2008 Concert Journals

[plvarona]

I saw NEEDTOBREATHE and Jake Smith at The Parish/House of Blues in New Orleans this past Friday.  NEEDTOBREATHE was quite good.  They were very energetic, and also did an excellent job varying their instrumentation, helping the songs "build up" quite well.  As Jake Smith, he was better than I expected.  I think his songs sound a lot better live than on CD - his songs are more energetic that way, and his soul and R&B influences really came out.

I'm running short on time now, so I'll post more detailed accounts and set lists a bit later in the week, when I have more time.  (No pun intended.)

[danny316]

Over the Rhine was AMAZING tonight. They're now definitely a jazz band - I've never seen Linford so loose at the keys, and that drummer is as wild and amazing as everybody says. Of the three line-ups of the band I've seen, this is easily the one that gelled best and looked like it had the most fun jamming.

Oh, and if anyone sees them later this tour, see if you can bring an old cookie sheet and leave it on stage for Karin before the beginning of the show. She knows why.

I was able to get a soundboard feed and get all four (Linford, Karin, Jake, Mickey) to sign my copy of The Trumpet Child.

Set list (from memory - order's probably off):
I Don't Want to Waste Your Time
Motherless Child
Born
Desperate For Love
On A Roll
Nothing Is Innocent
The Trumpet Child
Who'm I Kidding But Me?
Suitcase
Trouble
Ohio
If A Song Could Be President
1st encore:
Fever
Don't Wait For Tom
2nd encore:
Cruel and Pretty
Drunkard's Prayer

Mary Gauthier was there too, and she was a treat. Not one I can share, though, since my MD recorder apparently decided it didn't like her (it didn't just cut her off - it completely skipped writing the disc TOC, so I don't have any of her show (which would have been an audience-feed anyway, since I don't know if she even allows tapes). I put in a fresh battery for OtR just in case, and worked fine...)

[enemy anemone]

awesome that you taped the show. will you be uploading it to archive.org?

Mickey looks like he has a ton of fun. and he plays cowbell; I don't remember Devon ever playing cowbell. I like that Jake plays upright bass but from what I've heard so far (live and on live recordings), I think I am still partial to Rick Plant on blues guitar.

just for future info, Mary Gauthier is taper-friendly. recordings show up on dime now and then.

[danny316]

awesome that you taped the show. will you be uploading it to archive.org?

Eventually. I never get these things finished in a timely manner, and a quick listen to a few parts of the recording makes it clear that I had some settings wrong and that my patch won't end up being much clearer than an audience feed. I'll likely need to send out for help with this one because of my lack of experience with audio editing software.

Keith from NY sent me back a copy of my 10/2006 recording a few months ago, and I intend to upload that one first (I just need to finish the info file and do the uploading). I also have an OtR show from 6/2006 that I haven't finished splitting the tracks on yet, and I don't even know where I left that file (It's on a backup somewhere from before my hard drive died...)

If you're set up for the RSS notifications of new OtR shows on Archive.org, you'll see it when it goes up. I might remember to post it here too, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Mickey looks like he has a ton of fun. and he plays cowbell; I don't remember Devon ever playing cowbell.

As true as that is (AFAIK), the cowbell seems barely worth mentioning with all of his other tricks. I saw windchimes, a bottle of some sort, a weird half-drumstick-half-shaker contraption, and a few bizarre shaker-y things I couldn't recognize. That's in addition to hand percussion, brushes, and the standard drumkit/sticks. I'm pretty sure he has a foot-swish thing rigged up and a few extra cymbals in there too.

I like that Jake plays upright bass but from what I've heard so far (live and on live recordings), I think I am still partial to Rick Plant on blues guitar.

I agree. It's kind of hard to compare Jake, though - he's really the only backing player right now. I felt like the "Sweet Intoxication" tour version of the band in 2006 (which I believe had Rick Plant and Devon Ashley) had a "real" guitar player who could come up and solo when the time came, while Jake is more of a spot-on bassist. Similarly, Devon was more of a spot-on musician than a creative force in the band, as far as I can see.

I like what all these guys bring, really. To some extent, it seems strange to get too excited about any new foursome version of the band knowing that Ric Hordinski is never coming back - he's irreplaceable. Apparently this foursome is semi-permanent now, though - this is the first time since Ric left that they've included anyone beyond Karin and Linford in publicity photos.

just for future info, Mary Gauthier is taper-friendly. recordings show up on dime now and then.

I wasn't sure - I kept hoping to catch her sound guy to ask him, but there were delays at the beginning (apparently OtR had trouble getting to the venue and they decided to make everybody stand around during soundchecks) and then she just went straight to the stage.  She didn't bring any sound guy or band at all - it was just her, her guitar, and her sense of humor. I find that I end up pretending shows didn't happen, though, if I screw up taping them...

So does Mary tour with more exciting live acts often? I wouldn't pay specifically to see her without her band again, but I wouldn't mind another show with her as an opener.

[enemy anemone]

I think she mostly tours solo, but she toured with Diana Jones recently, and they each played a set and then played some songs together. (there's a show up on dime.) she's also played a double-bill with Buddy Miller, and when I saw her a couple years ago Thomm Jutz accompanied her on guitar and backing vocals. 

[cowdude]

Might be going to see Iron and Wine, but I'm not really sure who the other band is (The Ugly Suit).

I know them! Or at least I know of them. They're a local-ish band (I think some members are from Oklahoma City, but they play in Stillwater, where I live, a lot). Where is the Iron & Wine concert?

[Ian]

Iowa City.  It got rescheduled from a date that was canceled, so it doesn't show up on most tour schedules.

[ajyouthguy]

I discovered a couple of weeks ago that the Music Builds Tour just happens to be in Nashville the day before I am attending a youth ministers' conference in Nashville, meaning i will be getting there the day the tour hits there, and my best friend (with whom I'm staying) is working on getting us tickets to it.  yay.

[plvarona]

Here's a more detailed account of the NEEDTOBREATHE/Jake Smith concert a week ago that I promised you guys:

Last Friday I saw NEEDTOBREATHE and Jake Smith at The Parish at New Orleans, which is adjacent to the House of Blues and has the same owners as the former.  The Parish is used for more intimate concerts.

Jake Smith was up first, and he performed an acoustic set with just him and another guitarist named Josiah.  Smith turned in an enjoyable set as well.  I'll admit I wasn't too impressed with Smith's Real CD, but his songs worked much better in a live setting.  Smith's soul and R&B influences really came out, and his songs tended to move much better live compared to on CD.  Smith and Josiah also played off each other very well, as both were good for a few one-liners.  One of my favorites was when Smith introduced a new song about finding “the one” (“Once Love”), and he remarked, “Josiah is happily married and I haven’t had a date in six years so he’s telling me I don’t know what I’m talking about.”  The only thing I really didn’t like about this set was that Jake’s weaknesses as a lyricist were really exposed, even in a live setting.  A lot of times I can overlook subpar lyrics in concert, but some of the lyrics were so bad (especially on “Make Me Move” and “Get Up”), even catchy music couldn’t hide them.  That notwithstanding, I still enjoyed Smith’s set.

After a 15-minute break (much shorter than I was expecting), NEEDTOBREATHE came on and started what would turn out to be a highly entertaining set.  The guys brought plenty of energy to the show and this became evident very early in the set.  Admittedly, the first two songs sounded a little inhibited.  However, the show really took off after the third song, and the energy didn’t really let up after that.  So that was a strong point, but honestly what really stood out to me about NTB was their ability to texture the songs effectively, so they built up throughout the song to a strong finish.  They basically did this by holding out some instruments at the beginning of the song, and there were even some songs were a few instruments cut in and out.  Eventually, all of the instruments would join in, and when they did, it sounded quite powerful.  This was particularly effective on “Looks Like Love”, which I was personally pleasantly surprised to see make it onto the set list.  (Then again, even they admitted they don’t play that song often.)  Another thing the guys did somewhat frequently was throw in a little bit of jamming to create an extended intro, or segue into a cover of a popular song, depending on when the jamming occurred.  While this can get tiresome, I didn’t think the guys overdid it, so I had no problem with it.  Not surprisingly, NTB’s set list primarily focused on radio singles, although I was a bit surprised that their breakthrough hit on Christian radio, “You Are Here”, was omitted.  At first I thought they were going to play that song as an encore, but they ended up not doing an encore at all.  Other than that, there weren’t really any other glaring omissions.  So NEEDTOBREATHE did a lot of things well.  The area where I felt they could improve the most was to make the transitions between songs a bit smoother, since there were a few moments of awkward silence in between songs, although in their defense, a lot of times the guys were switching instruments during this time.  Still, that’s just a minor quibble in what was a very good show, and I think it was worth the trip up to New Orleans to see them.

Set Lists:

NEEDTOBREATHE: (some song I didn’t recognize with the words “Sweet Talk Man” in the chorus), “Don’t Wait For Daylight”, “More Time”, “Looks Like Love”/”A Long December” (Counting Crows cover), (some song with “Dance Tonight” in the chorus)/”Shine On”, “Signature of Divine (Yahweh)”, “Haley”, “Washed By The Water”/”You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (Rolling Stones cover), “We Could Run Away”/”Only In Dreams”

Jake Smith: “These Things”, “Make Me Move”, “Can’t Save Your Soul”, “Get Up”, (untitled new song with a reggae beat – Jake joked it was called “Nasty Trip to Jamaica”), “Stay”, “Go Ahead” (new song), “Once Love” (new song), (some song I didn’t recognize with “Take It All From Me” in the chorus)

[plvarona]

Go figure.  I get to post back-to-back concert reports in this thread.  Of course, this probably means I won't find any other suitable concerts in this area for another 2 or 3 months...

Last night I saw Lifehouse and Matt Nathanson at Dixie Landin'/Blue Bayou Theme Park.  This is basically part of their summer concert series where they have a concert every Saturday that is free with regular park admission (which is not cheap BTW.)  This was also the only concert in the entire series that interested me.

Matt Nathanson turned out to be quite enjoyable.  I actually had fairly limited exposure to him coming in, as I had only heard two songs of his beforehand: "Car Crash" (which I got on iTunes last year when it was a Free download - and liked) and "Come On Get Higher" (which I heard on his myspace page - catchy music but perverted lyrics.)  So I really wasn't sure what to expect from him.  Fortunately, he caught my interest early in the set as many of his songs were quite catchy and played well overall.  He also has a nice voice, which is a plus.  Matt also kept the show entertaining by firing off plenty of one-liners.  Some were facetious remarks about his songs, such as saying how "To The Beat of Our Noisy Hearts" was given to just about every teen-pop artist, and turned down.  Others were responding to the crowd and his surroundings, for instance when a few people up front requested "Wedding Dress" (NOT the Derek Webb song BTW), he said "I'm doing this for the six people who actually paid to see me."  Matt also worked in a few cover songs with his songs, most notably mixing "Jessie's Girl" with "Princess", especially after he said he intentionally ripped off "Jessie's Girl" when he wrote "Princess."  So overall, the catchy music and Matt's humorous remarks helped to keep me entertained.

As for Lifehouse, I thought they did a good job, even if I didn't think they were anything overly special.  They actually got off to a bit of a rough start, as their drummer lost the beat at times on the first two songs.  Additionally, their first few songs seemed to plod a little bit.  Fortunately, they tightened their sound up midway through the set, and the latter half of their set sounded quite good.  Their encore, "Broken" especially stood out as a highlight.  Not surprisingly, their set list was heavy on Who We Are, although No Name Face got quite a bit of representation.  On the latter, I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few non-singles from that album get some attention (e.g. "Simon", "Someone Else's Song.")  So overall, this was a pretty solid set from Lifehouse - not the best concert I've seen this year, but good enough.

Set Lists:

Lifehouse: "Make Me Over", "Spin", "Am I Ever Going to Find Out?"/"Quasimodo" (brief sample toward the end of the song), "Simon", "Hanging By a Moment", "Someone Else's Song", "From Where You Are", "Bridges" (f/ Bryce Soderberg on vocals), "Better Luck Next Time", "Whatever It Takes", "You and Me", "First Time"
Encore: "Broken"

Matt Nathanson: "Car Crash", "Gone", "Princess", "To The Beat of Our Noisy Hearts", "Come On Get Higher", "Falling Apart", "Detroit Waves", "Wedding Dress", "All We Are"

[murlough23]

As for Lifehouse, I thought they did a good job, even if I didn't think they were anything overly special.

That seems to be nearly everyone's impression of them as a live band. They play the songs, and if you liked 'em on the album, you'll probably like 'em live, but they have like, no stage personality.

That said, I'll take a band who recreates their songs well in a live setting and has no personality over a band that is so wrapped up in their live personality that they spend more time fooling around and milking the crowd for applause than actually playing the material people came to hear.

But... no "Disarray"? That's disappointing.

[dgp11776]

The Ten out of Tenn Tour (www.myspace.com/tenoutoftenn)
Featuring:  Erin McCarley, Matthew Perryman Jones, Tyler James, Butterfly Boucher, Griffin House, K.S. Rhoads (believe it or not, the Kevin Rhoads that used to be with By the Tree, murlough), Trent Dabbs, Katie Herzig, Jeremy Lister, and Andy Davis

Looks like a pretty cool concept, with a nice mix of pop, rock, indie, and folk.  As is typical, when something like this comes in my area (7/23), it's on a night I can't go.  Josh, this could be a good introduction to one of Charlotte's better venues, though.

22 Jul 2008 - Belcourt Theater - Nashville, Tennessee
23 Jul 2008 - Evening Muse - Charlotte, North Carolina
24 Jul 2008 - IOTA - Arlington, Virginia
25 Jul 2008 - 8 x 10 - Baltimore, Maryland
26 Jul 2008 - Blend - Ridgewood, New Jersey
27 Jul 2008 - World Cafe Live - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
28 Jul 2008 - 939 Cafe - Boston, Massachusetts
29 Jul 2008 - Canal Room - New York, New York
30 Jul 2008 - Grog Shop - Cleveland, Ohio
31 Jul 2008 - Martyr’s - Chicago, Illinois
1 Aug 2008 - Radio Radio - Indianapolis, Indiana
3 Aug 2008 - The Southgate House - Newport, Kentucky
4 Aug 2008 - World Grotto - Knoxville, Tennessee
5 Aug 2008 - Eddie’s Attic - Atlanta, Georgia
6 Aug 2008 - Workplay Theater - Birmingham, Alabama

[ajyouthguy]

Summer sucks.  i'm missing a Flyleaf concert about 2 hours away because of church camp with my youth group, and missing a Skillet one because of our mission trip.

However, in the fall, I'm going to a Lifeway National Youth Workers Conference in Nashville, and they have Wavorly, Group1Crew and a couple of others there, as well as comedians like Thor Ramsey and Taylor Mason (they're both awesome), and speakers like Phil Vischer the founder of Veggie Tales. 

Oh...and...the day before that starts, the day i will be arriving for it anyways...the Music Builds Tour hits Nashville and i will be going to that with my best friend, with whom i'm staying while i'm there anyways.

[murlough23]

K.S. Rhoads (believe it or not, the Kevin Rhoads that used to be with By the Tree, murlough)

Why wouldn't I believe that? Unless you told me the music was actually good or something.

[ajyouthguy]

Why wouldn't I believe that? Unless you told me the music was actually good or something.

i listened to clips on myspace and actually thought it was good/interesting/etc.

[murlough23]

Saw Anathallo tonight at a club called "Spaceland" in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Nice, hilly, residential neighborhood - sure as hell beats fighting the traffic in Hollywood. Interesting club, too - I was a bit nervous about going to a show at some club I'd never been to in a neighborhood I wasn't familiar with all myself, but at least on this night, the clientele was quite encouraging to the two opening acts (Anathallo and Karin Tatoyan were both opening for Dosh - an electronica act that I didn't stick around for, considering that Anathallo's set finished at 11:30). There was a bit of drunken back-talk from the audience to the band, but it was all friendly - just folks having a good time watching a highly unusual rock show in a small, intimate setting.

Anathallo was absolutely stellar live. Six guys and one girl on a small stage, making the most of their limited space and the constant musical chairs game they had to play to cover all their various instruments. Their movements during some of the songs were quite enthusiastic - I've heard the phrase "slave to the beat", but this was more like "joyous, eager indentured servitude to the beat". They even did a little interpretive thing to show the flower blooming in the finale, "Dokkoise House" (on which we were all encouraged to clap along, but of course only the diehards can actually follow the irregular beat). Even if you had no ears, this band would be a joy to watch. They're happy and dorky and not at all afraid to show it. And the hipster club totally ate it up.

The band hit several of my favorites from Floating World - "Genessaret", "Dokkoise House", and three of four parts of the "Hanasakajijii" suite. They also played three songs from Canopy Glow, which they said was due out in November even though they've had it done for like a year. That's gonna be a torturously long wait! The new songs were just as instrumentally diverse as the old (harmonicas on "All the First Pages", a sweet bell/chime intro on "John J. Audubon", and I don't remember the name of the other new song, but it had a nice little peppy chorus about picking yourself up EDIT: A YouTube search tells me that the song is called "Italo"), but they seemed more compact, not as likely to go all ADD and completely change up the tempo and rhythm. That might give their music a more focused feel, but I kind of like the theatrical nature of Floating World that I'm used to it. The main thing is that the songs sounded so frickin' cool that I didn't really care to nitpick the particulars.

Karin Tatoyan was pretty out there. She's kind of the Armenian Bjork, apparently. Her choice of outfit (a spacey silver dress with her and her entire band wearing face masks painted on around their eyes), her frantic, melodramatic movements on stage were the very definition of eccentric (including crawling around, singing to the floor, and looking like she was chewing on the cello player's strings at one point) and she whipped herself into such a frenzy that she was audibly out of breath on several songs. But I was highly entertained, the music was pretty sweet (being larged based around keyboard, neurotic electronic beats, live drums, cello, and trombone), and she seemed to have the audience captivated. I might check out an album of hers, though I'm prepared for it to be an emotionally exhausting experience.

I asked one of the dudes from Anathallo after the show if the "Dokkoise House" was a real place. He said it wasn't, at least not in the sense of being a physical place. Darn. So I can't tell my friends who are going to Japan this week to pay it a visit and take pictures for me.

[Ian]

Saw some guy whose name I can't remember and whose music fared likewise

Saw Gasoline Hearts who were painfully normal and their guitars were too loud

Saw Maps and Atlases who were cool enough that I bought their t-shirt

Saw mewithoutYou who is always cool.  Aaron sung a solo hymn (He loves us forevermore, or something like that), and they played three new songs, all of which were very promising, and one of which contained an f-bomb, so I will be curious if it goes on the CD

[spacebrat311]

Radiohead at Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco.

Religious experience.

[Ian]

omgjealous

[enemy anemone]

I can't go to these but maybe someone else would be interested:

The Violet Burning in Cypress, CA, 7:30pm Sept. 13.

Ferraby Lionheart in Nashville at 12th and Porter, 8pm Sep. 12.

[ajyouthguy]

Going to the Music Builds Tour show in Nashvegas on the 21st. 

Going to see some people like Rush of Fools, Group 1 Crew, Wavorly, Britt Nicole, Todd Agnew at a national student ministry conference the same week.

Going to see David Crowder Band October 30.

Going to see Third Day/NEEDTOBREATHE November 20 or something like that.

[murlough23]

Going to the Music Builds Tour show in Nashvegas on the 21st. 

Going to see some people like ... Wavorly ... at a national student ministry conference the same week.

Going to see David Crowder Band October 30.

Let me know how all of those are.

I'm going to see Sleeping at Last on October 28.

[dgp11776]

I'm going to see Sleeping at Last on October 28.

[Aaron]

jealousyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

[murlough23]

jealousyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I'm actually surprised that they made it to CA after all; their tour dates show scattered gigs all over the Midwest (plus one in Florida) with no apparent pattern to them. Their Hollywood date is nowhere near any of the rest.

09/30: Calvin College - Grand Rapids, MI. (w/ guest STRINGS!)
10/15: Vaudeville Mews - Des Moines, IA.
10/16: The Slowdown - Omaha, NE.
10/19: The Murdock Theatre - Wichita, KS.
10/23: Every Day Joe's - Fort Collins, CO.
10/28: The Roxy Theatre - Hollywood, CA.
10/31: Live @ Mokah - Dallas, TX.
11/04: Murray Hill Theatre - Jacksonville, FL.
11/06: Exit In - Nashville, TN. (w/ guest STRINGS!)

The Email I got with these dates did say there were more on the way, though, so maybe that'll connect the dots and there'll be a show near you guys, too.

I'm jealous of the folks who will get to see them in Grand Rapids and Nashville.

[ajyouthguy]

Going to the Music Builds Tour show in Nashvegas on the 21st. 

so...wow...i've been to well over 100 shows in my life, and this was definitely top 5.  Jars was loose and fun, Robert Randolph blew everyone away and was probably musically the best live show i've ever seen, and Switchfoot continues to get better and better.  I left very early in the Third Day set because I have a long week ahead of me and had driven 7 hours (by myself) already and was exhausted, plus I'm seeing them in 2 months as the headliner on their tour with NEEDTOBREATHE anyways.  but the other three...wow....

[NinjaRob17]

so...wow...i've been to well over 100 shows in my life, and this was definitely top 5.  Jars was loose and fun, Robert Randolph blew everyone away and was probably musically the best live show i've ever seen, and Switchfoot continues to get better and better.  I left very early in the Third Day set because I have a long week ahead of me and had driven 7 hours (by myself) already and was exhausted, plus I'm seeing them in 2 months as the headliner on their tour with NEEDTOBREATHE anyways.  but the other three...wow....

Wow, I did not know about this otherwise I definitely would have gone. I would be more disappointed if there wasn't a Showbread + Maylene and the Sons of Disaster concert on Saturday.

[murlough23]

so...wow...i've been to well over 100 shows in my life, and this was definitely top 5.  Jars was loose and fun, Robert Randolph blew everyone away and was probably musically the best live show i've ever seen, and Switchfoot continues to get better and better.  I left very early in the Third Day set because I have a long week ahead of me and had driven 7 hours (by myself) already and was exhausted, plus I'm seeing them in 2 months as the headliner on their tour with NEEDTOBREATHE anyways.  but the other three...wow....

OK, accountability time for Mr. Dan Haseltine. What did Jars of Clay play that was new (i.e. stuff that they hadn't written/recorded yet at the time of the Good Monsters tour)?

Setlists for anyone else you've got 'em for would be appreciated as well.

[ajyouthguy]

to answer your question about Jars, they did "Love is the Protest" off their GH album, and also did "Closer" off the EP by the same name.

They did Flood and Love Song from the debut album, "Dead Man" and "Work" from Good Monsters, "I Need You" from Eleventh Hour, and off the top of my head I am struggling to remember what else if anything.  i'm still in Nashville at a 3 day youth ministry conference, with LONG days, so when i get back home on Wednesday or Thursday, I'll try to remember more from them as well as Switchfoot and RRFB, although RR was about half just incredible incredible incredible jams.

[ajyouthguy]

I also failed to mention that I saw Group 1 Crew, Wavorly, and Rush of Fools tonight...it was more of a 'showcase' than a full out concert, but it was pretty cool to hear Wavorly and G1C, even for just 3 songs each.

also...the speaker at the session before the concert was Phil Vischer of Veggie Tales/Big Idea fame.  very cool.

[Ian]

Did Switchfoot happen to perform any new material?

[murlough23]

to answer your question about Jars, they did "Love is the Protest" off their GH album, and also did "Closer" off the EP by the same name.

They did Flood and Love Song from the debut album, "Dead Man" and "Work" from Good Monsters, "I Need You" from Eleventh Hour, and off the top of my head I am struggling to remember what else if anything.

Ha ha. That's only really 2 new songs (even if they played the Closer EP arrangements of "Flood" and "Love Song", those are still old songs that they've been rearranging in concert for years). Looks like I caught Dan Haseltine in the act of spin doctoring so that people like me who were bummed that they were only the opening act would still pay to come out and see them. Glad I didn't fall for it!

NP: "Peace Is Here", Jars of Clay

[ajyouthguy]

Ha ha. That's only really 2 new songs (even if they played the Closer EP arrangements of "Flood" and "Love Song", those are still old songs that they've been rearranging in concert for years). Looks like I caught Dan Haseltine in the act of spin doctoring so that people like me who were bummed that they were only the opening act would still pay to come out and see them. Glad I didn't fall for it!

NP: "Peace Is Here", Jars of Clay

i'm a little confused as to what your expectations would have been?  i was actually pleased that out of 7 or 8 songs, 2 were brand new ones.

[murlough23]

i'm a little confused as to what your expectations would have been?  i was actually pleased that out of 7 or 8 songs, 2 were brand new ones.

Dan Haseltine himself posted on the Jarchives board when he noticed some consternation over the group's miniscule allotted time to perform. He promised "lots of new songs" on the tour. His words, not mine.

Though other fans have said that Jars played a brand new song called "Heaven" at some venues. Good on them for that. But bad on Dan for giving people false hopes.

I'm just sick of the fact that pretty much every time Jars of Clay goes out on tour, they have to drag out so many old chestnuts to keep the supposed "fans" happy that they have little time to play a lot of their newest material. The tour for Good Monsters was a surprising exception. I was hoping they'd have more freedom to play what they wanted after leaving their label, but since they ended up playing fourth fiddle to friggin' Third Day, they had to play to the crowd. Going on that tour was a bad move to begin with. That was my point - an 8-song Jars of Clay set is atrociously short no matter what songs are played. They should not be opening for other bands at this stage in their career.

[ajyouthguy]

ah, in my tiredness from the past 4 days, i did forget that they played that new song, "Heaven."  they said it was from their next album.  i forgot about it.  my bad.

[ajyouthguy]

Going on that tour was a bad move to begin with. 

yeah, because it's a tragedy to be a part of a tour to specifically and intentionally help others through things like Habitat for Humanity and the ONE campaign...

Did Switchfoot happen to perform any new material?

not unless you count the song from Prince Caspian.
they DID mention doing a new album as soon as this tour is over, but i don't think they played any new songs.

[murlough23]

yeah, because it's a tragedy to be a part of a tour to specifically and intentionally help others through things like Habitat for Humanity and the ONE campaign...

Don't give me that. They could support the charity of their choice just as well while headlining a tour.

[ajyouthguy]

Don't give me that. They could support the charity of their choice just as well while headlining a tour.

...or they could do what they are doing, and form a unified front with some other big names and do something cool like what they are doing.  all i'm saying is i think you're being way hard on them for something that, from my perspective, is VERY cool.

[murlough23]

...or they could do what they are doing, and form a unified front with some other big names and do something cool like what they are doing.  all i'm saying is i think you're being way hard on them for something that, from my perspective, is VERY cool.

Yeah, whatever. I'm tired of bands getting critical immunity just because "it's for charity". You can make good music with integrity for charity, and you can make mediocre music for charity. You can be yourself to make a buck for a good cause or you can be a sellout to make a buck for a good cause. Just because the cause is good doesn't mean that the ends justify the means.

Even with all of the issues aside about Jars being the opening band and whatnot, Dan made a false promise to his fans. He could have been truthful and said, "Yeah, we're mostly playing the old hits because we don't feel like this crowd knows us as well." I would still have had my issues with that, but at least it would have been the truth.

[ajyouthguy]

Yeah, whatever. I'm tired of bands getting critical immunity just because "it's for charity". You can make good music with integrity for charity, and you can make mediocre music for charity. You can be yourself to make a buck for a good cause or you can be a sellout to make a buck for a good cause. Just because the cause is good doesn't mean that the ends justify the means.

Even with all of the issues aside about Jars being the opening band and whatnot, Dan made a false promise to his fans. He could have been truthful and said, "Yeah, we're mostly playing the old hits because we don't feel like this crowd knows us as well." I would still have had my issues with that, but at least it would have been the truth.

whoa, wait, i'm not talking about that they can't get critical immunity, i just have a problem with the fact that you are making it sound as if YOU know better than THEM what THEY  should be doing, and that they should NOT be doing what they ARE doing right now, especially since you haven't been to a show on this tour.  that's my only gripe.  i don't mind you not liking what they are doing or whatever, that's no big deal, but i do have a problem with you making it sound as if they are 'obviously' making some colossal mistake, especially when i experienced the tour this week and saw otherwise.