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Okay, I know things sound like they are getting out of hand, but I'm enjoying myself on
these Barenaked trips. This time I headed to my home state of NC to visit family and to
head to the BNL shows in Charlotte and Raleigh. The Charlotte show was at Tremont hall and
actually had BNL opening for Cowboy Mouth, a
Louisiana band, with an equal amount of energy as BNL, but in a totally different format
and vibe. Cowboy Mouth's drummer, Fred, is the lead singer and frontman, and a complete
maniac. His pounding rhythms has the crowd rocking and dancing along to their alternative
country rock sound. The band delivers a positive message about "loving life" and
not letting things get to you, as evidenced in their popular hit, "Jenny Said".
But let's get to the real reason for my being there. BNL opened with
"Shoebox" and played what they are calling the "longer rock festival
format", which means no acoustic opening, about 1 hr. 15 min. long, and one encore,
which included the addition of "A". Ed did a rap about astrology and Tyler
started the chorus, "He don't smoke dope, he reads your horoscope." Banter that
night had to do alot with the area, Steve making the cheap shot of the obvious rhyme of
Carolina and vagina. After one number where Steve walked out onto a speaker near the
audience, he commented that the speaker had been really sticky. Kevin, Jim, and Tyler all
chimed in about things they had done to the speaker to make it sticky, including eating
jelly beans, leaving bananas, and smearing peanut butter on it as well as Ed's butt. Later
during $1M, the banter moved into a theme having to do with hanging out with meat and a
slaughterhouse, which led Ed to ask what was Slaughter's hit. They lit into a version of
Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon", and as always, Steve impressed us of knowledge
of 80s lyrics. Somehow he moved into another CC song with "Time Won't Give Me
Time...". Steve caught my thrown monkey, and he stuffed him down his pants, with the
monkey's cute little face sticking out of his fly. Singing out of Ed's microphone, Steve
put his microphone down by the monkey's face as he concluded with his "Memories"
solo, which was a very hysterical visual effect.
The next day was the G105 Big Shindig in Raleigh at Walnut
Creek. This is a huge pavilion and its 22,000 capacity was sold out with BNL as the
headliner. Other acts included Shawn Colvin, Duncan Sheik, Poe, Verve Pipe, Cravin Melon,
Cowboy Mouth, and our boys, BNL. Also, on a second stage, I caught Sister Hazel, a new act
that I am really starting to like. Check out my review of them in Houston.
The earlier acts were hard to focus on as it was daylight and people were milling
around. I guess it's hard for a performer to get energy going when lots of seats are
empty. Shawn Colvin performed solo with just an acoustic guitar and sounded very good, but
with little else in terms of showmanship, probably due to her limited time, 1/2 hour. Next
up, Duncan Sheik found out just how serious the guys at Walnut Creek were about sticking
to their schedule, as they pulled his sound during his last song, "She Runs
Away". He looked pretty deflated and the pull was obviously unexpected, the fans were
left confused and flabbergasted. Really uncool on the part of the shows promoters. Anyway,
his performance was very good, playing with a full band his current hit, "Barely
Breathing" and others from his CD.
I'll have to admit that I didn't pay much attention to some of the other acts. I did
see Verve Pipe, but really only enjoyed the one song "The Freshman", as the rest
of their stuff was a bit heavy for my taste, more like Smashing Pumpkins than I expected.
However, this band from East Lansing, Michigan, had the crowd pretty revved and lead man,
Brian, is a pretty hot sight on stage with his guitar.
I got another look at Cowboy Mouth, which was a very similar show to the night before.
However, lead guy, Fred, disappointed with the crowd's involvement, left the stage the
first time to encourage some noise by running into the pavilion and shouting that
"you're not watching an episode of Seinfeld, you're at a rock concert". That was
exciting enough to get the crowd going, but Fred exited the stage a second time during the
hit "Jenny Said" to climb one of the very large pillar like structures in the
pavillion. Dressed only in overall shorts and shoeless, this sweaty, hulking figure,
climbed about 40 feet above the crowd and continued to talk and sing. Security was going
nuts trying to keep up with the guy. Definitely a high energy, insane performance.
Just a few comments about Sister Hazel, who played just before BNL on the second stage.
I really am beginning to like this band. Their current hit "All For You" from
the CD "Somewhere More Familiar" is a happy, peppy tune with an acoustic style
reminiscent of Dave Matthews and Hootie, but with a vibe all their own. They seem to be
really neat, enthusiastic guys, who are tickled pink about their success. I hope to catch
them again soon.
BNL hit the stage just as the sun was going down, so the full use of lights and effects
was evident. They were in great form and I am happy to report that the entire crowd
including the lawn was on their feet, singing and dancing the whole time. Many more people
than I would have ever expected knew words and the crowd went crazy during "Old
Apartment" and "Brian Wilson" which are obviously getting lots of play in
the Raleigh/Durham area. They did the horn vocals again during Enid, which look like a
more than temporary change (I love it!!!), but they haven't been doing Jim's "Spider
in My Room" during the past two shows in the interest of time. Jokes started with Ed
talking about the race for the fastest man alive between the American, Ben Johnson, and a
Canadian (I apologize for not knowing his name). He was proud to announce that Steve Page
won the race and Steve proceeded to run back and forth on stage as the band played the
Chariots of Fire theme. Later, Steve mentioned the athletic climb of Cowboy Mouth's Fred,
and said that instead of climbing something, he was going to fly around the pavilion with
a banner attached to his but that said "Roast Beef Special - 2 for 99 cents".
Since it had rained that day, Steve commented on how he got to look at alot of wet
t-shirted women, but what did the women get in return when they looked at him. They
thanked all the bands that had played that day, Ed saying that Duncan Sheik was a great
looking guy, and even started "$1M" with Verve Pipe's lyrics from "The
Freshman", "can't be held responsible...". No, none, zero, zilch, not even
one sliver of Kraft Dinner was thrown. I am wondering if people didn't know, couldn't keep
up with it all day, or if they were just being BNL correct. Either way, it was fine to not
leave with powdered cheese all over the place.
I'm very happy to see BNL getting attention in these far reaching places, especially in
my home state. I guess all that hard work and touring is paying off for them. They will be
back in NC in two weeks at Ziggy's in Winston-Salem, so that might be my next stop.
On That Note, I'm outta here......
C
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