jeremy show reviews

march 14, 15, and 15, 1997, metro, chicago, illinois, the catacombs, madison, wisconsin, and first avenue, minneapolis, minnesota

(contributed by andrew christensen [sdre@camelot.bradley.edu])
hey what's up everyone. i missed you all i was away on spring break no access to e-mail that sucks. man writing all this is going to take forever. that's okay. okay first let me say that these people are the coolest ever:Anita, Erika, Nick, and Paul. they are all tied for first. Kaanan is also very awesome, and so are Shaun and Blake. and Cy, the guy that drove me. here's what happened: i'm all set to go back to chicago for spring break the same day as the jeremy show, and Cy and a couple of other guys are going too. and i wrote to Anita and told her i was going etc. and whatnot. then i was talking to Blake and said well how about this this is my spring break if i weren't stupid i'd be following him. then blake says if you want to come up i'll get you a ticket and you can stay at my house. and then shaun writes and says if you're going to the Chicago show on the 14th and the Minneapolis show on the 16th you may as well go to the Madison one on th 15th, you can stay with me. so i BEGGED my friend Cy (who likes Jeremy a lot but only really because i played him the album and the sunny d albums all the time) and i offered him a ton of gas money and i said i'd pay for his tickets if he drove. and he said yes i couldn't believe it. so we did it. and we didn't sleep at all except once we pulled over at a rest area for about an hour and a half but it was freezing so we went inside and slept on the benches. from thursday until monday i think i got about five hours sleep total. but that is all uninteresting, so
here goes the cool part:
friday we got to my house and then got my brother and left for the metro at around 4:30 for a 10 o'clock show. i saw the bus but decided just to try going inside, since that was when the soundcheck was supposed to be. the door wasn't locked so the four of us walked in. some guys stopped us but i just kind of babbled my way into convincing them to let us go upstairs. upstairs i saw jeremy standing down in the area where the crowd would stand, talking to someone and playing guitar. it was at that point that i kind of froze up (i'm sorry, but it was my very first time seeing him ever, and i couldn't believe he was ten feet away.) then these guys on the stairs said "which band are you with?" and i said "uh, skizzem flazzem flip flap" and they said "out." and i said "but, um, jeremy, we, last time, they told us...other kids" and they said "see yous bye." so we left and everyone said "you're so stupid" but it wasn't my fault. so i knocked on the bus and janna opened the door and i asked to speak to Anita and Anita actually knew who i was and then said the soundcheck would be in about an hour and a half. (it was five.) then Nick Barber, who was the poor old lu bassist and the guy i met at cornerstone and asked if he really stole the necklace came by, and i said Nick! and asked if he remembered me but he just said "i recognize your face" and then i said "sigh" and then we walked down to this really cool store that sells seventies toys and then we came back and ate at Wrigleyville Dogs where i was supposed to meet my dumb friend by seven. he never came so we walked back to e metro and walked in and the guy stopped us and i said (all cool) "should we go up to the soundcheck NOW?" and he kind of stammered and i said "yeah we were told to go up at this time" and he said "uh, go ahead" and we were all cool. so we sat down and acted (kind of) like we knew what we were doing, and jeremy and the whole band was on stage. when i first saw him start playing i was totally awestruck, and before they even started rehearsing total songs he was messing around on his keyboard and started playing "burn" and "shade" and i seriously started tearing up right then. i couldn't believe i was sitting there watching this. at one point he smiled at me and my little brother and my brother got all excited. i couldn't move really. then they played carnival and after that they played abegail both of those all the way through. the best was during abegail when he normally would have been screaming instead he started singing this melody with no words that was really high, almost in the style of that really cool vocal melody in "song about an angel." that was awesome. then they were done and some guy handed him a skateboard that he had bought earlier that day. everyone started joking about whether that counted as a toy which i just now realized had to do with that contest to see who would buy the most toys on the tour. then jeremy came down where we were standing and started skating around, putting down bags and coats and jumping over them and stuff. it was cool. then he stopped and was standing there, and so i walked up to him and shook his hand, and asked him if he remembered doing that sonicnet chat, after a couple of seconds he said yeah and so i told him who i was and what questions i asked and he nodded but i don't think he really knew what i meant. but i introduced myself and shook his hand again and then said "sorry i just shook your hand again" and he laughed. i didn't talk to him for too long, but i told him that i was going to be going to all three shows and he (along with everyone else that night when i told them) kind of looked scared! :) like he was about to call for security or something. :) anyway, i had him sign the cd that i had won from the contest joyce did, and thanked him very much but i was eager to not talk to him for too long because i didn't want to bug him. then i introduced myself to erika as being a lister and she was totally cool, and then i talked to her and nick for a while, with my brother and the other two guys that came with. then nick remembered my when i told him that i had asked him about that necklace and gave him a hug, and after that he was so cool too. my friend i was waiting for at the restaurant came in with an access all areas pass which it turned out he got from Anita by asking if she had seen some long-haired guy with a poor oldlu shirt. so she just gave him her pass! he didn't deserve it because he is a freak but Anita that was very very nice of you. anyway, yawn i'm sure this is all interesting, i'll get to the concert. we went back down and waited inside for us to be allowed to go in, then we went in and stoof right between where the keyboard stand and guitar stand were. then i met Jason Hammond the guy who just introduced himself to this list a few days ago, and he gave me a copy of a cool little thing which jeremy was originally planning to put on ROTFQ as a bonus track or something. i'll come back to that later on. then he left and we waited through plastics hi-fi who knew one chord and when it got tiresome they put some effects on it and when that got tiresome they played a different voicing and when that got tiresome they left the stage. ok thank you. then the band came out and set up and finally jeremy came out and played the opening chords of Abegail. this show he played them all off ROTFQ except fallen heart and call me steam of course, and played asleep, damien, and chewing gum. i could read the setlist the whole time so i knew what song would be next. but that's okay. the coolest was seeing nick off to the side whispering the lyrics to asleep and any song jeremy did solo. he just sat there a mouthed along. so did maxxine, but she always had her eyes closed. at the end of shade jeremy looked like he was going to break down and cry on the keyboard, it was extremely emotional. but it sucked because all them redredmeat people wouldn't shut up the whole time. they were always talking. i don't know if jeremy was upset by this but he was upset and did not come back out although we clapped a long long long long time. i was standing by a kid who stared at the setlist the whole time so the last three songs we just both prepared to grab it. after damien dreams it said "chewing" which i had never heard, but after damien the kid went for the setlist so i grabbed it. then jeremy looked down and i said "the next one's Chewing Gum" and he laughed. then i said "Oh John is on there too" and then he laughed again and started playing chewing gum, which is an incredible song. after his set we left just because red red meat wasn't supposed to be on until one o' clock in the morning and it was just after midnight, and we had to take one of the people to the airport at six in the morning the next day. so we left. then my dumb friend insisted on using his "access all areas" pass to go to the back and meet jeremy and nick came out and i talked to him and he said that jeremy was kind of upset and that was it. so then we left. um, i have two more days kind of like this, not as long, maybe i should do another mail. that's what i'll do. by the way, after they played abegail during the soundcheck, jeremy said "i'm so tired of playing that song." oh, and one other cool thing from the soundcheck, when it was Alicia (the violinist)'s turn to play something for Greg, she started playing "Devil's Dream" and all this hoedown stuff, and then jeremy and everyone started jamming on it and it was very funny. k well i'll send this and start a new one. okay so Cy and i drove this guy to the airport and then went back to my house and got our stuff together and left for madison. we used the nice maps that Shaun made for us and got there around five. then i met Shaun (superfly, T30'S, whatever you want to call him) and we took a bus to this teeny little coffee shop, where we froze until they let us in. inside all the seats filled up, so we went to the front and sat on the floor, in front of the stage which was about a half foot off the ground. this was by far the best show of the three. the opening acts were cool, and after they were through everyone stood up. then some people in the back were saying they couldn't see, so we all decided we'd stay sitting on the ground, all bunched up together for the whole show. it was awesome, such a laid-back crowd, the whole atmosphere was so neat because everyone just had a great respect for what was going on on stage. nobody spoke during the shows. shaun taped it and it sounded really good, and i'm looking forward to getting a copy. the lights were pretty much on the whole time, it was just kind of like having jeremy play n your basement. i also took pictures during this show on shaun's camera, i don't know how they turned out because they were on his camera. jeremy also played "oh, john" which is one of my favorites now. that was the song to make me cry at this show. nobody even breathed during the song it was very very intense. you could always see a little tear in each of jeremy's eyes, kind of welling up waiting to fall but never falling. *sigh* anyway, everybody loved him, and everybody loved each other and it was like being at woodstock. (not that i was there i'm just assuming...:) anywhoo, afterwards we talked to erika and nick and then we (cy, Superfly, and i) walked to his bus and knocked until he finally came out. i know i felt like we were being a big pain in his butt but at the same time i also wanted to talk to him so bad so bad. Shaun had him sign like five things :) and asked him about writing up lyrics but he said he wasn't interested anymore, and asked him what dan was doing and he said farming. i said "i'm glad you played oh john i was trying to get you to play it yesterday" and he said "it's a hard song to play" and indeed it was probably one of his most technical solo songs, it honestly sounded like he was playing two guitars. i told him that i heard that bonus track thing from his album (here's what it is: you heard him walking out of a crowd and then there is a piccolo player off to the side which you hear and he says "piccolo player, cool" and the guy keeps playing and then he says "see ya" and keeps walking, then he starts whistling and then a frog goes "Rrrrp" and he says "shhh!" and that's it. i actually put it on a disk [which is a big accomplishment for me] and i'll probably send it to the Soundfile Loser and see if he's interested in putting it up on his page. it's cool.) and when i told him he said "oh how did you hear that" so i told him and then i asked him why he didn't put it on and this was so cool because he started reenacting the whole thing right there, but kind of sarcastically, like showing how dumb he thought it turned out, he said "yeah it was supposed to sound like i was walking but instead it's more like 'Klop! Klop! Klop! Piccolo player Cool! Klop! Klop! Ribbit! Shh!' and it was kind of dumb" and i said so you were going to put that after fallen heart and he said "yeah maybe ten minutes of silence and then that would come up or something" and i said well i thought it was pretty cool. anyway, i was glad to have gotten more than a one-word response out of him and his reenactment was really funny. then we got burritos as big as our heads and went back to the bus when it was in front and talked to nick and seth (otto, jeremy's roommate and member of roadcrew and also a member of meekin pop with nick and damien jurado) and then we rode the bus back and the cy and i left on our way to minneapolis (without ever paying shaun i realized later and i will! :) ok well that night was awesome if you want to read more read the next one if you're sick of this just hit zap!.
well we got to Blake's town at about 10:30 and he came and met us at the Food and Fuel and then Cy slept for about an hour and we took showers and then at about twelve-thirty we left for downtown minneapolis and got to First Avenue and stood outside by the bus, and finally tried the door and it was open. some guy came up and blake said hi we're here for the soundcheck and the guy said i'll go ask clyde or whatever the head guy for first avenue's name was. then he never came back, so we checked the bus and some cheery people came runnin out late for soundcheck. then we went in again and saw janna who remembered me and cy from the day before and knew blake from email. so she asked greg if we could stay and he told us to stay off to the side. so we did. cy fell asleep because he had been driving e whole time so far and almost didn't go to this concert but i made him, and when they started playing pachelbel's canon he jumped up because it was so cool. we should have taped it it was beautiful. after the soundcheck that same clyde dreadlock guy kicked us out. so we went and got some food and came back and then decided not to stand right in front this time so we sat off to the side, the left side, and watched from there, at a little table. this concert was cool, but the place was so huge, but i guess it's the only all ages place in minneapolis or something. anyway, after the show jeremy left and kaanan tried to get everyone to keep clapping so they did and jeremy came out and played chewing gum AND oh john. it was very very nice. oh i forgot something about yesterday's show, somebody said "play fallen heart" and jeremy said "oh a request. cool." then he said "wait, is fallen heart what it's called on the album, oh, i'll have to play a different version that one is impossible to do live." then he played "when will i speak" which according to erika and nick is not called "when will i speak" nor is it called "treah nellaf" but rather "fallen heart" but we can still call it when will i speak in order to distinguish i think. all some guy shouted at that same show "Phuerton Skuerto" (sic) in other words not "foorton skoorto" but "fwerton swerto" like the way Drew's login is spelled! :) (hey just a little fun.) jeremy just acted like he had no idea what the guy was talking about, and the guy shouted it again. i mean, if you're going to shout out sunny day songs at a jeremy concert, at least pronounce them right. i'm sorry if it was anyone on the list who did that, but most people on the list i would think would know not to do that anyway. oh well. anyway, the show was over, we went and talked to nick and paul (by the way nick is an awesome singer and he sang all the backups, and they were beautiful) don't think i have the hots for nick or anything he is just a really cool guy. oh we talked to nick and paul while blake waited to talk to greg. anyway, it was all cool, then we went outside and saw erika and anita and talked to them and paul and nick for about an hour or so. they were all awesome. paul is doing a demo, yes, and he told be that jeremy was producing it. also, i talked to nick about the band when jeremy was in it, it was called Tears of a King, not Tears for the King, and they were all very young. he said scott had recordings of the stuff, (the ex-lead singer of pooroldlu) but that he hadn't talked to scott for awhile. anyway, blake never got to meet jeremy and i'm sorry, but all the other people were evern (even) cooler they were all so great and i love them and this was probably the best weekend of my life. i am glad i got to meet the listers i did, shaun, blake, Onion Bag, and Matthew. i hope you didn't mind that most of this was irrelevant but it meant a lot to me. and i figured i had to write SOMETHING. ok well i love you all talk to you soon nice to be back.

andrew

march 14, 1997,the metro club, chicago, illinois

(contributed by steve [forstneg@students.uiuc.edu])
Well, I don't know about any tingling nuts, but the show was definitely one of the best I've seen in awhile. He opened (predictably) with Abegail Anne, then played (this is not in order) ROTFQ, Lewis Hollow, Lizard, well, in short, everything but Call Me Steam (which didn't bother me in the least) plus the three new songs, Damien Dreams, Oh John, and Chewing Gum. There was some added stuff on a couple songs, but I don't know the songs so well as to remember which ones. He did the clicking sound in the mic, checked if he was in tune after a couple of songs, and was generally really shy when talking in between songs.
One thing, there was this girl standing in front of me (I don't know if she's on this list) neck length brown hair, grey sweater with a ripped collar, anyways, I swear to God she was having multiple orgasms. I don't know how I kept myself from laughing.
Another thing, Red Red Meat did headline, and I was kind of pissed that a lot of Enigk fans left after Jeremy's set. Sure, RRM aren't the most exciting live band, well, maybe I'm just upset cuz I'm a big fan.
Oh, Phil Johnston, a friend and I were wondering if you taped the St. Louis show and would you be willing to dub it for us if we walked on over? We would obviously bring our own tapes.

Thanx.

Why didn't someone tell me Jer acts like an epilectic?

Steve

march 15, 1997, the catacombs coffee house, madison, wisconsin

(contributed by ted [bex@wctc.net])
well, i just got back from seeing Jeremy and band in madison. i won't go into the emotional value it had for me, but i will just say that it was great. probably the best show i have ever seen the place could only hold about 150 people and everyone sat down once the show started. everyone could see and was quiet. he played everything from the album except call me steam. he played damien dreams, chewing gum, and another song he didn't say the name of (was excellent though). i saw a guy there video taping the show and talked to him about getting a copy and if i do, i will be willing to make copies for others. i believe that it will turn out very well, because the camera had a good view and there wasn't any crowd noise during the songs. guess i missed seeing super fly, sorry

ted

march 18, 1997, mercury cafe, denver, colorado

(contributed by ?)
well well well my little droogies.i think i have you all beat with my "live jeremy enigk experience."after having a terrible week (and it was only tuesday) we drove off to denver to see the show.i've only been waiting over 3 years for this moment,or somthing similar.when we got to the mercury cafe,we found out that trunk federation was scheduled to play with "jeremy enock orchestra" as the flier said."that's cool" i though.trunk federation aren't to bad.as i looked to my right however,i spied a nicely sized chalkboard with the words neatly written "jeremy enock isn't playing tonite. tix will be refunded at place of purchase."i felt like burning the fucking place down.i wish i had.after talking with one of the locals,it turns out that jeremy "enock" got "sick" and didn't even show up which i find to be complete bullshit. my friend quickly came to the conclusion that jeremy didn't show up becuase not enough tickets were sold.my ticket was numbered #17 so i suppose that's a possibility.anyway,i regret to say that i've lost a good tid bit sized amount of respect and admiration for the man now.i'm sure that i'm just overreacting but i am very unamused at the situation.
does anybody know if jeremy is playing somewhere tonite (wednesday march 19)?if so and somebody on this list goes,please let me know what has happened.i would hate to think that jeremy didn't play just because he didn't sell enough tickets. please,i need this information."thank you" to everyone who has listened to my sob story.

xoxo lockjaw

p.s.-anyone is welcome to come to colorado springs and assist in my sucicide.bye-bye now.

july 25, 1998, neil's nightcap, montlake terrace, washington

(contributed by anthony [anthony@foxinternet.net]
hey, i just returned from the jeremy solo show at neil's nightcap. i brought my laptop with me and managed to get a pretty decent recording... i need to clean it up a bit, but i should have it on the internet in a bit. i also met ryan, the guy we have to thank for that lovely moore theater realaudio -- what a cool guy. anyway, jeremy played for 30 minutes (which kinda bummed me out, that was pretty short). he played songs from the upcoming sdre record, and solo songs from frog queen and others. he also covered a u2 song. here's the setlist:

Guitar and Video Games
Days Design
Lewis Hollow
Every Shining Time You Arrive
Abigail Anne
Chewing Gum
Running To Stand Still (U2 song)
When Will I Speak

anyway, it was just jeremy and his guitar. like i said, i managed to get an okay recording of it, however it's a little distorted because i didn't have time to check my microphone level before the show (i didn't want to attract attention to the fact that i had a $2,000 dollar laptop with me). luckily, cool edit pro does have a filter for peak distortion, hopefully that will make it more listenable. i am going to post this whole thing in realaudio to my sdre audio site, and if i can clean up this copy i have, i might do a FEW tape trades.
jeremy didn't stick around after the show, so unfortunately i have no big interview to post tonight. :-)

(contributed by ryan w horlacher [ryanhor@juno.com]
hey everyone, I hope some of you got out to see Jeremy play last night, it was amazing. I liked all the openers too. it was a really personal show, like it was just me, Jeremy, and his guitar, and there just happened to be 300 other people there too. the sunny day songs had a totally different feel with just an acoustic guitar, it was good to hear them that way. but yeah, I did run into anthony and lemme tell you I can't wait for that show to go up on realaudio. I brought my tape deck but didn't want to mess with it so I just enjoyed watching the show. anyway, anyone who made the show saw a good one.
it was at this weird little ex-bar called neal's nightcap. it's north of seattle in montlake terrace. there was a bar (they didn't serve alcohol) and small tables and stools to the right (looking at the stage) and booths to the left. the speaker system was all in the ceiling. there were payphones and speakers in the bathroom. Paul Mumaw (the second performer) talked about how weird it was to be going to the bathroom with the music being pumped into the room. there was a big ol collage of tv's to the left of the stage. and more seating area to the right. there really wasn't any backstage, just a curtain at the back of the stage that covered the wall. jeremy was wearing a shirt and pants, the shirt was orange and said something on it. he played a gibson acoustic guitar, I think it was a hummingbird but I'm not sure. it had a normal wood color finish and a red pick-guard with a bird on it. anything else anyone forgot to politely answer?

ryan

(contributed by susan [VeggieEdgy@aol.com]
The Jeremy show (Mountlake Terrace, WA-- north of Seattle) was, like Ryan said, really personal and intimate-feeling. Maybe it was because we were all just sitting on the floor in front of the stage... it had that feeling like when you're in preschool and you gather around the teacher for storytime and you're a little bit sleepy. :) It was great to hear "guitar and video games" and "every shining time you arrive" acoustically, especially if you're like me and have been trying to figure out the lyrics. I was running around taking a few pictures (was wearing a black & white tank top and scrub jeans, if any of you saw me then say hi!!) so when i can finally get to a darkroom i'll put em up on a web page along with my pics from the Moore show. By the time i get to a darkroom i'll have pics from their Bumbershoot show too.
The openers:
The first people... um... i don't know if they're a band or what. It was two girls. One played guitar and sang; the other alternated between violin and guitar, and sang backup. They had some messups (ok a lot) but for some reason i thought it added to the performance in a way. Made it feel more personal, like you would if they were just sitting in their room playing stuff they wrote. The singer has this really gorgeous voice. Shy-- but not really. It's hard to explain. I liked it.
Paul Mumaw: I have the world's biggest crush on the man, but i just don't enjoy his music too much. It doesn't *jive* with me and it sounded kind of out of tune a lot of the time... maybe it's supposed to? I don't know. I'm not familiar with too much of his music. In between songs he is hilarious! And Phil the cello guy is awesome.
Damien Jurado: Damien's great! His "stories" as he calls them just hit home in a way. The closeness of the show's atmosphere made them sound even more personal, though he says he makes them up. I'd cry if I was listening to one of his songs and he started singing my life story.
I didn't meet anyone from the list (well, i saw Ryan, but i know him) so that was pretty much the only thing i was disappointed about. That and the shortness of Jeremy's set.

xXx
susan