From: owner-edheads-digest@efohio.com (edheads-digest) To: edheads-digest@smoe.org Subject: edheads-digest V4 #218 Reply-To: edheads@efohio.com Sender: owner-edheads-digest@efohio.com Errors-To: owner-edheads-digest@efohio.com Precedence: bulk edheads-digest Monday, September 24 2001 Volume 04 : Number 218 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Review: EFO at The Knitting Factory, Sept 21st, 2001 [Shellyus@aol.com] EFO at Boston Folk Festival ["Liam Sullivan" ] Re: EFO at Boston Folk Festival ["Jim Merullo" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 03:52:42 EDT From: Shellyus@aol.com Subject: Review: EFO at The Knitting Factory, Sept 21st, 2001 sorry for the delay in posting this, but i followed up my friday night of EFO goodness by having a saturday night of DVN goodness in baltimore!!! {but i - -did- finish it before monday morning, john :) } ok. hrrrm. how to write about this show. i am still feeling the emotion from this show and i live in philly.{though i have spent an extensive amount of time in NYC when i worked for a professional theatre company} it is odd driving towards the city and having 3 FBI cars passing by you on the side of the bridge or road where there -is- no lane. it is very strange indeed driving towards the city and not seeing those towers. . it is odd coming out of the subway in lower manhattan and looking up to try to orient yourself by looking at them and they're not there.... it is odd seeing the cranes and the huge, powerful worklights in the space where the two gleaming towers used to be. even moreso, it affects me because the void where the towers used to be to me represents the lives lost and the people they left behind. ok....sorry for the downer...that being said...on to the show review! {i'll do it in my usual style...ong, rambly, and packed with details...:) } EFO came out on stage to much applause. Someone in the crowd yelled "thank you for coming to New York!!" and mike gave a simple wave and a nod. eddie blew the pitchpipe. they began the show with 'The National Anthem'. ok...just the -beginning- of what would be a very emotional night for audience and performers. after that, they strapped on their instruments{well, not eddie or julie} and launched into one very charged. after that, robbie said that some of the stuff that they were playing was borrowed and some was stolen and mike explained that their horn section was still left behind in the trojan horse and they couldn't get it through and into the city. he also stated that they always travel with a trojan horse horn section and it's a bitch to haul all the way from VA. it kinda took robbie and even julie to realize that mike was making a segue, then julie commented on it. then mike was being silly & that made julie - -totally- crack up, so robbie finished the intro part in falsetto. go robbie!! old dominion after that, julie mentioned robbie's help on the intro and he said 'personally, i think it adds to the song greatly.' *grin* quick. the best of me{who mike dedicated to their van driver, philly joe and robin who'd brought a buncha people up from VA..he was trying to 'set them up'} jerusalem. beautiful. as always. i, for one, was speechless and teary by the time it ended{and i'm sure i'm not alone there.} after this, julie talked about QUICK and that she had written a few songs for it and track 4 she wrote for her son, liam. robbie then chimed in that according to one magazine,{he was referring to the folkwax ezine}, that julie had written the-entire- album. he then said that he and mike hadn't received any royalty checks from the album yet, but he -did- notice that julie had a nice new maternity wardrobe. :) hey little man. after this, mike held up a picture of liam that julie had by her mic stand and the crowd went 'awwwwwwwwwwww'. 'isn't he cute?', mike asked. 'This isn't -him', he said , and went on joking. imagine me after this, mike did an intro into 'tommy' stating that 'too much of a good thing is America'{don't misinterpret ..this -wasn't- a diss} tommy the canexican. and apparently we responded well to that.....he said 'better than iowa!!!!' next came what someone told robbie was 'the most mean-spirited song that this band has ever done' and he said 'well, i wrote it for my sister, so if you son't like it, screw you!!' {hee hee} 1,000 sarahs after this, mike said 'julie!!! get us out of this negativity!!!!' then this turned into a huge sillyfest -before- the song began which was mainly about elivs' colon and how much it weighed when he died{you -had- to be there.....} great day after this, robbie said 'NYC is large, but i assure you, wyoming is bigger.' number six driver then mike gave this wonderful intro. he said that with all that has been going on the past few weeks, that there was a song of theirs that a lot of people throughout teh country were wrapping themselves around and he hoped that new york would be able to wrap itself around it, too. oh my brother and at the end of this song, there was naught but silence and sobs. no one made a sound...not even the band.... after about a minute, robbie cleared his throat and said 'thank you. that was a gift.' and someone in the crowd yelled 'amen!!' robbie brought up the fact that eddie was playing virtually -nothing- that he owned tonight and was doing a wonderful job at keeping the beat for stuff with the kick-drum. next came candido, which we all sang along for the chorus. julie ducked out for sec and mike and robbie were bantering about understudies and and then started talking about KISS and how they traveled with understudies and it was lost on a lot of people. mike said 'is this thing ON??' and tapped his mic then he, robbie and eddie broke into 'detroit rock city'. after this, julie returned. mike announced her as 'paul stanley' *laugh* they mentioned again that they'd parked in princeton, and mike started a jam again and robbie, and eddie joined in and then mike sang 'prince-ton rock city!!'. hee hee. mike intro'd the next song as probably one of his favorites on the new album and even though other people didn't like it, he wrote it and HE liked to do it!!! let's get mesolithic {after which it was brought up that it's not fair to make a 6 month pregnant woman move like that to 'privates and rack'...heehee} eddie's concubine. as always, fun and energy-charged. they closed with 'america'{my country, tis of thee...-not- the neal diamond one} and asked us all to sing along. encore: {robbie said they didn't wanna go back to princeton either. and eddie told us about a -great- deal he found on a hotel with a central park view for $44 and how -scary- it woulda been...heehee} three fine daughters of farmer brown after this, mike said we were looking tired coz the arms looked a little sloppy on 'the joe'. then he intro'd the final song as one that they did at the gospel wake-up call at falcon ridge this year and asked us all to sing along, for those of us who knew what to do, and that it was off the 'oh brother, where art thou' soundtrack and thanked us all for being there and that there were some people who wanted to be there and couldn't make it and then there were some people who were unfortunately just in the wrong place at the wrong time. down to the river to pray what a wonderful ending for a wonderful show. it was one of those 'i wish more people that i love could have been with me' shows, ya know? great chats with julie, mike and robbie after the show, too. what great people they are.{so's eddie, but he was busy :) } ok..now that i have used ALL of the memory on your computers, i'll go now and -finally-post this for those who wanna read it. and, seriously, take care, all. *HUGGGSSS* shelly ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 11:06:25 -0400 From: "Liam Sullivan" Subject: EFO at Boston Folk Festival Two lovely days in Boston with a fantastic collection of performers. Those of you used to festivals on idyllic farms would find the setting of the BFF quite different. It takes place on the campus of UMass - Boston, quite possibly one of the most hideous academic buildings ever constructed (think of it as a humongous parking garage with classrooms built on the roof and you'll get the idea). However, to it's credit, UMB has several great auditoriums and a lovely athletic field where the Main Stage was set-up. Add to that gorgeous views of the Boston skyline and harbor and you could ignore the architecture (although it was hard to ignore all the planes flying overhead en route to Logan airport). EFO performed on Sunday afternoon in what seemed a surprisingly short set compared to the other artists. Mike's wit was sharp as he noticed one of the food vendors signs said The Benevolent Burrito and commented that they are closely related to The Philanthropic Falafel. He also referred to Eddie as Eddie "Verizon" Hartness a few times (if someone can explain Eddie's connectiont to the phone company, I'd appreciate it). Mike also commented that he & Robbie were jealous of the handsome and talented young pianist who played a few songs with Livingston Taylor. The band played a set almost entirely of new songs which were great although I was dissapointed that they didn't play many older songs. Not that I dislike the songs from Quick, I'm just aching to hear them play some of their older stuff too, such as "Woman of Faith," "Oh My Brother," "Three Fine Daughters," "Jerusalem," or "Bookends." Set list: Old Dominion (the bassline sounded particulary good on this performance, kind of like and old-time jug band) Quick The Best of Me (introduced with story of jealousy of Liv Taylor's pianist) Hey Little Man Number Six Driver Let's Get Mesolithic ("children love the rhytmns, and parents hate the lyrics" - Mike) Drum Solo (Eddie was ON as always) Candido & America (the audience sang along to the chorus and even did a fade out that sounded pretty) America (trad. patriotic song, not Neil Diamond's) Other artists I saw at the festival include: Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem - First time I've seen them, and they're kind of like EFO with a bluegrass twist. The drummer has a set made entirely of recylced materials - cardboard box, tin cans, and an old suitcase/bass drum. Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer - two of my favorites, great as always. The Kennedys - first time I've seen them and they played an amazing set. They kind of remind me of the Indigo Girls except that they're a married woman & man. After the sound system went to pot, they invited everyone to gather around the stage and played unplugged and unmiked and sounded even better. Livingston Taylor - Another I'd never seen before. He played a lot of laid-back and humorous tunes. He also was joined onstage by one of his former students and they played a beautiful duet. The Holmes Brothers - Like the Kennedys and EFO, they are from Virginia and shows the wonderful diversity of music created in the Old Dominion. They played a loud, electric blues set. Altan - I've seen them once before at the Birchmere. They are high-energy Irish trad band from Ireland and one of the best. I hope everyone else who attended the festival had as good a time as I did. peace, Liam _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 11:48:38 -0400 From: "Jim Merullo" Subject: Re: EFO at Boston Folk Festival - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Liam Sullivan" > He also referred to Eddie as > Eddie "Verizon" Hartness a few times (if someone can explain Eddie's > connectiont to the phone company, I'd appreciate it) I'd appreciate it too. Not many of Mike's jokes go over my head but that one sure did. All I could think was that it had something to do with Eddie's wireless microphone he used during the accapella numbers. > The band played a set almost entirely of new songs which were great although > I was dissapointed that they didn't play many older songs I too, was a bit disappointed. I love all the new songs but it would have been nice to hear some old favorites. The band played well but I guess no matter how much they do, it's never enough. Also, the PA System was on the blink and the mic volumes seemed to have a mind of their own. I'm not sure if Robbie's intense vocal reverb during "Number 6 Driver" was a result of this but something seemed wrong. The bass and drums were too high and the backup vocals were too low during most of the songs. Not EFO's fault, obviously, but it was one more thing to distract from the band. I was sitting about 25 feet away from the soundboard tent and I got to watch Soundman Bob (any relation to Sideshow Bob?) in action. I must say, that man is the hardest working man in show business yet he always seems to smile. I think he's on the crack cocaine. The crowd also seemed a bit subdued. I'm sure part of this had to do with the low turnout and the general national mood. The show didn't seem to have the usual atmosphere of an EFO show. Does anyone know what kind of Bass Mike was playing yesterday? It looked like a fretless acoustic. It had a very nice sound to it and it's a beautiful instrument to boot. All in all, one of the few disappointing EFO shows I've seen, but none of that had to do with the band. Jim ------------------------------ End of edheads-digest V4 #218 *****************************