Barenaked Ladies,
Cleveland, OH and Minneapolis, MN Labor Day Weekend 1997
Opening Acts: Tara MacLean
After depriving myself of BNL for the majority of the summer, I decided to make up for
lost time by planning a Labor Day mini tour. The first stop would be Cleveland on August
30, where they were playing the festival Taste of Cleveland and I could visit some old
friends. Second stop would be Minneapolis to take in the Mill City Festival and meet up
with some other friends from Houston that were visiting family in the area.
The Cleveland show turned out to be a full set including encore, which is unusual for
these festival set ups. BNL was the last band of the day. Just before them, Tara MacLean
went on for her last time with BNL on this tour. In addition to the great stuff she did
for the Seattle show she also asked Jim Creeggan to join her for
one song and then with Jim still hanging around, got Kevin to join for another. It was a
brilliant performance. This time it was only Tara and her guitar for the other songs and
she seemed to have a greater ease with the crowd, telling stories about the inspiration
for her songs. I definitely recommend checking out this other talented Canadian.
BNL hit the stage around 10pm and proceeded to play much the same as the Seattle show
referenced above, but with lots of Cleveland comments about how salty the food was at the
Taste. Ed also talked about how he visited a Science Museum that day and Tyler described
how you could touch a button that 10,000 other kids had touched and get their same cold.
In his usual fashion, Steve did some rap about preparing meals with bodily fluids. The
music was great, the night was lovely, so what more could one ask for.
So after a lovely day hanging out with my friend's family in Cleveland on Sunday, I was
off to Minneapolis. I arrived a little late at the festival but was able to pick up pieces
of other acts including some stuff on the blues stage, and very good folk band, Violent
Femmes, and Del Amitri, who impressed the heck out of me with their performance. I owned a
few of their CDs, but didn't realize what great performers they were. They had some really
rockin' songs and had a good rapport with the audience.
The BNLs took the stage around 7:30pm with plans for the abbreviated set. Some
favorites were left out like "These Apples" and "Blame It On Me", but
the set was still great. The funniest point of banter was when Ed noticed a guy up in the
office building that was working at his computer. He beckoned him to come to the window
and wave. He did and the entire crowd yelled up to him. Steve told him he'd give him $20
to drop his pants. They then proceeded to talk about what he was working on (downloading
porn in his underwear) or that he was the Satan of Minneapolis and Ed had just crowned him
the coolest guy at the festival.
During $1M, Steve got pelted with a box of Kraft Dinner as well as other things, which
appeared to put him in a fowl mood. I, in my enthusiasm, regretfully launched my standard
monkey (during the "Haven't you ever wanted a monkey" portion of the song) which
came precariously close to Steve and, I guess, scared him. My apology to him was
graciously accepted, but I have nevertheless, retired my "Monkey Throwing Arm".
Again, a great show, I'm hoping the boys will get some rest, do some writing of new
material, and then hit the road again to promote their new single for "Brian
Wilson". Check your late-night record shops soon.
In Minneapolis, I was very happy to have met up with some people that I first met at an
Underwater People show in Chicago. As
always, it is great to meet BNL fans around the country. By the way, UwP is a great band
that does BNL covers as well as Poi Dog Pondering, Bodeans, and Samples. If you're ever in
the Chicago area, check them out.
I'll probably take a break myself from BNL shows and catch a few things nearby, but I
have plans for Boston in October and then a new Christmas tour in Dec.
On That Note, I'm outta here......
C
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