Reviews by...
Jess
John
joshua cross
jill
1. One Fine Day
2. Been Around the World
3. Eurotrash Girl
4. Lonesome Johnny Blues
5. Strange
6. Teen Angst
7. Wedding Day
8. Heaven Knows I'm Lonely
9. Mr. Wrong
10. I Want Everything
11. Sweet Thistle Pie (w/ Shannon Worrell)
12. Loser
13. Dr. Bernice
14. Get Off This ("fuck the slice I want the pie" mix)
*encore*
15. Sweet Potato
my thoughts...
Starr Hill is a great place for a show. Sound was good and atmosphere is nice. Nice bathrooms too. =)
The show was good despite the fact that it had to be cut a little short due to David's voice taking leave. I suppose that was better for me anyway since I had to be up at 6:30 am the following day... =) One Fine Day still kicks ass live! Mr. Wrong was especially good. The crowd seemed to be participating in a dramatization of the song... For I Want Everything, David had to switch guitars after the first few chords because of some monster feedback from the acoustic. It was beautiful with him on electric. For Sweet Thistle Pie, Charlottesville's own Shannon Worrell (once of September 67, and who also has some solo stuff out in her own name, and who, along with Kristin Asbury sang the backing vocals for Sweet Thistle Pie on the album) came up to do backing vocals. David and Brandy rocked out "virtual sex" style during the guitar solo part. Kenny had an amazing solo in Loser. Johnny is still playing wireless.
Jess
Before Cracker took the stage a local band called Gift Horse was playing ... ahhhh alright I guess. Odd selection of tunes from them though ...
For the between band intermission a couple new Cracker songs (we've heard them in mp3 format) were played on the club's stereo. The joke was that Cracker wasnt going to play, they were just going to play their new album and see if anyone noticed. Just us C2K geeks though : )
Speaking of us C2K geeks ... wait till you see the info collected by John Finch last night ... that will be available soon.
Highlights for the night included Sweet Thistle Pie ... David freaked me out by looking directly behind me, and I feared a crowd surfer or something. I looked behind me, but I didnt spot trouble. Next thing I know, Shannon Worrell hops up on stage for backing vocals.
They did the electric wedding day with David turned way way up on bass. I started to wonder how many keyboard players run their stuff through effect pedals - this thought of course occured to me during Loser. I'd pay to hear Kenny do some Doors stuff sometime too by the way.
Get Off This did include the 'fuck the slice' lyrics, but they passed on something similar for Sweet Potato.
No strings were harmed during the show last night, but David will probably make up for it another night. : )
I probably missed something, but I'm a little blearly eyed .. and I've got to head in to work now (unlike some other C2K concert goers that are probably sleeping till noon today...)
John
there may be a song or two i left out, but i don't think so. also, i'm almost positive that's not in the right order.
highlights for me were the new songs (which i think one fine day is one of the best songs they've written), heaven know i'm lonely (which i've never heard live), and i want everything (which i had also never heard live). wedding day, dr. bernice and eurotrash girl were awesome as usual. sweet thistle pie was incredible w/ shannon coming up on stage and singing with them. she has an amazing voice! and i loved the virtual sex thing david and brandy did during the song... i've got three questions about that: 1) how the hell does she bend over like that in the first place? 2) how does she do it in those shoes? 3) how does she play her bass while doing it? she amazes me!
when they started to do i want everything, david's acoustic started getting feedback, and i was really afraid they weren't going to do the song. but luckily they did it w/ david playing the trusty charvel instead. that was really amazing. i love that song! kenny had a really cool, trippy little keyboard solo in loser, and after it david sang the chorus part for a third time. i was also happy to hear that song. during get off this, david started the "fuck the slice we want the pie" thing. johnny and brandy were still doing the na-na-nas, and then all of a sudden brandy started belting out these amazing powerful notes w/ her voice. completely caught me off guard. i looked up, and she had sort of a surprised look on her face too, almost if she wasn't expecting it either. then david announced that he was losing his voice, thanked us for coming, and they walked off. everyone was still clapping, and frank ran back onstage and yelled "ah, shut the fuck up" or something along those lines. then they came back and did sweet potato, then david said his voice was really not feeling too well, and that he couldn't do anymore, and they left for good.
the band that opened for them, gift horse, was alright. sort of reminded me of weezer for some reason. they weren't anything especially excellent, but better than some of the opening acts cracker's had in the past.
i thought the venue for the show was pretty cool. had a nice atmosphere, and was basically just a big open room. there were a lot of people there last night! it was so hot in the midst of all those people! surprisingly, i can't remember anyone yelling for low, and they didn't play it. amber and i were in front of brandy, almost at the front of the stage. we were standing behind brandy's family--they came out for the show!--until a bunch of really drunk people pushed their way up there and pushed us back. made me mad, cos i was so much shorter than them! that, and i had been in the club since 8!
i know i'm rambling, and not really talking about things in any sort of order. i'm tired and excited. i thought it was one of the best cracker shows i've seen yet. i really hope that someone out there recorded it! after the show, amber and i hung around for a bit. we went up to frank, and i told him i thought it was the best show they'd done. he thanked me and asked where i'd seen them before. i rattled off the list, and he told me that they all had a lot of fun up there last night. you could tell they were enjoying themselves. i chatted w/ frank for a few more minutes, and he thanked me for supporting them, and i thanked him for giving me such wonderful music to support, and then we made our way to johnny. johnny talked to us for a good 10 minutes. we talked about david's voice for a long time (johnny was not very happy that david was over near the bar talking to people with his voice not feeling well). he said that, naturally, if david didn't feel better there would not be a show at ziggy's. i told johnny he could sing all his songs. he laughed and said that would take about half an hour. then we talked about him trying to sing david's songs, and joked about them doing an instrumental set. i asked him about the new album. he said september, hopefully. he said they're still trying to narrow the 25-27 songs they have recorded down to enough to put on one cd. as he put it, it's time to start killing their babies, and talked about how attached he and david are to the songs, many of which will have to be cut, and how attached they are to one another's songs. i told him they should release what they can't fit on this album on another album or on the website. he said he would really like to release an ep of what gets cut, but eps don't sell too well anymore. and we talked about a bunch of other stuff, but i won't get into all that.
thanks for reading this, if you have! i felt like rambling, and where better to do it? i'm bummed that the show tonight at ziggy's is cancelled since i was going to drive the three hours again to see them, but i can completely understand why. david's voice really did sound scratchy and soar. luckily last night was awesome!
--joshua cross