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| BNL in 'Bama Call me crazy, call me insane, call me a good travel agent, but I couldn't resist a chance to do a Barenaked engagement in Birmingham, AL earlier this week. Having been to several of their large venue performances this year (which I might add are wonderful in their own right), I longed for the days of smaller, intimate venues,and started searching the tour schedule for something on the less than 1000 person size. The pre-Christmas radio shows offered a few choice selections, so with the magic of Internet airfares, my friend, Renee and I were on our way to Birmingham with plans to arrive just before the show started and leave early in the am, in time to get back to work on Wednesday. Sometimes a quickie is all you need. The show was sponsored by WRAX in Birmingham, a station that has supported BNL for a long time. Opening act, Train from San Francisco, was somewhat unimpressive to me, sounding like Black Crows meet Kenny G. and playing covers of both Led Zeppelin and Seal. They seemed talented, with a variety of instruments, but the sound was not my style. BNL came on at about 10:30pm, opening with "The Old Apartment" obviously a Birmingham favorite. The crowd was singing along from word one. The room, typically able to hold 500 was bursting at the seams with the over 1000 that the radio station crammed in there. The crowd was mostly frat boys in baseball caps and sweet little southern girls (at least on the exterior). After the first few songs, Ed told a story about his flight in from Toronto in which he tried to go to the bathroom in a stall that was marked vacant. He tried to push the door open, but met with some resistance, so he tried again, and again, and again....Finally he heard this deep voice say " Help ". As he tells this story, the rest of the band join in with a little ditty about helping someone take a s*&t, complete with Jim's high falsetto of "help, help" in the background. Later, Ed told about their dinner at John Bishop's Ribs. Being celebrities, they were escorted to a special room, and said that they had the honor of actually eating one of John Bishop's actual ribs (he has now passed on). The crowd was fairly grossed out by this, but nevertheless, chuckled in the morose humor. Also, Ed made fun of the small TV screens that were on each side of the stage and how, no matter how far away you were from the stage, the actual band on stage was much more visible than the view from those screens. He then talked about a new sitcom starring a rock band and Steve joins in for a song complete with "the sun always shines on TV." BNL played about a two hour set, crowd favorites were the gems from th enew CD, Stunt, One Week, It's All Been Done, and Alcohol. Old favorites,Jane and Brian Wilson made it along too, and so did the obligatory $1M, this time with banter about Alabama Taco Machine (a local restaurant), with Ed making it sound like it was an ATM that dispensed tacos. So, as the song says "Who Needs Sleep", especially when I can trade sleep for a night with BNL. Next stop on my BNL itinerary will be the Pittsburgh show after Christmas and I plan to tour with BNL through New Year's. It's going to be a Happy Holiday. Seasons Greetings to all. On That Note, I'm outta here...... C |
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