Epiphany in Baltimore

2000-11-01

Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com

I first saw Dan Bern in 1996 at the Wharton Center at MSU, opening up for Ani DiFranco. I was immediately blown away by his clever wordplay, his social commentary, his biting style, and his fearless lyrics. Whether singing about his idea of evolution ("Aliens, they fucked the monkey, fucked the monkey"), his big balls, his favorite "chick singers", or his more serious songs, like his doting ode to his sister, or his paen to lost innocence ("Wasteland"), he thrilled me with his lyrics and performance.

That performance prompted me to buy a couple of CD's and become a lifelong fan. I've seen him every time he's come to Michigan since then, seeing him perform at my favorite music venue - The Ark in Ann Arbor. I've since learned he's an erratic performer - sometimes blinding me with his brilliance, or sometimes boring me with his arrogance.

Last night, I went to see him with Jake - another fan from the DiFranco show - and two Bern virgins (Gale and Jake's wife Anne). I was embarassed to have reccommended him. I've seen him be everything from brilliant (like the last time I saw him, an excellent 2.5 hour solo performance; or the first time I saw him at the Ark, when he and his band came out to the audience and played "Marilyn" with a little kid) to so ornery it was unenjoyable (the second to last time I saw him). But I don't think I've ever been as annoyed as I was last night.

First of all, the band came out in costumes, so you couldn't tell who was who. It was funny at first - the piano player (we eventually realized it was the piano player) did a fun impression of Bern singing "Tiger Woods". But the joke went on about 20 minutes way too long. It was horribly frustrating, especially

for me, who took along two friends who had never seen Dan Bern before. I kept telling them over and over again that this is just a bad joke, it will get better. During this time, Bern and his band desecrated such favorites as "Jurasalem", "Marilyn", and "Tiger Woods". It really sucked. Usually he just doesn't play them, but this time he spit on them.

When that was finally over, Dan had everyone clear out the tables in front of the stage of the Ark and dance in front of him. First of all, Bern's songs are not danceable (despite some folks' comedic insistence that they were). Secondly, ten fans standing in front of Dan Bern made it tough for the other 100 folks to see him.

I don't have a setlist, but he played maybe five album tracks - I didn't know much of the other material. There were moments of greatness - "Disarmament" was even more powerful with a band, "One Thing Real" was superb, and "Estelle" was played by request (he ignored the rest of them) and turned out really nice. He did a song that is probably called "Willy Mays" for an encore, and that was cool. OTherwise, I was disappointed with the song selection and performance. For a performer to have such a disregard for his fans is really disappointing. I think it's no accident that every Dan Bern I see at the Ark is progressively less and less crowded - this show was only about half capacity. And, you know what? He deserved it. I've seen the place sold out for a Dan Bern show. Now, I'm not even sure if I'll go to his next show (although I probably will, for the aforementioned some-time brilliance that he has). But this show was uninspiring, and even worse - it was boring.

It's so sad when you're let down by musicians. It's happened before, and I'm sure it will happen again. But when an independent, unknown artist does it, it's even sadder.

Also, I'm getting far too old to drive far away to a concert on a school night. I couldn't make it up to life weights this morning at 5am, and instead didn't roll out of bed until 6:45am - not that great of timing for someone who has to be at school and ready to go by 7:30am. That's one of the big reasons I want to move to a big town, so I have stuff to do that I like in close vicinity to me.