang the chorus, I saw you ready to rock out in the first row." Or something. (cue to me kicking myself for not bringing the recorder again!) After really getting the crowd alive, he pulled out "Rick James" which even got some "big tough guys" next to us rockin'. After that he did "Prophet," which absolutely rocked! He closed his set with "Out Of LA," which featured perhaps the longest "outro" I've heard yet...and it was absolutely amazing. (Someone needs to by Rychard a thesaraus...lol) After the show, me and my friend ran into him on our way out, and he thanked us for coming out to see him. He had such a sincerity to him. That's was truly great about him. He's such a....hmmm.....gentleman. Yeah, that's a good word for him. Gentleman :-) I didn't stick around for Dave Pirner, because I was exhausted, and to be honest, I'd checked out a couple of his songs online and wasn't all that impressed. I felt weird though, because I've never really left a show early before. But oh well. He's going to be on Craig Kilborn tonight, maybe I'll just catch that :-) Later folks :-) |