Standing at the front of the stage before Old Crow Medicine Show went on, I counted the following: 3 banjos, 3 acoustic guitars, 3 fiddles, 1 electric guitar, 1 electric bass, 1 stand-up bass, 1 organ, and 1 drum kit. That's a lot of instrumentation. Specifically, that's a lot of stringed instrumentation, and it's those strings that hamstrung OCMS over the course of their two sets at Liberty Hall last night.
Thanks to the frantic playing Willie Watson exhibited, he broke something like six or seven strings throughout the show. The first couple of times, it was somewhat amusing, in a "man, those cats can PLAY!" sort of thing, but as their first set progressed, it got to killing any momentum the band might've had.
The first of the two sets yielded a lot of problems for me beyond the broken strings. First of all, the band couldn't lay all the mishaps on Watson. Rather than building energy with a series of energetic tunes, and then bringing it down with a slower number, the whole set went fast song, slow song, fast song, slow song, not allowing any sort of energy to get built up.
And, really -- it's on the fast songs where Old Crow Medicine Show shines. Ketch Secor and Watson can harmonize like nobody's business, and when Gill Landry joins in (especially on something like "Big Time In The Jungle"), those three-part harmonies are just gorgeous. But when Morgan Jahnig really gets to let loose on the upright bass during the faster numbers, the whole band's sound gets a little more rhythm and low end. Really good country numbers, like George Jones' "White Lightning" or anything Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three did, have a country rhythm created with a double-slap on the bass -- basically, every good country song sounds like it was set to the beat of a train. Old Crow sorely lacks that rhythm.
Now, the band's second set was a totally different affair. Old Crow came out and started playing like they'd had a pep talk backstage. The energy level was bumped up, and it was certainly a more entertaining affair from that point on. Granted, the stage banter was a little annoying. Had I heard the words "man" or "boy" one more time, something was going to get chucked at the stage. I'm all for bringing the audience in, but the back-and-forth got to be a little overly good ol' boy after a bit. The repeated references to the area (some of y'all drove in all the way from Topeka, maybe even Leavenworth") sounded less like familiarity with the region, and more like familiarity with a road atlas.
The whole show was pretty entertaining, but I'll have to admit that I much prefer the Old Crow Medicine Show I hear on their studio recordings to the live show. It was the rare tune that the band played that I didn't like better on the album. Granted, "Methamphetamine" was stronger than the version on Tennessee Pusher, but it still sounds more like an anti-drug PSA than an actual song.
The closing two tunes were arguably the band's most popular. They're certainly my favorites. When the opening chords to "Wagon Wheel" came, the entire audience rose up, started clapping, and Liberty Hall was one big singalong. Right after it came "Tell It To Me," and that was it. The band knocked it out of the park on that one, raising the energy level to the point where I was fairly running home afterward.
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this reveiwer is insane. one of the best shows i've ever seen. everyone i talked to was amazed and couldn't stop smiling. great energy, beautiful instrumentation and vocals. it will be remembered forever as one of the best experiences of my life.
The reviewer is nuts. The band was on fire last night and they kept the night moving along just fine. Their slow songs are some of their best. And if you're sick of the "boys' and "man", then you probably don't know/like OCMS. That's how them boys get down.
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