And Then There Was One

So this is my first review on this blog. I’m thinking I might upload some of my older one’s from the old, old Myspace blog just to consolidate. Anyway, on to the show…

Attended the Citizen Cope show in Indy last week. Mid-week shows always create scheduling difficulties (as anyone with a child knows), however I’ve been dying to see Cope for quite some time now which made the decision to make the trek an easy one.

This was my third trip to Indy and stayed at my third different hotel within a tenth-mile radius. This is the first time however that I was toting to a different part of town for the venue (I had previously only been to the Music Mill). This show was at the “historic” Vogue. My lack of research came back to bite me as I would find out The Vogue is supplanted on the edge of Butler University’s campus. A main drag with lots of interesting looking bars and restaurants. I will definitely have to make a return visit to explore these sites further.

The Vogue itself was a decent joint. Two big bars in the middle of the (dance) floor, plat formed sides and a wrap around balcony. Unfortunately, I think they oversold the capacity of the joint by about 50%. The discomfort caused by the lack of personal space and oxygen may very well prevent me from visiting this particular place again (the prohibition of smoking was the only saving grace). A little hint… if you ever go there to see a show, call ahead and reserve a table. After all the shuffling we did actually get a good spot on the left side to see the show and the crowd of horrid college tirds (including the Guido’s right below us) that made up 95% of the population there. I hadn’t see that many douche bags in one place since, well… college.

We were pleasantly surprised to find there was no opener. Shortly after 9, Cope (aka Clarence Greenwood) came out by himself with just an acoustic guitar. My thought was “this is going to be sweet”. I was slightly off. While he played two of his older/slower songs (one was “Salvation”) with great accuracy and pure sound, he did so with perhaps the least amount of energy and effort I’ve ever seen in a performance. My thoughts now turned to “this is going to be a long night”. With that, Cope turned and gave the calmest of nods to stage-left to bring on the band which included a drummer, two keyboardists and a cool ass old gray haired bass player.

Now, I didn’t even know whether or not to expect a band for this show, but let me tell you that they were the show. The lack of energy coming from Cope was easily made up for by the band. It’s not that Cope was mailing it in or anything. I think that’s just how he is… waaaaayyyyy laid back – or – waaaaayyyyy high. Really not sure which one. The dude did keep a heavy jacket on over a leather button down shirt almost the entire show if that gives any hints. The rest of the show rocked. The musical talents of the band carried the show including Cope’s guitar skills. The drummer impressed by carrying entire beats with one hand while making adjustments to his electronic beat tool with the other.

The show lasted damn near two hours with a great mix of songs from every album. He stayed pretty true to the recordings, but did mix in a tiny bit of free styling which didn’t take anything away from them. The night ended with a four song encore that left the crowd on a high. And with that we started our long cold hike back to our residential street parking.