| Harper Ave. rychard's rants, raves + reviews |
| "A Rainbow Of Song" Review: Jude @ Largo - Wednesday, October 2, 2002 (Los Angeles) (this review was originally posted to the judediscuss list on october 3, 2002) This just might be a temporary thought, but I think last night's concert was my favorite Jude show. Ever. Jude performed a seemingly unending supply of songs I had never heard before, mostly written during the last year. And on top of that, he played a couple songs that rarely ever get played. Standard Jude show songs like "I'm Sorry Now," "Rick James," and "Everything's All Right" disappeared for the evening, and we got a show that Jude described as "an uncensored look into my room" Fittingly enough, the show began with a rendition of the song "My Room." The club was practically empty. At one point before the show, I counted the heads in the club, and there were twenty people there. I think maybe five or so more people came in after that, but the point is that it was very uncrowded, especially when compared to the full house atmosphere of his last two Saturday shows. I guess people just didn't wanna miss the Creek's premiere on the WB or something. There was no opening act and no Flannigan to announce Jude. He just took the stage and sat on a stool with his guitar. He was wearing a very cool pull over sweater with stitching up and down the arms, and green and white vertically striped pants. Next to the stool was a small podium where Jude rested a couple of yellow-paged notebooks. We'd find out later in the evening that those notepads contained lyrics to songs he has written over the last year. Before he began playing, the song being played in the background of the club was a cover of The Beach boy's"God Only Knows (What I'd Be Without You)." Jude asked the sound guy to fade it down, and as it did, Jude said: "And we fade up on...struggling songwriter." He then announced that he felt like it was going to be one of his more "unique nights of (his) history at Largo," so he said he thought he'd start off with his notebooks that were filled with "various garbage and maybe a few gems of crap (he'd) written over the last year." He also said if any of us had any requests, to just call them out and he'd whip those out in about five minutes. Here's the setlist of the evening: 01. My Room (presumed title) - For those of you who have downloaded this song before when it was an Mp3 of the Week, you should know that the cheesy, lounge-feeling version of the song has faded away to make room for a more Jude-esque guitar driven version of the song. The melody and rythym of the song has changed a bit, and can easily be compared to an acoustic version of "I'm Sorry Now." 02. Isn't It Over Anyway? - As soon as I heard this song, I had a strong feeling that a special night was ahead of us. Every time I've heard this song performed, the show has been above par. Anyway, this was a lovely rendition of the song. 03. Interlude - "The Lesser Book" - Sitting on the stool, he mentioned how he "hate(s) the stool." Earlier he had mentioned that he only plays on a stool maybe once every two years, and that he hates it, but seems to forget, only to be reminded of how much he hates it as soon as he sits on one. So anyway, he starts flipping through the notebook, passing through song after song...rejecting each one. He referred to that book as "the lesser notebook" and that those must have been songs written in the first half of the month. He then tossed it aside, and picked up "a richer book." He started to play "Turn The Radio On," on the guitar, which made me absolutely giddy, since this was my favorite of his new songs thus far (see below for more!). But he started off by playing and singing too high, so he started over singing lower. But again, he stopped after the first line, and declared that the guitar he was using was the right one for that song. I feared that he was going to go over to the piano to play it, but instead, he picked up a different (better) guitar, and busted out with "Turn The Radio On." 04. Turn The Radio On (presumed title) - Dude. This song freaking rocks on the guitar. Seriously. I get chills listening to it. 05. Your Eyes - He played a rather passionate version of this song, leaving out the bridge -- which I found funny because my review of the last show mentioned that I like the song better without it. That made me smile. Maybe me and Jude think alike. Or maybe I'm just a loser clinging onto silly little thoughts like that. Either way, I couldn't help but smile. 06. All I Wanna Do (presumed title) - Finally, I have this song recorded! He premiered it about a month ago when he opened for Dave Pirner. He referred to the notebook for the lyrics to this song, even though he had it memorized a month ago. Maybe the lyrics were just a security blanket. Who knows. 07. Interlude II - "JP and PJ" So after "All I Wanna Do," Jude travelled over to the piano, and launched into a story about how he used to work as an emcee at an entertainment club in Atlanta. He talked about how the club was in a bad neighborhood where gunshots were a common background noise. Anyway, the jist of the story was that there was a security guard who's name was JP, and whenever Jude needed "help" from stage, the secret code for security was "PJ." This was mainly a joke between Jude and the manager of the club PJ. 08a. Waiting For You (presumed title) - This was the first piano-based song of the evening. It is short, simple, and sweet. 08b. Dancing With The Devil (presumed title) - Based on the shortness of the previous song, Jude segued directly into this song. Some lyrics were altered. (Instead of "a parasite as big as he" was changed to "a piece of $hit as big as he.") Hmmm...no love loss between Jude and the subject of this song. 09. King Of Yesterday - This was the first "known" Jude song performed that night, and the only song from that record. The live piano-driven version of the song still beats both record versions -- hands down. At one point in the song, he changed the line from "I'm the king of yesterday," to "I'm that king of yesterday." It was a subtle change, but definitely caught my attention. 10. Falling In Love (presumed title)- This was so unlike anything I've heard Jude perform before. It sounds like something Billie Holiday or Chet Baker should have been singing. (Actually, it could be an old standard, but I didn't recognize it.) It was bluesy...or jazzy...or something like that. It was really quite beautiful. I'll have the lyrics posted soon! 11. On The Dance Floor (Trailer Park) - He sang this song with a "hillbilly" accent, and changed the last chorus of the song to "Do what you do in the trailer park, etc." It was quite funny! It's fun to see Jude just messing around once in a while! 12. Interlude III - "Vocal Crazy Crowd" - At this point, Jude left the piano and went back to the guitar. After hitting his mouth on the microphone, he said that he's never knocked a tooth out by doing that, but he's knocked one loose, and "loose is good." He then asked if their were any requests, and I called out for "Battered Broken." Well, "call" out for it is wrong...I sort of loudly whispered for it, since I was seated relatively close to the man, and the club wasn't really loud or anything. To yell would have been a little foolish. Anyway, he sort of hesitated, so I whisper-called for "Everything I Own." Then Jude was all "Hey whoa...!" and then referred to the audience as "a vocal crazy crowd," and instructed us not to tone ourselves down just because he was low-energy. "I'm channeling, I'm fine." 13. My Love (Without You) (presumed titles) - This song sounds like an "oldie," but I don't think it is. Lyrically, it looks like something Jude would write. It was short and to the point. You can probably tell what it's about by the presumed titles. :-) 14. Battered Broken - Yay! First of all, his guitar playing on this song was just amazing. And the sound came out so clear on my new recording device...wait until you hear the Mp3! It will blow you away! Plus, it's just a freaking awesome song! 15. Mayfair Market (presumed title) - After flipping through the notebooks looking for another song to play, Jude mentioned that he has just recently passed by the old Mayfair Markert, and said that he was going to try to play that song. He performed this once before at Largo when I was there, and I didn't have my recorder then, so I kind of just forgot about the song. But I'm glad he brought it back out of the hat...it's so...sweet. And charming. He struggled a little with some of the lyrics, and pretty much gave up when he got to the bridge, but still...it was nice! 16. Slippery Slope (presumed title) - Okay, I think this is my new favorite Jude song. It has that "Battered Broken," "Cuba," "More Than I Wanted" feel to it. And the lyrics are just amazing. Maybe the best lyrics of a Jude song I've ever heard. 17. In Between - After some struggling with tuning the guitar, Jude launched into this song. 18. Interlude IV - "A Precious Moment" - Jude switched guitars, and in doing so, pulled the smaller guitar out through the strap of the other guitar. Apparently this made Jude proud, and he asked the sound guy in the back if he caught that trick. Darren (the sound guy) said "yeah." Jude then decided to dig at Darren a bit, leading up to the audience applauding him for creaing all the "magic that (becomes) a beautiful rainbow of song" on stage. But Darren interrupted Jude via the "backstage mic" before any applause came. Again, another moment that was sort of a private joked shared for our pleasure. 19. Mexico - To dig at Darren some more, Jude changed this voice of this song from the first person, to the third person, using Darren's name. ("Not so very long ago, Darren went down to Mexico...etc.") He ended the song by saying what I mentioned before...about this night being an uncensored look into his room. 20. Interlude V - "Nice, Smooth" - Flipping through the lyrics notebook again, Jude said out loud "No, I can't play that song." And someone asked "why not?" And Jude said "Because it's f*cking bad." It was cute. Then he read some lyrics from a song that he co-wrote with someone else. They went: "Where the children don't cry Where lovers can be alone I'll take you baby Where we truly be...long." He mocked the fact the "alone" and "belong" don't rhyme. 21. Totally Tony (presumed title)- Apparently, it was Tony's birthday. Tony is the guy who runs Largo whenever the owner Flannigan is gone. So Jude sang a funny song dedicated to Tony. 22. Interlude VI - "Largo Staff Night" - Jude asked the staff at the back of the bar if anyone of them needed a song played. They suggested a song for Ellen, the bartender. He said he'd think it over and get to one in a second. In the meantime, he referred to it as "Largo Staff Night" and someone (PJ I think) mini-screamed out "we love you jude," so Jude mini-screamed back "thanks man!" 23. Fallen Angel (presumed title)- "Oh then one day, I wrote this" was Jude's out-of-the-blue introduction to this song, about Jude writing this song to "stop from killing myself." It received some laughs...but I think it also got a sort of "taken aback" reaction as well. Good song, though. 24. The Asshole Song (Ladies Of Largo) - 80% of the lyrics of this song were set aside for some improv lyrics of Jude singing about bartender Ellen. Eventually, PJ made his way into the song, and Jude comments (in song) that even though PJ is a handsome man, you'll never hear Jude refer to him as being hot because "I'm not a truly homosexual guuuuuuy." Quite funny. Then he changed the bridge to: "I told you guys This would be weird Now we're all the way inside my head I don't know what will appear." That, I think, pretty much described why the night was so great. After those lines, the song went back to it's normal lyrics. 25. You Mama You - After Jude asked for requests at the piano, a guy up front asked for "You Mama You," and Jude tried to see if he could play that at the piano. He couldn't, so he picked up his guitar and played the song with that instead. After the song, Jude sort of absently strummed the guitar, then announced "I have nothing." A woman up front reminded him that he still had "Out Of LA." Jude thanked her for reminding him, but stated that he was out of funny stories, not song choices. It's always fun seeing Jude be fake-mean to his audience. 26. Out Of LA - Typical "Out Of LA." Except for that he repeated the "boy whores sell their souls" verse right after he had already sang it. And instead of a long, drawn-out outro to the song, he just sang the name-game to "Ellen." 27. I Do - He closed his set with "I Do." I thought that we might get away with not hearing that song, but alas, no such luck. It was nice. What else can you say about it? He thanked us "all" for coming out and left the stage. No encore. No big surprise there. So yeah...that was the show. I'd go into the story about how after the show, I asked him to take a special picture for my cousin in Oregon (the one who he "performed the marriage" of on stage), but that story is long and involed, and ends poorly. Let's just say that camera lens caps were involved, and the lighting was bad, and the pictures didn't even bother to be saved to my memory card. Blah Blah Blah. Complain, complain, complain. It's all I ever do. And I have no right to, especially considering how awesome this show was! I just wish there could have been more people there to enjoy it, but then again, I suppose it was the intimacy of the crowd that led to the show being so great in the first place! Oh well...I guess that's why I have Mp3's and CDs available, right? It's all about sharing the wealth! |