August 02, 2004
The Best Band At The Best Venue
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I have finally had the opportunity to see my all time favorite band, the Barenaked Ladies, at my all time favorite venue, Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado. Mark this down: Monday, August 2, 2004. I can't believe it took this long to do it, but really, the earliest I could have done it was last September, which was BNL's first-ever concert at Red Rocks. My good buddy Shplink got to go, and, as he puts it, "I finally GET it."
BNL live is definitely the way to go. Why? Because as good as they are in the studio, they are all that and a hundred times over when they take the stage. They have this great way of connectiing with the entire audience through their musical talent, their showmanship, their adlibbing and their openness as people. You get a lot of insight into their lives. Thes guys are a lot like your small group of best friends whom you can get together with and talk about virtually anything. You know - the ones you can joke, vent, rant, and discuss anything with them...that's how it feels at one of their concerts. Like you're part of their small, intimate group of friends (even if that small, intimate group is about 10,000 strong).
I think this particular concert was my 8th or 9th, but I really stopped keeping track at 5. And it's not the old "all the shows run into each other" deal, either. Each show is great, in and of itself, and I just don't feel the need to keep track of each one.
Some highlights for me:
1. At exactly 9:55 p.m., the full (or nearly full) dark red moon peeked over the horizon just as they started singing "Upside Down." Talk about an awe-inspiring scene. We were sitting about 2/3 the way up the seating, and right in the middle. Seriously great seats, although front row center would have been better...
2. Yoko Ono live. Do I need to say anything more? Well, yeah. How about live and accoustic, just like it should be performed.
3. "One Week" the Hoe-Down version. This was too funny. And because most of the crowd knows the lyrics, we were all pretty quick to transition to their style. Good stuff. And I don't even like country music.
4. Watching their Red vs. Blue video shorts - I'm pretty sure they were done in Halo, but their dubbed voices were hysterical. To go along with this, there was a lot of kid artwork (I can only assume that it is their kids' stuff, but I can't confirm it) between songs, and in kind of a funny twist, every now and then they would show some video they (BNL and Alannis) shot together. Some scenes made it look like Alannis was onstage with them playing bass, or accordian or whatever, and some of them were "out in the wild" just having fun.
5. Mt. Rush. For those of you that were there, you'll find that funny. The rest of you...well...o.k., I'll let you in on the secret club. They were talking about turning Red Rocks into another Mt. Rushmopre-type monument with their faces on it. Many variations were talked about until one of them said Mt. Rush, and then Ed broke into "Fly By Night." Too funny.
...well, and I guess the biggest highlight was just getting to see them at Red Rocks. Ain't nothing better in the world (apologies to Ms. Grossman - my hottie English teacher in High School).
Seriously, though, they played a lot of great stuff. Their opening song was Brian Wilson which was done so beautifuly. The lights go off, and you can kind of see one person come to the stage. It's Steve and all you hear is his voice, with a single accoustic guitar (but lightly), which was absolutely perfect for the venue. He did the entire first stanza accousitc, and then the rest of the guys joined him for some 5-part harmony, and there were even a few times during the first verse where they did minimal instruments and it sounded so incredible.
Set List:
Brian Wilson
Some Fantastic
Adlib
Maybe Katie
Get In Line
Upside Down
Be My Yoko Ono
For You
One Week
Pinch me
Old Apartment
Baby Seat
Alcohol
War On Drugs
It’s All Been Done
Shopping
Powder Blue
If I Had $1,000,000
I can't wait until their website has the live tracks available for this show. For other BNL fans, please, please, please check out their live music download site at https://www.werkshop.com/bnllive/index.jsp. You can download high-quality MP3s of each show from their Everywhere For Everyone tour, as well as the more recent Au Naturale tour with Alannis Morisette.
O.k., enough ranting about BNL for now, but rest assured that you will hear more...
Thanks for listening!
-Myles-
Comments
BNL Rocks! Good story...
you are the best band ever!
I like the song Be My Yoko Ono! Hi
BnL rrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooocccccccccckkkkkkkkssssss!