November 14 2007: The Mountain Goats, the Bowerbirds - Canopy Club, Urbana IL
At 5pm I was still in Cincinnati. Was I simply unable to get a ride? Had I decided to stop following the tour and just given up? Was I taking a day off to nurse my bruised chest? Or was I enjoying myself in the 70-degree sun and eating a sandwich with a Candra, the person I'd stayed with the night before and talked into going to Urbana for the next show and bringing my ass along? That's right - not only did I get a warm place to sleep, but a ride to the next show as well. Just can't beat that shit.
So at 6pm Central we left Cincinnati, listened to the Long Winters and Josh Ritter en route, and arrived in Urbana at 9pm Eastern. Urbana, city I'd been to just once before, for the sole reason of seeing the Mountain Goats. It was fun to be back and know my way around (kind of).
"September 15 1983" got played second, and was waaaaay dubier than it's been in the past. I'm excited to hear how it sounds on the record. "You or Your Memory" and "Color in Your Cheeks" were played for the first time that I've heard this month, and the drums thwarted singers-along on "Color in your Cheeks."
"Maybe Sprout Wings" was played, but on acoustic instead of electric, which toned it down a bit. I definitely prefer it electric. But there was no electric guitar at this show whatsoever.
The real highlight, both of this show and of my life thus far, was hearing "Soft Targets" near the end of the set. Tune is (a) musically and lyrically one of my favorites and (b) one I hold pretty dear for personal reasons. I didn't think I'd ever hear it live. I'm glad I was so very wrong. John told the crowd after it was over that that was the most fun he'd had singing a song all tour. I was still singing the "Hunt down the vampire" line to myself for days afterward.
Encore started with "See America Right," but it wasn't nearly as good as it was in Springfield, owing to the lack of electric guitar. But it was still pretty great. And some dumb asshole felt the need to broadcast the fact that he knew all the words to "Houseguest" by getting all in John's face and screaming them at him. Perhaps, one can fantasize, he wrecked his car on the way home.
And, as all great things must, the show finished up and Candra and Mike (dude I'd met in St Louis and then again in Cincinnati) ate some late-night pizza before I bid them adieu to find a place to sleep.
So at 6pm Central we left Cincinnati, listened to the Long Winters and Josh Ritter en route, and arrived in Urbana at 9pm Eastern. Urbana, city I'd been to just once before, for the sole reason of seeing the Mountain Goats. It was fun to be back and know my way around (kind of).
"September 15 1983" got played second, and was waaaaay dubier than it's been in the past. I'm excited to hear how it sounds on the record. "You or Your Memory" and "Color in Your Cheeks" were played for the first time that I've heard this month, and the drums thwarted singers-along on "Color in your Cheeks."
"Maybe Sprout Wings" was played, but on acoustic instead of electric, which toned it down a bit. I definitely prefer it electric. But there was no electric guitar at this show whatsoever.
The real highlight, both of this show and of my life thus far, was hearing "Soft Targets" near the end of the set. Tune is (a) musically and lyrically one of my favorites and (b) one I hold pretty dear for personal reasons. I didn't think I'd ever hear it live. I'm glad I was so very wrong. John told the crowd after it was over that that was the most fun he'd had singing a song all tour. I was still singing the "Hunt down the vampire" line to myself for days afterward.
Encore started with "See America Right," but it wasn't nearly as good as it was in Springfield, owing to the lack of electric guitar. But it was still pretty great. And some dumb asshole felt the need to broadcast the fact that he knew all the words to "Houseguest" by getting all in John's face and screaming them at him. Perhaps, one can fantasize, he wrecked his car on the way home.
And, as all great things must, the show finished up and Candra and Mike (dude I'd met in St Louis and then again in Cincinnati) ate some late-night pizza before I bid them adieu to find a place to sleep.
posted by Peter Sohriakoff | 2:31 PM
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