| Harper Ave. rychard's rants, raves + reviews |
| "Crossing The Line" Review: Jude @ Largo - September 21, 2002 (Los Angeles, CA) by rychard "who am I" martinez, originally posted to the jude discuss yahoo group I'll spare you all the drama that was my life that day prior to Jude taking the stage, and skip right ahead to the good stuff: The night officially began with Jude momentarily taking the stage to introduce comedian Patton Oswalt. You may know him as one of "Doug's" lovable friends on the CBS show "King Of Queens." Anyway, his routine including tales of walking in on a guy in a gym locker room shaving himself, um, "down there." And there was also a clever rant about George W. the idiot vs. George W. the bully. He was really very funny...easily the funniest comic I've seen open up for Jude since Greg Behrendt. At around 10:30, Jude finally took the stage to peform. Before I begin, can someone please explain to me why he has to start SO LATE? I mean, seriously, I was at an Alanis show a couple weeks ago that ENDED at 10:30, and she even had an opening act!! Anyway, Flannigan came on stage to introduce Jude...calling him a "lover of the people," and that "he kisses girls, he kisses boys, he is Jude!" He opened up his set with "Indian Lover," which was a nice surprise. Usually that song is saved for the end of a show. Oh, Jude is wearing a navy blue shirt, and crazy wild flower pants. I think they are the same pants he wore on Conan. Next up, he performed "Charlie Says." It was a nice moment, because the ladies at the table next to me and I were discussing our favorite Jude songs, and both "Indian Lover" and "Charlie Says" were mentioned...it was like Jude was spying on us and decided to give us a little treat. Anyway, I digress. I do that a lot. Get used to it. At this moment, Jude decided it was time to launch into funny-story time, which he said he was "not supposed to do," because "you're not supposed to follow a comic with anything funny." The story went something like this: he was explaining how he lives in a beautiful house right now with a friend of his...and he hesitated for a moment, looking for the right words that wouldn't make what he was about to say seem "weird." Finally he just blurted out that a lot of his friends at this moment are gay. "There it is. Cool? It is what it is." He goes on to mention how sometimes, at the pool at his house, it's like "Gay Fantasia" with a lot of skinny buff, gay good-looking guys in tight shorts. And sometimes, a guy just aren't prepared for that first thing in the morning. (Speak for yourself, Jude!) He then segued into how a couple of his friends (or his house-mates friends) were going to have a barbecue and there one day and suggested that Jude should go. So he mentioned that he had a girlfriend and a friend of his coming in from out of town, so he wanted to know if the crowd at the barbecue was going to be a gay crowd or a "mixed or whatever" crowd. And the friend told him that it wasn't like that and that he should definitely go! So the day of the party, Jude's driving his out-of-town buddy to the party at his house, buiding how cool the house is and the party that's happening and stuff...and then they see the sign in the front of the house that leads to the party. I really don't know how to describe it other than it involved the words "Weenie Roast This Way" and an arrow that looked suspiciocly like a part of the male anatomy. Cue big laughter from the crowd! (His friend's reaction: "wow. hollywood.") The next song Jude played was "Cuba." (Yet another song that was mentioned as a favorite in my pre-show discussion with the nice ladies next to me.) After that, came "Love Letters." Jude, at this point, mentioned that the songs he just played was all that he had planned to play, so if anybody wanted to hear anything, just call out for it. "I Know," "Dreaming Of You," and "The Asshole Song" were mentioned, and Jude mentioned that he'd already played quite a few "down" songs, and suggested that "we" should bring it up a bit. This led to shout-outs for "Out Of LA" and "Brad and Suzy." "Brad and Suzy" won out in the end, though Jude heard someone in the audience lament about how she really wanted to hear "Out Of LA." And Jude told her not to worry, there will be plenty of shout-out moments during the show, and that at one of those times, it will be the perfet time to play "Out Of LA." Anyway, "Brad and Suzy." Where do I begin? Let's just say that the Mp3 I made of it is almost 20 minutes long. Jude spent a few minutes after the first verse explaining the origin of the "pa pa pow" portion of the song. He explained that he used to have a real old microphone that was sort of distorted, and he used to sing "pa pa pow" into it a lot. And one day, years later, he was in a studio recording ( a studio that Michael Jackson once recorded in). He said it was a very cool studio, and that if it was good enough for "a psychotic pedophile" than it was good enough for him. He went on to explain that he left his equipment there overnight, including the old mic, and the next morning, the crew who worked there explained to him that they had cleaned out everything, and that they had even "fixed" the old mic, which didn't go over well with Jude. I believe he used the phrase "I had a little melt-down." Judethen invited a guy by the name of Joe McCuin (sp?) to come up on stage and play the piano. As Joe came up, Jude went off on an improvised musical rant that sort of introduced Joe to us. Let me just say here, that guy could really hit those keys! (haha, I've never used that phrase before. does it make me seem like I know what I'm talking about?) Anyway, so Joe plays the piano. And plays it. And plays it. And finally Jude looks over, waiting for an empty space to start singing again, and kind of meekly asks "okay?" But of course, by then, Jude forgot what part of the song he was at, so he asked Joe to vamp a bit more while he tried to remember. Finally, "the sigma chis" line finally came to him. After that verse, Jude asked Joe if he knew any classic covers he could throw in, so Joe started playing Carole King's "I Feel The Earth Move," but unfortunately didn't know any of the lyrics. So then Jude asked him what else he had, and Joe started playing another song, one which, unfortunately I don't know the name of. Jude asked if anyone knew the lines to the first song Joe played and from the back of the club, a guy called out "I feel the earth move under my feet," and that sparked the memory in Joe, so he started playing it again, this time singing those lines. Jude started singing in on "I feel the sky come tumbling down." The next lyric they didn't know, so the guy from the back cued them with "I feel my heart start a'tremblin'," to which Jude responded to him: "Come on up!" After some persistance, the guy made his way up to the stage, resting his beer on the piano. Jude asked him his name and introduced him as Nicholas. (Who later, of course, I found out, was a "friend" of our very own Ginger's.) Nicholas started singing the song from the beginning, first in a high falsetto, then in a lower baritone, then finally he hit his stride somewhere in between on the "heart start a tremblin" line and the crowd went crazy! Jude thanked him and Nicholas left the stage, only to came back up a few moments later to reclaim his beer from the piano. I think that got the loudest cheer of the night from the audience! Jude: "I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am." The next cover they launched into, which might be the same one that I couldn't identify before has the lyrics that go: "A guy can go crazy with a spooky little girl like you." And the next line goes on about "something something something calling you up for a movie." It's an oldie. I just heard it on K-Earth, like two days ago, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it's called! The chorus is something about "I want to stop--something, something else..." Anyone know? "snoopy?" "spooky?" something? (Update: the song in question is "spooky" by santana.) Some people on the other side of the club apparently knew the words, and Jude invited them up on stage, but they declined. After that, Jude launched into "Groove Is In The Heart." He asked if Ellen the bartender knew the words, but she apparently said no, so Jude started singing how he thought she did (in the tune of "Groove Is In The Heart.") That segued into him singing that old kid's game of taking someone's name and um, playing with it. "Ellen, ellen, fo-fellen. Fee-fi, fo mellen, Ellen!" You know what I'm talking about! He got the crowd to sing along too! Finally, like, ten minutes later, he finally got back to singing the end of "Brad And Suzy," which he changed into singing about Nicholas, and how Ellen should introduce herself to him, even though she's married, so she doesn't have to worry about that. Or something. I just know there was lots of laughter, and a big old grin spread across Jude's face! He ended the song with "pa pa f*ckng pow." Joe McCuin left the stage, and Jude launched into "Prophet," saying that the Country Bear Jamboree part was over. After that, he started to play "Your Eyes," but had to stop to tune his guitar. He treated us to an impromptu a capella rendition of "Lullaby Of Birdland." Before that, he made jokes about how he used to be able to just take his guitar off and hand it to a roadie to tune, but now, "roadie no there." People started calling out for songs, prompting the "Out Of LA" shout-out. Finally, the guitar was tuned, and he went into "Your Eyes," complete with the new bridge that seemed to have changed lyrically from the last time he played it. Personally, I think the song works better without the bridge, but that's just me and who am I? So then Jude put the guitar down, traveled two feet over to the piano and performed "King Of Yesterday." Afterwards he mentioned that he's no Joe McCuin on the piano, but it's all good. Next up at the piano was "On The Dance Floor." He almost began to tell the old story attached to this song about Germany and disco, but stopped himself and continued with song, after describing himself as more of a "guitar guy -- mellow, sad...sometimes funny." "The Asshole Song" came next, followed by "Turn The Radio On." I think he started playing in a higher key or something, because he was singing it very high, and it looked almost uncomfortable. Also, the chorus of the song changed a bit...almost like it had the same sort of "radio-friendly" make-over "King Of Yesterday" goes through on that CD. (You know, track one versus track twelve.) Anyway, I like the version he played before better. But again, who am I? Jude then left the piano, picked up the guitar again and launched into "Rick James." I think I'm using the word "launched" too much. I need a thesaraus. Predictably, "I Know" followed "Rick James" in the same way that "Your Eyes" always seems to follow "Prophet." Jude thanked the audience and started to sing "Everything's All Right." Halfway through the first verse, he started having chord trouble and said "anyway." The audience cheered him on to "keep going," though I suspect he wasn't about ready to give up. That was confirmed when he said "I wanna thank you for that advice. That was good. Cuz I was just gonna quit. F*ck man." He went on to talk about how there are some artists who make decisions and move on...and then there are artists like him who just can't decide on a chord, and make different choices each time they play, even though the song's already been recorded one way. Then he kind of muted the guitar playing a bit, and sang "I've been waiting for a long time for the one who would be mine," but he sang it with some musical curves in his voice. Okay. That's not the best way to describe it. Maybe "riff" is the right word. Anyway, he sang it quite loverly, like he was Mariah Carey or somebody. But in a good way. During the second chorus, some of the audience started singing the "ba ba ba" part kind of softly (to match Jude's soft-approach to the song thus-far.) After singing "I think it's time," he said "I think it's time to turn to my friend in the back of the room and ask her if I should go out soft or go out big?" The friend in the back with the voice of an angel -- okay, it was Ginger -- told him to "go out big. All the way." Jude: "All the way? What is that exactly ?" Ginger: "Rock and roll with devil horns." Joe McCuin comes on stage and says: "Did I hear 'all the way?'" So he sits at the piano, and starts to play (in e-flat, which I heard Jude say) but Jude stops him at tells him that his playing was more like Bruce Hornsby instead of Devil Horns. So Jude says that now that he has the horns, he needs drums, so Joe starts beat-boxing into the mic, but Jude is oblivious that it is him, and thinks it's someone in the soundbooth. That's kinda funny to see Jude oblivious. So then Jude asks Gus (who's in the audience) to come up and play bass on the song. So Gus comes up, and Jude declares that he thought it was Gus on the drums...then realizes that it is in fact Joe. Joe asks "am I really doing this? I mean, at what part do you cross the line." Jude's response: "Think back to an hour ago (re: brad and suzy) that was crossing the line." (Hence me dubbing this show "Crossing The Line") So Jude asks Joe to stop the drums, and asks Darren in the sound booth to do them instead, and then asks for audience participation on the "ba ba ba" parts. Jude: "This is like the greatest band ever assembled. Can you feel it? Sometimes you get together and it just FEELS RIGHT. I feel that." So Jude has the audience sing the "ba ba ba" part, and then tells us that even though Joe sounds like Bruce Hornsby on the piano, the audience needs to bring him up, which leads to louder screaming of the "ba ba ba's." Jude then asks the left side of the room to help out on the "ba na na na na" part of the chorus. Over the sound booth, Darren, or someone chimes in with a bass-like "yeah." The audience kind of dies down, so Jude says "Wait! I brought the f*cking pants, okay? Could I at least get some participation?!?." He looks over to Joe, tells him that "you're excellent," then turns to the audience to give a "no, he's not look," but reaffirms his statement to Joe when Joe looks over. Classic sitcom shtick. So finally, the chorus goes on with all parts participating, and Jude can barely manage to be heard over everybody. In the distance, one can hear Ginger give out a classic rock concert scream! Hitting the highlight of the night, Jude says "goodnight," leaving Joe and Gus playing on stage. After a beat, Jude reappears to grab the mic rock-star style and say "Can I hear it for Joe McCuin on piano?." The crowd cheers. He then drags the guitar a couple feet to the right and says "How about for Gus on the guitar?" The crowd cheers more. Jude: "Can I get a 'hell yeah?'" The crowd: "HELL YEAH!" Jude leaves and Joe says "Let's hear it for Jude!" More cheering. Everyone leaves the stage, and the music from the club starts playing, a sure-sign that the show is over. People start screaming out for an encore, and for the first time at a Jude show, I'm not entirely convinced that we're going to get one. A few minutes pass by, and finally Jude re-emerges on stage, saying "I was all set. Thank you. I was good. But you guys were clapping along and that drives me f*cking crazy. Drives me insane." Another rock scream from Ginger, and Jude asks "what time is it? " Someone yells out "8:30" and someone else yells out "Not late enough." Jude goes off on a rant about another concert venue that was doomed because of the giant clock behind the stage that led to people in the audience realizing how late they were staying out. Jude starts the encore off with "I Do." I'll leave that alone. Except to say that the next time he calls out for requests, I'm an inch away from screaming out "I DON'T." But I fear I'll be pummeled by the hardcore female fanbase at these shows. And once more, who am I? Next up was a sped-up version of "Bye Bye," the song Jude once described as the very first song he wrote. It received many fits of laughter from the crowd! Great song! This was followed by "I'm Sorry Now." That was kind of cool, since (more or less) ISN was Jude's biggest "hit" here in Southern CA. And I use the word "hit" lightly. I suppose I should say it was the song that I heard more than a couple times on one radio station here. Plus, it's probably the most TV-friendly song (alongside "Everything's All Right.) Anyway, he closed the show with the song "My Room." He closed it off by changing the lyrics to thanking us for coming out, and by advertising his next show ("my next show's on a tuesday night, I should advertise it, that's what the pro's do right, but anyway, I'll see you there.") Then Flannigan came up on the loud speaker to correct Jude by telling him the next show was on a wednesday, not a tuesday. Jude: "Did you say it was on tuesday?" Flannigan "No, I said it's wednesday." Jude "It's wednesday? That's what I meant, Oh well f*ck it Come to...my next show Come to...see Jude." Jude finished by saying the next show will be a week-night, so he'll be "a little more pro." He thanked the audience, and left the stage, for good this time. All in all...a great show. Very very very funny. The "drama of my life" was let go by the end of the night, and I was treated to a fantastic show! So yeah...that was that. |