Got this from a big fan: Oddly enough, this was a hugely disappointing show.
OK, so Joe and the gang were jetlagged from a flight from Ireland, so I
wasn't expecting flying leg splits or anything. In fact, I thought it
might lead to a bit of humorous dialogue from Joe about how out of it
he
felt or something. Hell, this was apparently part of his honeymoon
(?), so
I figured he'd have something funny to say during the show.
But, what happened was...there were maybe 40-50 people at the venue,
and
their openers, our very own Kahoots, put on possibly the best set of
their
~ 4 year career (they're generally just a pretty good indy rock band by
any
kind of national standards). Despite the jetlag, the P'Bros. seemed OK
before the show...Kathy and I cornered Peyton Pinkerton and Thom
Monahan. Peyton insisted on buying me a drink when he found out I was
a
New Radiant Storm King fan (aside to NRSK fans--new album being
recorded as
we speak!!). *Really* nice guy. OK, this is starting out good.
By the time they took the stage, apparently, Joe (and maybe Thom) were
completely bummed at the size of the crowd, since they basically
skulked
onto the stage and had practically *nothing* to say to the audience for
their entire ~ 50 minute set (aside to Todd R: yep, no 2 hour show
here). The only one of them who seemed "on" was the drummer
replacement
fella--and like I said, that would be OK given the jetlag and that, but
Joe
did *nothing* to try to draw in the crowd. They couldn't *wait* to get
offstage. Those of us who knew *any* of the tunes were calling them
out,
going fekkin' nuts trying to inject some energy into the band
and...nothing. Anybody who didn't know the band ended up against the
back
wall and bar asking themselves, 'what do those people up front see in
this
band'? I think just having rocked out to Kahoots unexpectedly stellar
set
may have left them exceptionally nonplussed.
After the show (no encore offered nor sought), I tried to catch the
band
and say "thanks for coming to the Vineyard", and I got nothing but a
surly
look from Joe.
Not sure what they wanted--this was an OK crowd for a Wednesday night
on
the Vineyard. Had they put out a gossamer/rockin' set, they would have
gained a number of newbie converted fans for life (the Oranges Band had
quite a few converts here last month). As for its size, in the cold
light
of day, this was maybe only ~ 30 ppl less than the crowd at the
Paradise in
Boston a month ago, when the band was *on* despite lack of Laura Stein
and
drummer and Bob Pernice, just like last Wednesday. Back then, notably,
Joe
was particularly engaging and charismatic and very funny between songs.
Even for the Paradise show, though, it wasn't quite as energized as I'd
have expected. Maybe the replacement players had something to do with
it
(although the drummer and the keyboard/guitar guy I thought played
excellently). Or maybe this just isn't that good a live band. Look, I
*love* them basically especially recorded--nothing has shaken my
opinion in
*The World Won't End* being the best record of 2001, and *Yours Mine
and
Ours* is going to score very high in my best of this year--but if
they're
trying to consolidate a large indy following with their touring, I
don't
know that they have the energy and intangibles to pull it off.
