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Josh
Rouse with The Bees
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Schuba's,
Chicago, IL
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April
26, 2004
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I was excited for weeks before the concert about the
prospect of seeing Josh Rouse not once, but twice at Schuba's in the same week.
To set the scene, Schuba's is one of the premiere live music venues in Chicago.
It's smallish (250 people during sold out shows), attracts a wide variety of
musical talent and, in turn, usually benefits in an attentive, respectful
audience.
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The first night's opener was the Bees. Fronted by Daniel Tashian, better known
as Josh Rouse's multi-instrumentalist, the Bees have recently been touring with
Guster. Meeting Bees' bassist, John
Deadrick, before the show, we asked him to describe the Bees' sound. Jokingly,
John qualified it as a cross between Matthew Sweet and Motley Crue.. Matthew
Crue, if you will. We'd just have to wait and hear for ourselves. The Bees put
on a very entertaining performance - great music, good lyrics, very nice
chemistry between band members. They
played 8 - 9 songs with very little chitchat in between songs. Definitely worth another listen.
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After a relatively brief set change, Josh Rouse took the
intimate stage. Dressed in a retro 70's
polo and signature corduroy jacket, Rouse politely greeted the crowd commenting
on how quiet we all were. He opened
with the infectiously rhythmic tune, 'Comeback'; a song that pleads with the
sun to shine again to combat seasonal affective disorder during a long
Norwegian night. The song is already a
hit overseas, and was released as a single on March 1st here in the
states. At some point in the evening,
Rouse joked, "I'm huge in Europeä getting a big laugh from the crowd.
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The set list included a healthy amount of songs from '1972,'
his newest release, and a collection of fan favorites from 3 of his 4 other
albums (such as 'Feeling No Pain,' 'Marvin Gaye,' 'Miracle' and 'Late Night
Conversation') as well as a lively cover of Gillian Welch's 'Look at Miss
Ohio.' Early in the set, Rouse had the
entire audience feeling his 'Love Vibration' with an ever so slight hip
movement that is quite sexy, in my opinion.
Rouse and the band also treated us to atmospheric 'Rise' and 'Under Your
Charms' which I hadn't heard live yet. They were both definite highlights of
the evening.
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It was such a treat watching this tight-knit group of
musicians create sound together with Rouse subtly orchestrating the song
progression with a look or nod of his head.
As an added bonus, Brad Jones (talented producer of '1972' and
other albums by Marshall Crenshaw, Jill Sobule, Ass Ponys, etc.) was filling in
for Tashian on guitar.
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As I've seen at other Josh Rouse shows, they ended the set
with 'Flight Attendant' with Rouse leaving the stage before the end to give a
chance for the audience to really attend to the other band members. After a
very short break, Rouse returned to the stage to perform a solo acoustic
version of 'Sparrows Over Birmingham' in which the crowd spontaneously morphed
into his gospel choir filling in the quiet spaces ö "wedding bells ring... church
choir sing... beautiful one... it's a sad tune.ä
Then, the band rejoined Rouse for an energetic rendition of
'Directions.'
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A great night all around, save the annoying yelling guys
standing dangerously close to my friends and I in the front row whom had no
sense of when their inane comments and song requests were falling on deaf
ears. Note to concert goers, if the
first three or four times you yell something and the band members don't respond, or
look at each other with a look of horror ö cease the action. Just a little
friendly advice. Oh yeah, see Josh Rouse live whenever you get a chance ö you
won't regret it!
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To find out more information about Josh
Rouse, visit his website at www.joshrouse.com.
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