Thanks Nikki - you were pretty awesome yourself! It was great to finally meet you in person.
Now on to the review...
So, I get there at 4:15 which I thought was just in time, but they guy from the Troc told me that the soundcheck wasn't until 4:30. Josh from y100rocks got there soon after and in a few minutes, we were in! As Nikki had suspected, there were only about 20 people at the soundcheck. I think there were 24 people scheduled to be there but I don't think even 20 showed (how could you NOT show up to an opportunity like that?!?!) Anyway, the whole band was on stage except Raine at first. They played through a few songs with just instrumentals which was different (for me at least - I'm sure they do it every night). Then Raine came on and they did some "full versions". All HIPT songs for the soundcheck. For a while the guys were talking to each other off mic probably about sound and such. Then the band left the stage and another guy from the Troc came out and told us that we all needed to go outside and wait for the doors to open. I thought "this is strange, what happened to getting to talk to the guys and getting autographs and such?" At that point I figured I would just give the tribute album to Josh and see if he could get it back to OLP. As I was walking over to him, he chimed in saying "We were told that the people in the soundcheck were going to get to meet the band and get autographs." The Troc guy was cool with that and soon all four of them came out. I gave the CD to Raine (just because he happened to be the first one I talked to) and told him basically what it was. I also told the other guys that I had given the tribute album to Raine and all four of them seemed to really appreciate it. I've heard only good things about how OLP is with their fans and they certainly didn't let me down. While it was a fairly short meeting, they all seemed really cool and down-to-earth and all that. Duncan said that I look like Bowie's bass player with my puffy sideburns. While I am a Bowie fan, I cannot recal what his bass player looks like...I'll have to google it for a photo. I got my copy of HIPT signed by all four of them. It's my first item signed by them. I bid on a few signed items on eBay in the past but was always outbid. This is much sooler though, because I have not only the autographs, but also the memory of meeting them. Then everyone started taking pictures with the band. I had gotten my camera ready earlier in the day but forgot it last minute...doh! Anyway, Nikki was kind enough to take my picture on her camera. Thank you!
Then we went outside and waited to get back in (kind of strange, isn't it?) Luckily, they let us get right to the front of the line! I emptied by backpack as is procedure at such venues, so I had 50 or so copies of the tribute CD in my hand in paper sleeves. One of the Troc guys came over and asked what I was doing with the CDs. I told him about the tribute and said that I was passing them out to the fans. He asked all these questions then like if I was selling them and when I planned to hand them out and if the band had a copy and if the band knew I was giving copies away. Ya know those cop shows on TV where they get the suspect in that little room start banging on the table? It was like that except outside and with no table
Anyway, I was honest with the guy except when I asked if the band knew if I was handing copies out. I didn't tell them that I was handing copies out, but I told this guy that they knew...as if they would be against it! Finally, he said that I could bring the CDs in and hand them out, but that I couldn’t do it until after the show and that I had to do it outside the venue. Wow, I felt like I was doing something wrong!
Anyway, on to the show…
First the openers…I really enjoyed Pedestrian. Actually, it was just the lead singer/guitarist from Pedestrian who also is doubling as OLP’s second guitarist. He was playing some really different sounding stuff. Fairly complex solos on top of a vocal line that fit, but was totally different than the solo. I really respect musicians who can play 2 completely different things at the same time. Steve played keyboards on one of the songs and Duncan and Jeremy joined in on another. Danko Jones was up next. As I’ve said on here before, I like the CD. There were parts of the performance I liked and parts I thought were annoying. Most of the music was good, but it was a bit too showy for my taste. I’m glad I saw them once, but I won’t be rushing out to buy tickets the next time they’re in Philly. Pedestrian, however, I wouldn’t mind seeing again.
Then, the reason we were all there…OLP! The show was awesome. I can’t see it was better than past OLP shows I’ve been at, but it was definitely an equal which is certainly nothing to complain about! I noticed that they were playing Wipe That Smile Off Your Face at a lot of the shows prior to Philly and I was hoping they would play it here because it (along with Leave The Light On) is my favorite song off of HIPT. Not only did they play it…they went way beyond what is on the album. They turned part of the chorus into a sing along and totally brought down the hose at other points in the song. That was probably the highlight of the night. The show had most of the songs from HIPT, and lacked a lot of the older favorites as most of the recent setlists have. I can’t really say that’s a bad thing because I love the new album, but some more older songs would have been nice. I did really like the reworked version of Clumsy. Oh, towards the beginning of the show Raine noticed that they were serving alcohol on the balcony and he was like “We’ll take some beers down here.” After a few songs he made a remark about how he didn’t get the beer, but shortly after, a few waitresses came up on stage with drinks for the guys. As they were leaving the stage Raine called them back and gave them a tip. He said that it was a hundred and they’d have to split it, but it looked like a dollar to me.
I was figuring that Raine wouldn’t clime up on the balcony since they haven’t been playing OMA, but he did (I think it was during Will The Future Blame Us? but I’m not sure). Raine remarked that his vocals seemed louder when he was up on the balcony.
Well, after an awesome show, sadly, it was time to go home. Or, as I like to say, time to hand out the tribute album. When I thought about it, handing it out at the end of the show was probably a good idea because if I gave them out before, people would probably just leave them somewhere. However, since I was right up front, I figured that by the time I got out most people would be gone. Sure, I was told not to hand the CDs out inside the venue, but what were they going to do – kick me out? That’s where I was going anyway! The CDs went really quickly and I heard some people talking about it as they were walking out.
Okay, now THAT’S my longest post on the CM. Hope I didn’t bore you too badly!
:::troy:::
