Sunday, Saturday night in Asheville

Tricia and and I had a blast last night in Asheville catching Marc Cohn at The Orange Peel. We made it a little early and watched some basketball (Maryland beat UNC at the buzzer) and then went downtown for dinner. We put the GPS to good use and found the Orange Peel.

We found a great spot on the street behind the club and walked 1 block over to Ed Bourdreux's on Biltmore. Great bar/BBQ pub. Very large screen where we watched the first half of the Clemson v. Duke game. I had a combo of beef brisket and pulled pork. What I really like about Ed's was the sauce bar where they had about 10 sauces divided into spice intensity. My favorites was the Memphis sweet. A few Sweetwater 420's and it was a great dinner, although a little much for the diet I've been trying to follow lately. Tricia had a turkey sandwich of some kind, which is no surprise given her tastes and usual dishes. At the end of the half, we walked down the block to the Dripolator, a hip coffee shop on Biltmore for a few cups of Joe to warm us for the walk back to the Orange Peel and the show. It was COLD last night in Asheville with a chilly breeze blowing down the streets. The snow stopped before dark.

For those of you who don't know, The Orange Peel, is a warehouse of sorts converted into a large music room with a funky bar on one side and the cleanest bathrooms in the land. It's a decent place made better by the smoke free environs and a great staff that features some of the best touring acts on the road today. The night didn't start too well since the venue didn't have the Marc Cohn.net ticket list. That's where I bought our tickets, which by the way, were for Tricia's birthday present (1/5). The staff looked at my email that I printed and gave us complimentary tickets (printed on receipt paper) and then we made it in the door (finally, as it was kinda cold just standing around on the corner).

Inside, the opening act, Amy Correia, was already on the stage and into her first few tunes. The room was low lit and had a warm vibe and temperature (but not too warm). Some rows of seats in front of the stage and then about 4 rows of small tables in front of the board. We found two seats in front of the left stack and settled in for the show. At this point, I should point out that I had plans to tape the show with the internal mics on my new Sony PCM-D50 recorder. As a back-up plan, I brought along my omni mics that are in croakie mounts for stealth back-up. Always plan for the worst, I learned that in the Army! Good thing I did! Marc Cohn at one time was allowing open taping of his shows. But, that was not the case last night as the "No photo, flash, video or audio" sign was in full force. A leather jacket always helps get the equipment in the door without problems. The croakie mounts are omni elements that I got from Sound Professionals. Although I wouldn't get to use the internal mics, it was a good chance to try the mic preamp on the D50. I think it did a great job but I am still concerned about a mismatch on the elements which on first review does look like it continues on the D50. I am planning to send them back for a better match as the right channel still lacks dB and I have to balance in post every time. I really would like to get cardioid elements instead since the mics are always pointed straight ahead and will limit some of the crowd chatter. That was not a problem last night as the crowd was respectful and very into the show. Okay, enough about the setup, how was the show?

As a solo opening act, Tricia and I weren't too impressed with Amy Correia. She seemed to push it but had a few good tunes, especially the last one which was a gospel tune. I did get that one as I made it back from the bathroom (which are very clean, did I mention that? :-) ) where I finished the setup of the stealth mics (down the back collar and into the fanny pack in the front, etc) and set up the recorder for the show. I turned on the 20dB preamp attentuator as I didn't want the mics to overload. On my Hi-MDs in similar setups, I always used a Radio Shack volume control in reverse since the MDs don't have preamp attentuators. Nice to go without that extra noise in the signal chain now on the D50.

I was very impressed with Marc Cohn and will try to catch his show again in the future. Marc was the victim of a shooting back in 2005 during an apparent carjacking after one of his shows in Denver. Marc was shot in the head and lucky to be alive. I guess that's why he now sings about ghost and otherworlds. I think I counted at least 5 songs about ghosts: Ghost train, Giving Up the Ghost, Dance Back From the Grave, The Calling (Ghost of Charlie Christian) and a couple of tunes about angels. Hey, if that was me, I think a gunshot to the head might change my perspective as well. I didn't mind as the vibe of the show and the setlist really matched. It was perfect with his masterful long time guitarist, Shane Fontayne, adding harmonic tones with graceful touches that filled the room very well. Maybe because I was in front of the stack or the Orange Peel has updated the sound, but I found the room sound to be very good and warm last night....MUCH better than the last show I saw there in 2004 (Soulive and MMW on my birthday 11/19/2004: Listen to the Soulive show I recorded).

Marc was in great spirits, making jokes about his gigantic hits and infamous writer's block. Amy Correia was also Marc's backup singer and did a much better job in that role. Marc's band was tight and this being the first week of this part of the tour sounded fresh and ready. I think they started this tour in Atlanta last week according to Marc's tour journal. Shane on guitars, a keyboardist/vocal who added some great touches and effects, a funky multi-percussionist (Joe Bonadio (sp?)), standup and electric bass (John Osman (sp?)) and Amy Correia on back-up along with Marc playing piano and some great acoustic left-handed guitar.

Marc played most of the hits other than "Already Home" that you could have wanted to hear. He took a few request and did a couple of tunes with just Shane and Marc on stage. He made jokes about his biggest hit ("I didn't promise that I would play "Walking in Memphis" after joking about the promo poster) but took the time to tell the background story of that tune and others. A couple of highlights for me were "True Companion" with just Shane and Marc with Tricia holding my hand and smiling at me (awww shucks) and "Dance Back From The Grave" his post-Katrina dedication with Marc on mic sounding like a megaphone ala Tom Waitts. He gave it all last night and the crowd was right there with him. They came back for 2 encores and he came out after the show to the merch table to sign autographs which is one of my favorite things. The last encore featured Marc and Joe on drums with Marc making jokes about the Allman Brothers (the 2 drummer reference). We didn't hang around as Tricia was ready to head back to the Hampton Inn, so after a great 2 1/2 hour show, headed out in the frigid (it got down to 12F last night) cold with a heart full of tunes from one of the better singer songwriters on the road today. Get out there and catch this tour if Marc Cohn heads your way and pick up the new CD Join the Parade while you are at it. Charlie Sexton is all over it, nuff said there!

I am very pleased with the recording on first playback (in the car on the way home). I will do a little balancing and normalize the levels and should have this one on a bit torrent somewhere soon. You should check it out! I'm pleased with the mic preamp and the attenuator, the D50's green and red indicators for peaks also made all the difference for setting the levels in my fanny pack in the dark club. Kudos for getting it right Sony!

As for the Clemson v. Duke game, they hung in there for the first half but Duke was just too much for Clemson in the 2nd half. Hopefully, Clemson will take something good out of it and be ready for Wake Forest later this week. 13-4 and in the bulk of the ACC. Hopefully, we can keep our heads above the water! Well, back to sleeping on the couch and watching playoff football with 1 eye open. I don't watch much NFL but do find it semi-interesting in January.

It was a great weekend for Tricia and me. My parents came up with my niece and nephew from Irmo, SC (Carley and Drew) and stayed with the boys. They left before church this morning. The boys' basketball games were canceled because of the snow, so my parents missed out on the games. But, the kids had fun playing in the snow with Keller chasing around all of them.

A little more snow and some cold temps to compliment some warm music, food and spirit.
Ain't Life Grand!