BARENAKED LADIES:
Concert Review
Here is my
concert review for the October 13th (2000) Portland (Oregon) show.
(Now that the tour is over, I spare no details. This can be used as a historic document, if you wish. Or, you could just read it.)
(Oh, and for some strange reason, some of the text is randomly underlined. I don’t know why, and I can’t fix it, so just ignore it. Enjoy!)
Guster
played a half hour set (about eight songs), ending with “Fa Fa Fa”. I didn’t hear much of them due to complications
of missing people in my party, but I heard the end of “Fa Fa”, and they sounded
good.
During the intermission, they struck and reset the
stage. When the lights dimmed, an
animation begins on the two large screens.
It was an animated version of the album cover and designs including the
random dots and lines, as well as the yellowish and blackish “characters”. There was a recitation of the “Maroon” poem
over the PA (the one from the CD booklet).
Then the giant white curtain dropped and revealed the stage, decorated
with a big carnival-like face, I can't really describe it. The Ladies appeared
out of the mouth of the face, and took stage as Ed was playing the opening
chords of “Too Little Too Late”. Throughout
the night a chef was onstage playing tambourine and doing other random dancing,
clapping, and sweeping!
After they finished their first song, they played ”Alcohol”.
Next they played
“Life, in a Nutshell”. (I screamed out
“Her Barbie’s always did it on the first date!” in honor of my friend Josh who
couldn’t make it to the concert. He
loves that line.)
Then they
started talking about how it was great to be back in Portland, and how they
changed the direction the stage was facing from last year’s show by pushing the
entire Rose Garden 90degrees all by them selves. They sang “The Muscle Rap”.
Next was “Falling
for the First Time”.
“Sell, Sell, Sell”
was not as great as it is on the album, but still a nice performance. My friends couldn’t understand a word Steve
was singing, except for “buy, buy, buy, buy, sell, sell, sell…”
"Pinch
Me" – Kevin played the guitar solo at the end of the song.
The lights dimmed and they cleared the stage as pre-recorded orchestra music began and Kevin played on the piano the Darth Vader theme. As the music still went on, he sang “Oops, I did it again / I blew up the sun / I blew up the moon / Oops, I did it again / You thought I was dead / Now I have an evil empire” (or something like that) It was very amusing.
The rest of the band came back out and Ed started talking about how his one year old son was “driving” a parked car, and when he started to fall, Ed rushed forward to catch him. Well, he caught his son, but also hit his head on the door frame of the car. Steve starts singing the “Ed Head Blues”, and later Ed starts rapping. It was an awesome improv! Best of the night.
Then they went on to talk about how they once played at a multi-band gig in Chicago (they made fun of Portland’s “The Bite”, and called it Chicago’s “The Overbite”) with bands like Foo Fighters and so forth. During the day, Ed saw Scott ?Wayle? of ??? playing catch in the park, while he was signing autographs. Without actual verbal communication, Ed threw the football at Scott while signing, and got hit in the head. Ed felt bad about it, but later talked to Scott, and he said that it was all good. Kevin makes fun of Ed’s story, denying the actuality of it. Kevin was like, “Well once I was talking to Willie Nelson in a parking lot…”
Finally, Tyler
interrupts, and says “Hey, wanna hear something else?” and starts playing the
next song, “Baby Seat”. (it was a weird and very abrupt transition.)
A true rock ‘n’ roll
classic moment happened as they played “It’s All Been Done”. Ed was upstage, dancing and playing on the
upper platform during the bridge of the song.
As he’s playing the chorus, he breaks a string on his guitar. He desperately runs to stage left, down the
stairs, throws the guitar to an offstage guitar tech, and the tech throws a new
one at Ed. Ed barely catches it,
doesn’t even bother strapping it on, and starts playing just in time for his
guitar solo! Later Ed comments about
how he almost missed his solo, and he recreates the event in slow motion.
A disco ball comes
down for “Conventioneers”. Steve starts
singing to the giant balloons on the side, and plays with them a little, and
ends up humping the big yellow lizard. (Disturbing, but funny)
Again, the
lights dimmed, and the Ladies leave the stage, except for Tyler. On the PA, there is an announcement: “Ladies
and gentlemen, may I have your attention please. This is not a drum solo.”
He started drumming to some techno music, as the voice continued “This
is not a drum solo”. Well, drum solo or
not, Tyler was awesome! During the
“solo”, video footage of the other Ladies backstage smoking cigars, and special
effects to indicate that Tyler’s “solo” goes on for a year or so. Cut back to the Ladies with very long
beards.
They come back out
as Tyler finishes, and Tyler drums straight into “Never is Enough”.
There was a lovely intro
into “Jane”. It was a very pleasant
song.
“The Old Apartment”
“Humour of the
Situation”
Then they
played every song they've ever written.
During this, they scrolled a list of their songs on the screen, like one
of those CD collection commercials. They
started with “Hello City”, and went into “Enid”, “Grade 9”, and pretty much
most of Gordon, in the order that they originally appeared. Eventually, they started to skip around and
went into The Beatles’ “Hey Jude”, while singing bits of lines from their songs
between each set of “Na na na na na na na”s.
Then they played
“One Week”. Ed did a cool scratchy-CD
skip at the beginning of the second verse, repeating “chickity china” several
times. Instead of ending the song, the
music continued as Ed and Steve did a little dance on their own side, and grew
closer to each other each time, until they kissed each other at the end. (If you were at the concert last year, then
you know what I’m talking about)
“Never Do Anything” –
Weird a cappella yodel thing at end
Again, lights dim and stage empties as Jim starts his bass
solo, playing into a cool arrangement of “All We, Like Sheep, Have Gone Astray”
from Handel’s The Messiah.
“Brian Wilson”
“If I Had $1,000,000” – After first verse, Ed: “We could
just invite everyone to watch A&E’s Biography”. Steve and Ed went on for a long time talking about the Biography
Network, and started talking about their VH1 “Behind the Music” special. They ended up talking about Shania Twain and
how she knew, at age 8, that she was going to be a country music rock
star. Ed revealed that at age 18, he
thought it might be “kinda cool” to have a little band and play some
songs. Finally, they sang the second
verse, then at the Kraft Dinner part, a graphic came on the screen saying “Do
not feed the band!” At the end of the
song, Steve went into his diva voice and played Applause God with the audience.
Toward the end of the show they covered parts of some songs
like "The Real Slim Shady", "It's Gonna Be Me" (with the
nasal voices), and "Music" (which Tyler danced to), and a lot of the
same ones they did in last year’s tour.
A lot of good choreography in it.
Then it was
over. But, of course, they came out to
do an encore. Ed started “When I Fall”,
which was very nicely done, and was very moving. A good way to close off the night. (Love ya Josh!)
They also did “Go
Home”, which I think was an indication that it was over.
But it wasn’t. They came back out to do one last song,
“Call and Answer”, sort of as a tribute to Kevin, or at least a celebration of
his life, and his victory over fighting cancer.
Once the house lights came up, it was all over…. Until next
time.
Posted October 16, 2000. (Revised January 7, 2001)
To hear any of the songs I mention above, visit 
[BNL: Barrington St. Café] | [madnana.com]
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They’re fucking sweet!