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IN THIS ISSUE:
2004 Christmas The Bootlog Some Ezra Sights From New Orleans Listening Party Update
News & Links TTOY Hall of Fame Cowbell Hall of Fame BTE Impressions
Volume 2
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BTE AT THE PLAZA
This was a very good show. "Recognize" was the opener and I immediately noticed that since I had last seen the band which was two shows ago in New York City, both Tom and Travis seem to have lost a significant amount of weight. Perhaps they have been holding out for the holidays? Anyway, they both look great. Kevin and James Arthur Payne, Jr. were both sporting the post-grunge long sleeve under a tee shirt look. I guess I should also mention that it was a freaking miserable night weather wise, there was a mist in the frigid air that gave you the feeling that you were walking in a light spit and the wind seemed to be coming from directly in front of you no matter which direction you were walking. I even felt just a slight twinge of pity for the poor folks who had to step outdoors to catch a few drags on their cigs before the chill met the bone. So, after "Recognize" the guys went directly into "Misunderstood" which was well done as always and was followed by Travis shedding his blazer, I was wondering if his stylist recommended the blazer as the band blasted into "Good." "Pull" was next followed by "Live Again." Kevin introduced this one with the 'getting back on your feet after a bad breakup and eating a lot of pizza' story. I do love this one, however, after a really bad breakup, I seldom eat pizza or anything else for that matter, mostly I just drink a lot of Jack Daniels and red wine (for the fiber, of course!). Then they played the only "real" new song, "Daylight." I was sort of
expecting to hear "Special"' or one of the other ones but that was it
Tom spent some time talking about the new DVD at this point.
This was kind of
a waste of time because everyone knows that any true Ezra fan
would already have a copy. "King of New Orleans" followed and I found it
interesting that the song started with only a two count from Travis, I
will have to remember to check this out at shows in the future. I may
have been foolish to Then the weird part of the night happened. I don't want to bang on too much about the Ezra 'guy' that was in his "red sox" outfit at a New York show but here I go. They blasted into "In the Blood" and during the breakdown, Kevin combed the crowd for someone to come up and hammer a couple of bars of "Don't Fear The Reaper" on the cowbell. Anyway, some guy comes up and I guess makes some advances toward the Red Sox guy. He had on his Boston Red Sox hat and matching shirt that I am sure he laid out special for this occasion (I don't think that, in fact, but the guy they brought up obviously did).
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Kevin, I am happy to say put the Ky-bosh on this guy straight off and threw him off the stage. Well done indeed! They spent no time grabbing someone else up to do it proper without the unnecessary Boston bashing. The whole cowbell thing during "Reaper" is reminiscent of the Christopher Walken "Bruce Dickenson" skit on SNL when asks Blue Oyster Cult for "more cowbell!" I recommend digging through your archives for the best of SNL to check out this episode. (Editor's Note: We actually managed to track down a short clip of the sketch - check it out here). Next came "Get You In," and "At the Stars." At this point I was on my second Guinness which doesn't sound too bad until you discover that I and a couple of my closest people had several bottles of wine while we were inadvertently missing the Pat McGee band. A quick side note by the way. I thought it was quite clever that the Pat McGee band was involved with this "Instant Live" thing where you can get a copy of the show straight after the event. No waiting around for bootlegs and the money presumably, or a portion of the proceeds, actually goes to the band. Admittedly, this wouldn't make much sense if you had a live album you were trying to sell, as BTE does. "A Lifetime" was next with the "Red Sox" fan providing some auxiliary guitar work back by Jim Payne.. Do you think they are on their way to doing a full orchestra show like Metallica? Of course, Kevin will have to grit his teeth some more and end every line with "yeeaaahggg." (Editor's Note: He's actually tried this. Here's KG's James Hetfield impression). Then they did "I Wanna Be Sedated/Sincerely Me." I think every band that plays in the City owes it to the Ramones to cover at least one of their songs, but that's just me. "Desperately Wanting" was the show ender. At this point I had worked my way up to the stage by Tom and was trying desperately to get my phone camera to work. As you can see by the conspicuously absent show photos I was not able to do so. You put more that one function on a device and I am totally lost. Turns out, the case the phone was in was actually covering the lens. How dumb do I feel? I have certainly felt dumber on other occasions, but this night I think I ran away with the ultimate idiot maneuver.
The first encore number was by Kevin solo on the acoustic. He introduced the song as a tune he heard here in NYC in 1991 entitled "Love is Stronger Than Death" (by The The). Then the band came back with an acoustic breakdown set up (Tom on acoustic bass and Travis on some wacky "contraption" that wanted very much to be a drum kit) and did "Porcelain." They followed this with "One More Murder" and ended the night with "Rosealia" with some of Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain" thrown in. This was a fantastic show. The band was totally on and they looked happy and really got the crowd into it. I have never seen BTE put on a bad show and I don't think I am biased -- I do love them -- but I would say if I thought they blew the night, and December 7th at Irving Plaza was as good a show as I have ever seen them play. Sure wish I had a recording! Cheers for covering the Plaza show for us, Dave. Many thanks. If our readers want to know a little bit more about Dave and his band (Martly), a good place to start is our September 2003 interview with him. |
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