'cause I've x-posted it all over the net anyway-
OHIO and I
Over the Rhine dropped Ohio in late 03. My first real memories are walking around in the aftermath of Jeanne and the last of my academic career at Kent. Walking home to Lake Street From campus. I think that's what's it with those first 5 tracks. Maybe the reason that the title track's where I go for a smoke is buried there. Trying to make it to track 6, Suitcase. Maybe it's cause I've heard it as live as often as I have Fever.
One of my top 10 favorite OTR songs is in that 5. Jesus in New Orleans was the last song to be debuted at the Brady. I'd waited and waited to get that one on disc. And Show Me was one of the best surprises.There's a sexy in it I'd only seen live- finally caught in studio. What I'll remember most was a stone in my heart my throat kept trying to swallow. Out of nowhere and far too close. All the way to the first disc's closer, the sweeping "Changes Come."
When disc 2 opened, I thought she said "I'd thought that we'd be further in love by now." I couldn't believe it ended with (yet again still) Bothered. Alright, I knew it was a set up for the hidden track. I still think Flown Free is the lost sister to it and in an alternate universe is on the disc in place of Bothered.
But, with the place I was in with life, I thought How Long Have You Been Stoned? was a personal question.
It was a great to have so many actually new songs at once. It was missing one I'd heard only a time or two and dearly loved (and is still unrecorded-ish), but alright.
Ohio got hard to listen to, admittedly, by late 04, with my life where it was. I wasn't ready for Drunkard's Prayer when it arrived. But as so often with OTR disks, DP certainly served as my redemptions for its own eras.
Not that Ohio hasn't come back. Not like the song's left the set list- like I've often said, Karin sits at that piano and plays a chord and I 'know' and am off for a smoke break. It just embodies a melancholy I've no room for. I've grokked it. I don't want to burst into tears when I hear it, like Zon when they sneak in Latter Days 'cause she hasn't wrapped her head around HEALTHY APATHY. Sometimes its just like an odd itch. I don't even really mind it, especially if it means we get BPD after it, cause I really like catching Linford play bass. I remember when we thought he was just the bass player. And the 'hissy fit.'
There's also the indelible memory that Eu and I share with that album.
-'yote swoon y'all-
Saturday night, track one to 21. Through a confluence of influences, we get to be there. OTR doing a whole album as a piece isn't a totally foreign concept- I expect there might be some Apples out there who've thought, "Yeah know, I could make Trumpet Child Live from... Mama Luna smiles." And the Techy 'Yote has a bunch of questions- there's like 4 songs I've pegged that I haven't recalled seeing live previously. I've heard told that they're expanding to a 6 piece for the show, is that enough to pull off 'Its Not Too Late,' or are they relying on an Orchard for a choir?
What the Erisan Apple in me wonders is- Ohio clocks in at 94 minutes. That's enough to be friendly with the audience and pull off an encore with out having to strain yourself to Springsteen-esque lengths. But what do you do as an encore?
So, Over The Rhine playing Ohio, the double album, as a whole piece, worth the scratch for the occasion?
The simple answer, duh. Yeah.
The old school Listee one?
Hell yeah! Even if they just walked on, did it note for freaky note, and walked off. Which would be pretty impressive to start with anyway.
The prattling one?
I expect to be ready to sit and catch my breath when Karin sits down at the piano, after having danced my likely leather clad fanny off to one of my favorite songs. Jake playing Jesus in New Orleans is always a good idea too, in my opinion.
And I'll giggle like a fiend when they play 'How Long Have You Been Stoned.'