Last night was an interesting outing for Over the Rhine. The band rolled into town after a string of consistently strong shows. The moment I stepped into the ridiculously snooty Anthology club, I had a bad feeling for the band. It was just so un-OtR. By the end of the night, it looked like the band was frustrated and exhausted.

Anthology is a relatively new place in downtown San Diego. What seems like a cool idea at first glance, Anthology is a great example (in my opinion) of what is wrong with music today. Anthology is a swanky dinner-music venue. Decorated like it should be in South Florida, it's quite the opposite of San Diego's more chilled out places, like The Casbah and Belly-Up Tavern (the last two places OtR played here). The problem with this concept has to do with the nature of dinner tables and eating while a band is playing. People are naturally prone to be social and talk when they eat. The menu was outrageously overpriced - like $35 entrees and $13 mojitos in an 8 oz. glass.

Ideally, this would provide a great backdrop to the warmth and depth of Over the Rhine's music. The band looked absolutely stunning. Their sound (thanks to Juicy) was great, despite some funky acoustics that a rectangular room with concrete walls creates. During the first show, Karin did her best to lighten up an uptight crowd. Her stories and her great sense of humor, unfortunately, went right over the heads of most people. I am hoping for the band's sake that would be the only "tough crowd" on this tour. With the amount of money these patrons were putting on their food bills, I started thinking of them as "golden geese." It's a shame for Over the Rhine because they deserve better than that, considering how well they were playing.

That first show seemed to take a toll on the band. The Larson Sisters came for the second show, and we may have been the only three there from The Orchard. If there were others, they were scattered. Southern California was quite unrepresented for this band, on a night they could have used fan support. We shouted and made as much noise as we could, but too many people there showed as much interest in the music as an old discarded used teabag. The second set was nearly identical to the first. Mickey was only one who seemed to play with more fervor than the first show. The others looked exasperated. Karin said very little between the songs, quite the contrary of the first set. The band had that look of, "let's just do this set and get the heck out of here." I don't blame the band.

There were some salvageable and memorable parts to the evening. The music still sounded great, a testament to the professionalism of this band. We even shouted enough at the band to get them to do "Don't Wait for Tom" (they skipped this song in the first show). Between the sets and after it all, I had a chance to talk to Juicy. Dave turned up the music louder near the end of the first set - he did his part to waken up the audience. He asked me to send out a special message to his daughter here, and I will PM or email her as well. I got to meet Jake and Mickey after the show. I also got to say a quick hello to K&L. Everyone there seemed to be looking forward the The Coach House tonight. As Juicy said, the band needed to get back to a real rock n' roll club. If my kids didn't have school tomorrow and if I didn't have an early morning phone call with an attorney, I'd be there too.

I just hope the next round out here (they promise it will be a Christmas tour!) it will not be with Anthology.

Great post John. Thanks for giving us the good and the not so good for that show. I enjoy reading Apple accounts of shows all over the world. Kudos to you, Steph and Rachael (and other anonymous apples) for helping support the band in a tough situation!
J

hello...stephanie here (speaking for both rach (zoey) and i.

we felt quite the same. the club was extremely stuffy and overpriced. we brought two people with us so there were four all together. we asked for good seats without the $20 min per person charge and were told that we could sit no where (not even the bar) where there was not a minimum. we had already spent $40 on tickets and a night amounting to $240 (plus tip for the waitress) for a group of four people just seemed a little bit high. however we all agreed that if we had to we would probably pay double the amount for a good OTR show. we ended up with great seats right above the stage and did our part to encourage (hopefully not annoy) the band in a very dead house. sadly the band did not play very long and did not really do any of the older stuff, save karin playing ohio (which was beautiful!). however, they were amazing as usual. the sound was really good and the video close up of everything above the band was a nice touch as well. we loved every bit of the evening and left very happy to have spent an evening with OTR. unfortunately we wont be at coach house tonight. we had planned to see both shows as well but after talking it over today decided that we really had spent too much on the evening yesterday and can't afford the gas, tickets, and another minimum per person purchase at the venue. we look forward to hearing what eveyone has to say about the show though and we are sorry to have to miss it. --- the larson sisters

P.S. as usual we left the show wondering if we had once again taken our adoration of karin and linford too far...yelling "we love you's" at the stage...waiting around for them to come out after the show...offering to cary luggage...slipping notes into binders...its hard to hide how much we love them.

I agree. I forgot to mention the video in my post. The one redeeming part of Anthology was its use of cameras during the show - the band looked phenomenal on the giant screen above them. That overhead camera offered some sweet shots of Linford's playing keys, especially on "Goodbye Charles." Mickey's solo looked pretty good too, but I preferred to watch him in person than on the screen.

john (and stephanie and rachel), sorry to hear all of that. it's amazing how much the feel and vibe of a venue can impact a show. i guess "nicer" isn't always better i guess. and it really sucks if there's that disconnect w/the audience, if they never get sucked in...