i just want to start off by saying that i must now owe my first born
child to some supernatural power. that's the only explination i can think of
that would explain why i had the privilege of seeing this incredible show.
it was beautiful, haunting, personal -- all at once. the only better
setting, i can think of, to hear low play, would be to hear them in my
living room.
first off, the space. the sacred heart music center is located in a
beautiful old church, mini-cathedral styled with a barrel vaulted ceiling,
large main nave, stained glass, and an old alter in the front. the audience
even sat on old wooden pews.
scott "dj starfire" lunt's band, father hennepin, opened the night and
let me say they did a great job. they are a five piece band who, as starfire
said, are used to playing in bars, not in church. they have starfire on
guitar, a piano/accordion player, a second lead, a bass and a drummer with a
smaller kit (not as small as mimi's, but basic). for the most part country
doesn't really intrest me. however, father hennepin kept me entertained and
glad i had come early enough to hear them. they did a mix of original songs
and covers. one of the covers was a tom waits song. some funnier songs were
one with guest singer "doctor tomorrow" singing in russian and doing the
"fiddler on the roof" style dance, and a song about drinking and smoking
weed. maybe starfire can provide more details and give credit to his band
members. alan sat across the aisle from me during father hennepin, busy
operating the sound board.
while father hennepin and low took down and set up, respectively, an
organist played on the church organ, though i didn't catch what the piece
was.
at this point, i should mention something about the lighting in the
building. because the the church wasn't designed with typical stage lighting
in mind, it was hard to light properly without a lot of extra equipment
being brought in. basically, the people who put on the show had to decide
whether they wanted to have the stage well lit and the audience mostly lit
*or* the audience in complete dark while the stage is mostly dark. while
father hennepin was playing, the stage was mostly lit, which worked fine.
though i'm sure they couldn't really change it with direct sunlight coming
through the stain glass windows early in the set. however, by the time low
came on it the sun had set, and they could turn off the lights and have it
really dark. the only light emited was from some candles placed on stage
(they even had to use one to light the soundboard); two stage lights propped
on the ground (one on alan and one on zak); and a stage light with a
motorized four colored disk which slowly turned, set up so it projected on
the wall behind the band. the overall effect was beautiful. it achieved a
wash of lighting over the stage similar to the effect of placing a
flashlight in front of your face for telling ghost stories around the
campfire.
the audience was great. very quiet. i sat in the first pew right in
front of alan and was so close i could hear when his feet shuffled around or
the click of the switch on his pedal when he would tap it! (i felt guilty
about taking pictures more because of the click of the shutter seemed noisy
than because of the flash. by the way, i'll pass on some scans to catherine
when i have them developed -- here they are.)
here is the set list...
- lord, can you hear me?
- starfire
- i remember*
- weight of water
- don't understand
- words
- the plan
- two step
- immune
- (talking about pavement)**
- lust***
- soon
Encore****
- ocean
- be there
- will the night
*i just wanted to add to the recent argument about whether or not mimi
was playing in a particular photo or if it was between songs.
mimi played sitting down during this song.
**alan had asked for requests at this point and there was the usual
ones. "venus," "over the ocean," "lust". and i yelled several
things out. but when i yelled "small words," al stopped and said
"no. no one knows that song." and he then proceeded to talk about
how he saw pavement play in duluth the other day and how he kept
thinking about that he wanted to hear songs by them he knew, not
the songs from their new album, and how this was different than
when low played, he wants to play all new stuff. then, alan mock
thought out loud "hey, why don't they play that song that
goes..." and he started to sing the first couple lines from a
pavement song to which someone in the audience yelled for him to
"play that song" and he started to try and pick out a couple
cords. mims says, with that hilarious tone "don't even start..."
very funny.
***alan introduces "this song isn't exactly appropriate for church,
but..." mimi "it's not that kinda lust".
****alan had talked between "lust" and "soon" like it was their last
song of the night, so when they came back out he was like "aren't
you sick of sitting on these hard seats?"
as far as the songs go "lord, can you hear me?" was awesome, i almost
cried. "don't understand" was overpowering. "be there" was probably my
favorite of the night.
afterwards, i got to say hello to mimi and zak and to talk to alan for
a little. but i had to leave right away, because i worked the next morning
and had to drive two hours back home. but i would have gladly quit work, and
school for that matter, just to see this one show. anyone who didn't go
really missed out!
long live alanmimizak.
derek
djh_stpaul@hotmail.com
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