Rolling Cef Concert Reviews
Gordon Downie was brilliant with his ranting in between lyrics. (Some singers have enough trouble just remembering the lyrics.) The harmony vocals sounded great. The guitars were rockin' and the fans were ecstatic. It seemed like most of the fans were either from Canada, or had lived in Canada at one time. It was a real community feeling.
The opener was another Canadian band, Mystery Machine. They were also great, and well aware that the crowd was in their favor, greeting them both nights with "Welcome to San Francisco, Canada!"
Here are the set lists:
Red Planet are a pop/rock band with an early eighties sound. They had some good material, although I thought the melody lines were too often in the upper range. They did do an excellent cover of The Cars' My Love.
Glitter Mini 9 is all-female band with a glam/hard-rock sound. The singer and bassist shared lead vocals and put out some cool harmonies. The songs were fairly basic in structure, but catchy.
Amy B. is a young singer/guitarist who performs at Paradise Lounge regularly. I'm glad I finally got a chance to see her. She has a great voice and interesting guitar rhythms. Backing her up were a 6-string bassist and drummer, providing a full sound.
Margo Timmins, the lead singer, and sister of the guitarist and drummer, has a beautiful voice and friendly demeanor. She also has that special gift of grabbing everyone’s attention in the room when she speaks. She was never at a loss for words in between songs. Common Disaster was prefaced with a humorous observation of the U.S. culture, which related soap operas, the Clinton sex scandal and the Jerry Springer show. It was Margo's scary realization that art does actually imitate life.
Everyone was neatly packed in for the Junkies sold out performance. The venue was perfect and the crowd was respectful. Fans called out requests for favorites such as Blue Moon. "It's coming" Margo would tell them.
Over the Rhine not only supported them as the opening act, but different members sat in with the band for an ever-changing lineup.
Cowboy Junkies are such a strong act, I'm promising myself now that I won't miss another show any time they come to town.
Naked Barbies were not the twenty-one year-old sex goddesses that I had hoped for. In fact, all but one member of the band is male. The female sings lead and plays a telecaster, which reminded me of Sarah McLachlan a bit, but the songs had predominantly a country feel to them.
Crazytown put on a good show. It was the second time I saw them and their songs are starting to stick in my head. The singer makes an effort to talk to the crowd and can be quite entertaining at times. His voice reminds me of Dylan, while the music has a Georgia Satellites influence. The guitarist throws in a lot of Eddie riffing in between songs, which scores points with me.
Local act Box Set kept the side stage populated for a while with their acoustic rock sound.
Barenaked Ladies were brilliant. They were full of energy as well as good humor. The set was totally entertaining, with descriptions of methane fields and bare asses in the sun.
Ben Harper was a nice surprise. I had thought he was a reggae artist, but by the end of the set, it was impossible to categorize him. He plays a blistering slide guitar. I loved the cover of Voodoo Chile.
Blues Traveler were awesome as well. Many of the songs were unfamiliar to me, but it didn't matter. They're one of those bands that can just go up there and jam and it sounds great.
The encore was Thank You, followed by Rock and Roll. The crowd still cheered for more after that, but when you just played the most popular encore song in history, and you’re Led Zeppelin, there’s really nothing left.
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