Reviews by...
Sara
John
Jess
Soraya
Chris
They put on a really wonderful show with lots of songs they have not played in a while ... it all went by so fast. Here is the set list for those who did not make it.
Dr. Bernice
Been Around The World
**NEW SONG**~~~ You Could Be My Love
7 Days
Wedding Day (Johnny Solo)
Im A Little Rocket Ship (David Solo)
Teen Angst (A very slow version)
Lonesome Johnny Blues
Big Dipper
The World Is Mine (David started with an electric, but switched to an acoustic)
Another Song About The Rain
Mr. Wrong
Bicycle Spaniard
Trials & Tribulations
All Her Favorite Fruit (David Solo)
*ENCORE* I Want Out Of The Circus (where Johnny collapsed at the end and almost knocked over some
of their equipment).
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
Sara
Now all we've got to worry about is the Y2K+1 bug. ugh.
Last night was incredible ...
It started off with a dash down to Richmond From DC. We hooked up with Jill and some of her friends and then ran into John Finch and Chris and a friend of hers at Bottom's Up. Aside from the greasy knife that'll leave a stain on Jessica's shirt and sweater it was alright.
We then headed to the club (after watching a parallel parking demostration) and ran into a ton of other C2K people .. Shay, Nancy, mango, Sara, and more standing in line to get in ...
Once in the club we of course took up our usual spots against the stage. I think it was 2 layers worth of C2K people along the stage. I remember seeing Roy, Kathy, Yank99, tJon and his wife, and later Whit was spotted in the crowd too.
The opening bands (Masio & Spike something) were ... uh ... last minute finds I think. Perhaps the most interesting moment during the opening acts show was when Soraya arrived. There was a sustainted screaming from Nancy and Soraya that I'm sure everyone in the club heard. : ) I'll let her tell her adventure later.
Alley Katz didnt have the time, so someone ended up on the stage asking people with watches if it was time yet - and then they finally let all their balloons drop - as David & Johnny took the stage. You could hear balloons popping well into the first song.
David and Johnny were both sporting snazzy looking suits when they took the stage.
The sound was really good (this was my first time to see a show in Alley Katz).The crowd was especially good too - you could tell there were a bunch of serious fans in the crowd. The slow version of Teen Angst really stands out in my mind - really cool. Right along with Another Song About the Rain - I was beginning to think I'd never hear that one.
The last song they played was I Want Out Of The Circus, and Johnny was so into the solo towards the end that end lost his balance and started to stumble backwards - in to the old beer barrel. (or perhaps he crashed into a barrel head .. oh, wait - wrong band ..) Johnny's expression at the end of that little stumble was priceless though (as was David's). : )
After the show David and Johnny came out and signed tons of stuff, let people take a bunch of pictures - but I think the best part was the news ...
The NEW (well, sorta) Camper van Beethoven cd will be released the first week of February 2000 - to coincide with the show dates in the west. Lucky Bastards ...
The Cracker retrospective cd will also be coming out in the first week of March 2000. The first 25,000 copies of the cd will include a BONUS disc. Ahem - A BONUS DISC!! David mentioned the tracks that would be on both. The retrospective tracks were chosen based on 25% fans, 25% friends of the band, 25% band members, and 25% record label people. The bonus disc there will be four (sorta) NEW songs (as in unreleased). Be My Love, Hollywood, Eyes of Mary (with Mark Linkous), and Heaven Knows I'm Lonely. David did say the special cd (with the bonus disc) would be available at the Pitch A Tent site (2000 copies I think).
David did mention that there were weird legal problems with some of the tracks they wanted to include - nothing with Joan Osborne is on the disc because of Joan's label. Some stuff with Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows made it on there though (hopefully Cracker Soul and You Aint Going Nowhere)
Johnny mentioned that he has been working on a web page - hopefully he'll let us take a look at it soon.
: )
John
When it was about time for the year to flip some guy (from the club I suppose) got up on stage and asked if anyone had a watch... Geeze! Anyway, they let the balloons go about the time that my watch said it was 12:00 so I think we were close anyway. =) It was an exciting moment! =)
David and Johnny promptly took the stage and proceeded to give us an absolutely excellent performance. They looked like they were having a good time and at one point Johnny said that they were having just as much fun as we were... It was just David and Johnny and their guitars (3 acoustics ..1 I guess has that weird tuning for Trials and Tribulations?... and 3 electrics...Johnny's salmon guitar, and david's green and blue Charvels) and Johnny's harmonica and a tambourine... uh, and a big bottle of champagne and 2 glasses... and occasionally some balloons... =)
The songs were great. They played stuff we wouldn't normally hear. Thanks to Sara for the set list! =) =) some of the highlights of the show for me were:
Wedding Day... with Johnny all alone, augmenting his guitar in parts with some harmonica playing (cool!) and it was neat to see David singing along even when he wasn't "on" then. =)
Been Around the World... well it's my favorite song and Johnny has altered the solos a bit, and David's singing was right on with emotion and all that... It just had a really great vibe going and it sounded amazing...
Bicycle Spaniard... How many chances to we get to hear this great one live? Not many and it was wonderful hearing them do it... I believe David said something like "lets see if we can pull this off" for it and it was beautiful. =)
Another Song About the Rain... WOW! I never thought I would have heard this one live! It sounded great! I love the song and I am SO glad I got to see it performed live.
All Her Favorite Fruit... Johnny intro'ed this on "David's going to play one of my favorite songs now." This is my favorite Camper song. It is so beautiful and it was very much so last night. David played it alone with his little sampling machine thingie (a la the P-a-T shows)... wow. beautiful song.
It was funny to hear Johnny say that they didn't know what was going to happen and that they could play anything... I was hoping for China, but there were no mandolins in sight anyway... Maybe some other time... =) Also nice was the fact that we got to hear 2/5ths of Cracker play a "Low free show". =) Not only that it was a ET Girl free show... not to pick on those songs or anything, but they do get played at every show nearly... =) Nice to hear some of the alternative songs for a change. =)
Afterwards David came out and talked a bit about the upcoming releases, as John mentioned... I know we can't remember the track list David rattled off but there were a few surprises that stuck in my head... Steve's Hornpipe and Sweet Potato made it to the Retrospective album's main disk. I thought that was interesting... I think it's too bad Joan's stuff couldn't make it on there, because it is absolutely amazing... By the way, is there any word on when her next album is coming out? I can't wait for the new Cracker and Camper stuff to be released... I know I'll be buying several copies, just in case.
It was fun hanging out after the show... looking at various people's feet and whatnot... =) I feel sorry for Jill that that weird guy ate her cookies that Chris gave her as a Christmas gift... Strange... And, it was nice getting to meet Soraya, and Yank99 (sorry but I forgot your name...) and it was, of course great to see Johnny in a tiara... ;-) Well, I guess that's all I can really think of...
Hope everyone that wasn't at the show had a great time in their own ways! I'm glad my sucky computer running an ancient version of Win95 still works...=)
Jess
First, a thanks to everyone I met at the show, and a thanks to those who didn't go for putting up with the usual hype from those who did. It's great attaching faces and personalities to people who were formally just addresses sending text. I think I flaked on some important goodbyes in my complete overexcitement. Well, what, given my posts and reputation in general, did you people NOT expect a healthy dose of energy?? ;) Again, pleased and honoured to meet one and all.
> The opening bands (Masio & Spike something) were ... uh ... last > minute finds I think. Perhaps the most interesting moment during the > opening acts show was when Soraya arrived. There was a sustainted > screaming from Nancy and Soraya that I'm sure everyone in the club heard. : ) > I'll let her tell her adventure later.
Um. Yeah. The screaming. Sorry about that. You know, after the fact, I felt really rude that I screamed during what's-his-shaven-head's set, but since after the show he was really hammered and rude, and tore a piece of paper out of my hand with David and Johnny photos from past shows printed on it, crumpling it up and tearing holes in it and laughing like a maniac, ... suddenly I don't feel so rude.
Here's why so much screaming: It seems as if one minute, my friend Dave and I were merrily buying keychain replicas of Missouri license plates ("I RULE" and "HARD2GET"), from the airport gift shop, and the next minute, we were sitting at the gate with 5 minutes left for boarding of the plane to Richmond. "MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. THE FLIGHT TO RICHMOND HAS BEEN CANCELLED. PASSENGERS WISHING TO GO TO RICHMOND TODAY, PROCEED TO GATE 15 WHERE WE WILL ACCOMMODATE AS MANY OF YOU AS WE CAN." Well, we didn't move as fast as some of the frantic herd, so we got hosed. No more flights to Richmond that day. None to Norfolk, either. Another airline had a flight to D.C., but our tickets weren't "expensive enough" to get into the only remaining seats--first class seats or somthing. They were totally uncooperative and downright mean. One woman at the service counter even ADMITTED to being unhappy they all had to work on the holiday and therefore she was "not going to bend over backwards to make anybody else's holiday work out just perfect."
Two tearful and yelling hours later ("Oh, god, I just spent hundreds of dollars to spend NYE in St. Louis") we finally convinced them to let us on a plane to D.C. that got in at 7-something p.m., and with no prior knowledge of the D.C. or Virginia areas, we hopped in a rental car and hoped that bomb threats or something wouldn't end up closing the highways. I refused to believe it would actually happen until we saw the Richmond city limits. The screams upon entry into the club were sheer bottled-up relief plus the joy of finally arriving at the desired destination among friends. It's one thing to have a concert canceled or something, days before a show. It's quite another to be hundreds of miles from home and hours away from joy and unable to get where you want to go, because TWA miscalculated the number of hours their pilot was allowed to fly that month.
However, the point is, we GOT THERE. The next few hours were as great as everyone said. Everyone is going to have a great time at the shows in the coming year. The guys have got that chemistry playing together just as always.
I wouldn't call the venue "nice," but I would say that it's fantastic anyway. Small, comfortable, and very laid back.
I've scanned 3 or 4 of my favourite concert shots so far. A tiara-clad Johnny said something about "these better not show up on the Internet" when we snapped one of them, so I'd better wait on posting that one until I find out if he was kidding... What, I thought he made a great princess. ;)
No riots. No chaos. No smoldering piles of anything. That's post-Y2k-hype depression for ya, huh??
Love and luck,
--Soraya
past regret: "That I didnt quit my job sooner!"
memorable moment: "Returning from work in a memorable fashion."
past regret: "Who cares now??"
memorable moment: "2nd tatoo."
past regret: "Not treating EVERY day like NYE!"
memorable moment: "This life or the last?"
past regret: "This life: that 'D' in high school Chemistry. Past life: Kicking that lantern over. Mooo!"
memorable moment: "Getting a hug from Johnny on Halloween...Getting a hug from Johnny on New Years..etc"
past regret: "That I am not famous yet!"
memorable moment: "Cracker show in Philly in March w/ Adam Duritz!"
past regret: "The 'Bob Incident' "
memorable moment: "Getting stalled in traffic because a truck had lost several boxes of men's and women's
underwear..."
past regret: "Having to leave Gentlemans Blue's CD release party early to take home a friend."
memorable moment: "...Dave Matthews Band concerts on back-to-back nights."
past regret: "Drinking too much"
memorable moment: "Passing out during a song (circus)...a first! At least I FINISHED IT."
past regret: "Forgot my Alka Seltzer...."
I just could'nt resist sharing... :-)
This show was very spontaneous and FUN. Bicycle Spaniard and Another Song About the Rain... thanks and THANKS!
>I feel sorry for Jill that that weird guy ate >her cookies that Chris gave her as a Christmas gift... Strange... Yeah, if the person who swiped half of Jill's holiday gift is on this list I want you to know that leaving $ in the can on top of the remaining cookies just doesn't make up for it. Shame on you.
Glad to meet everyone and I hope everyone made it home OK. Now here we go boldly into the New Year. Cracker 2000 has arrived...no matter that it says '19100' it HAS arrived :-)
~chris~