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 Post subject: Gary Louris / Mark Olson
PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 4:31 pm 
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frostingspoon
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Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:59 pm
Posts: 24583
Location: On the gas and tappin' ass
Went to see these guys last night here in town, at Luther's, very nice place. I have pics, too, but I don't know how to insert them without their being stored online, so any help would be welcomed on that front.

I'll assume everybody knows the deal with them, Jayhawks history, etc. So...

I think maybe I'm an optimist. Looking at the ticket, listing both their names, I was picturing a Gary Louris show, heavy on Rainy Day Music, with Mark Olson helping out. I don't mean a 100/0 split, but I was picturing maybe 75/25. It was more like 30/60. The impression Busty Rhodes and I got was that it was Mark's band, with Gary kinda tacked on, maybe to help sell some tickets.

At one point I weasled up close, and took in 3 or 4 songs from about 15 feet out. The first thing that occured to me is that Gary is a consummate professional, and I mean of the first order, just very very good at what he does. The second thing I realized was that there was a good possibility that Mark was drunk, or maybe just hadn't played his own songs in a while...? Watching Gary try and track the chords as Mark stumbled through a few numbers on the keyboards was telling. It did NOT sound horrible. In fact, a lot of people probably didn't notice much. But when Mark played keys, Gary kept a straight face and adjusted quickly to the little stumbles, as smoothly as he could. When they did play something newer, like Angelyne or One Man's Problem, Mark played bass, and walked a lot to hide not knowing all the changes. He flat out missed one important note on the chorus of one of those songs, all 4 times. He also didn't sing backup for anything off of Raiy Day Music, which was wierd. Hasn't he heard the record? Oh well.

What redeems this show is seeing Gary Louris absolutely shine, dispite having less than ideal support. When I think about how fragile most singers are, how dependant upon the perfect sound / band / etc, to sound as good as they can, and then I see Gary up there playing with somebody else's band, with no backup singing (except on a few from Tomorrow The Green Grass), with a bass player whiffing on notes relatively often... he sounded phenominal. He sounded just amazing. That room exploded after every song he sang. The reaction was drastically different to the 60% or more of Mark's stuff.

It's worth seeing, just know what you're getting into. If you're a huge fan of the last 2 or 3 jayhawks albums, and that's it, then there will be some extended slow spots for you. But $15 wasn't too much to pay to see Gary, in my humble opinion... especially on Butsy's dime!

P.S. Help w/ the pics?[/img]

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