What do you see?

Colliding Rhino's Tour Review
Champaign, Illinois, 3/7/2000

This tour is brimming with talent and incredible live performances, starting with the amazing David Wilcox. Dan came out and gave a short introduction of David to the crowd, saying that David was someone that he really looks up to and has respects very much as a fellow musician and lyricist. David was a very funny man, and he played some incredible songs that he's written. He played a great song about the secret to a successful marriage, and he also played a very touching song about emotional pain. His guitar playing ability is astounding, he uses lots of his own open tunings, and he even used two capos on one of his songs and he played between and outside of the capos! Very beautiful sounding.

Burlap came out and played a very energetic set featuring some new songs that have yet to be released on an album. One of them was something about a "bad, bad dream" which seemed to go over pretty well. The lead guitar player for Burlap was having a difficult night... The lead singer kept throwing him off by picking songs that he wasn't ready for, and he also broke a string in the middle of song. He continued to play, though, and he even improvised a great solo without his top string. A girl in the crowd right in back of me yelled after that song "You rock, broken string!" and the lead singer said something like "let's hear it for broken string!" It was kind of funny, guess you had to be there Overall, Burlap was very energetic and put on a great show as always.

The Beatles' album "Rubber Soul" was played while the stage was set up for the Jars, an appropriate selection considering Steve (and the rest of the band) loves the Beatles' music. The lights went out, and "I want to know why, I want to know why" came through the speakers. I still wasn't all that impressed with "Unforgetful You" live, it just needs all that cool sound-effect stuff to give it the right sound. "Crazy Times" was next, no guitar chewing from Steve

The first surprise of the night was the inclusion of "Grace" from Zoo, which sounded great live. Dan's vocals were excellent on this one, and the mix of the band was spot on. "Five Candles" got a nice reading, as Matt sported an acoustic 12-string and Steve played a bright red electric 12-string, giving the song that jangly feel of the Much Afraid recording. Next followed "Love Song", which featured a nice keyboard solo from Charlie.

Then everyone left the stage other than Dan and Steve, and Dan and Steve talked for about 10 minutes before they played "Worlds Apart." Dan mentioned that Cher had performed on the same stage in Champaign a couple months ago, and then he proceeded to sing a couple of lines of falsetto of "Believe", it was hilarious. I look beyond the empty cross...Steve promised that they wouldn't do as many costume-changes as Cher in their show, and Dan said, "yeah, because this is all we've got." Steve mentioned that it was an honor to be playing on the same floor as the University of Illinois basketball team, and he said that Aaron Sands had a favorite Illinois basketball player, but he couldn't remember who it was. Aaron wasn't on the stage, so he asked the audience if they had any ideas. I was in front, so I actually heard somebody from stage left yell a name (it must have been Aaron). But Steve left it a mystery until the end of the concert. So they played "Worlds Apart" acoustic, and it was fantastic as always.

The band came back on the stage and played "Hand" which was ok. The next surprise of the night was the return of "Boy On a String" to the concert lineup. Charlie played some funky keyboard effect that sounded kind of like the one he used on "Swingtown" to start the song. Dan also did his patented boy-on-a-string-dance again, which was very cool. "Like a Child" followed, with the Zoo-like intro. Then the band did something I've never seen them do before: they all assembled at the right hand side of the stage and played a very nice acoustic version of "No One Loves Me Like You." Steve was playing the Mandolin which I've never seen him play before! Charlie was on accordion, Aaron played acoustic bass, Joe played some brushes and soft drums, and Dan sang lead. It was a very pretty rendition of the song, one that Dan introduced as a "love song." He asked if anyone had ever been in love, and if they had they would know what the song was all about.

This next part of the night was the highlight for me: they played a medley of "Sad Clown" and "Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers! "Sad Clown" was played even slower than on Zoo, and it sounded great. Dan did some sort of clown dance during one of the instrumental parts of the song, and he had some very expressive facials during the song. You could feel the bittersweet emotion of the song through Dan. Also, all of the band (including Aaron, but minus Joe) sang on this song. "Ain't No Sunshine" featured Charlie on the mellotron giving a nice 60's string-sound, and the whole song was very psychedelic/bluesy. What an excellent cover song!

Then they picked it back up with "Collide", which got the Jars rocking on stage again. "Can't Erase It" followed that, which featured nice harmonies from the entire band minus Joe once again.

Another highlight of the evening was the closer of the set, "I'm Alright." They played a nice long rock intro, and Dan got the crowd all clapping along. This one had a lot of energy to it, and the crowd was very into it.Billy, we love you!!! They did some soloing in the middle while Steve introduced the band. Aaron was wearing his FBI shirt again, so Steve said that Aaron was a former employee of the FBI and still a big supporter, and he also said "don't feed the bass player." Charlie, Steve, and Aaron played bits of "Life in the Fast Lane" by the Eagles and "Day Tripper" by the Beatles during their solos. There were really have a great time up there. Oh, and Dan took his spot at his drum kit next to Joe for this one at the end. Great closer for the set.

After rattling chairs and loud applause, the Jars came back out and did their very-gothic take on "Liquid." Matt played a gold-sparkle electric guitar on this one! I yelled up to him, "nice electric guitar!" and he looked up for a minute and smiled at me. Steve also played his slide guitar at the end of this one.

"Flood" inevitably followed, and everyone went crazy of course. Finally, the band closed the show with "Needful Hands", and Dan also talked quite a bit before this one. He mentioned something interesting about David Wilcox. Dan said that some people consider his (Dan's) lyrics profound, but Dan would consider David Wilcox's lyrics to be way more profound that his, which was a nice compliment for David. Dan proceeded to talk of how people shouldn't judge Christianity based on how the Christians around them at a concert or anywhere else act, because Christians are human and "will always fail you." He said we should look to Jesus Christ himself, and then they played Needful Hands. Charlie sang with his eyes closed on this one, and the band really gave this one all of their heart.

The band really played a great show, I'm looking forward to seeing them again soon. Hope you enjoyed the review!

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