Over The Rhine

OTR, new venue fit perfectly
By Rick Bird | ENQUIRER CONTRIBUTOR
One is tempted to call this a soft opening. After all, it was a folk/pop band with a cult-like following performing a five-year-old CD in its entirety at a venue no one had ever been to.
Over the Rhine proved to be the perfect test drive for the new 4,100-seat National City Pavilion at Riverbend on Saturday night, with an elegant, soaring set. A band known for its intimacy perfectly christened a new venue being sold for its cozy atmosphere.
OTR, for better, and sometimes worse, has a welcome-to-my-living room concert feel. But for this inaugural event the husband-and-wife team of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist upped the ante with a rousing, intricate show, performing their 2003 double CD “Ohio” in its entirety from cut one to track 21.
It was as if they knew they had a bigger stage to fill for this debut night and pulled it off in fine style, with a spunky six-piece band assembled for the occasion (make Bergquist’s powerful, angelic voice the sixth instrument). The band included two thrilling percussionists and solid guitar and pedal steel work.
It was an inventive and playful set as OTR reinvented the "Ohio" CD with thrilling, upbeat arrangements of many of the songs from what is mostly a pensive, melancholy album.
Performing an entire album is obviously a bold and self-indulgent experiment, but OTR pulled it off with an improv feel that rediscovered the album’s wonderful melodies and lyrics.
The tunes flashed many moods, ranging from their call-to-action songs hearkening to a misguided war on "Long Lost Brother," to Bergquist’s flirty "Lifelong Fling," which she introduced as a "Make-out song for married people." Through it all the set was infused with rich, roots-influenced strains with heavy doses of gospel, especially on such tunes as "Changes Come" and the closing "Idea 21 (Not Too Late)."
Yes, there were opening-night sound issues. The first half of the set was at times a terrible mix, with Bergquist's vocals sounding like they were coming through a tin can and buried by Detweiler's piano. The sound mix came together much better in the second half.
The new venue plays more as a large theater than an amphitheater with truly no bad seat in the house. Indeed, the upper tier of the venue is raked so steeply it is almost as good a place to sit as those on the floor of the pavilion.
The stage is as big as Riverbend's and the video screens just as big as well - almost irritatingly so. It is probably obligatory to put video screens in any concert hall these days, but at this intimate venue they almost seemed a distraction.
Riverbend folks obviously have a hit on their hands with the new pavilion to complement its existing 20,000 seat "shed." It is a warmer, theater-like experience that fills a void on the Cincinnati concert scene, which has lacked this type of mid-sized venue.
Meanwhile, it was great to see Cincinnati- based Over the Rhine, which has perhaps achieved more international acclaim than they have in their adopted hometown, get the honor to break in the new venue. The singers even kept the Ohio homecoming theme going for the encore, with Bergquist doing her best Chrissie Hynde impersonation on the Pretenders' "My City is Gone" and covering Gillian Welch's "Look at Miss Ohio."
Praise for The Trumpet Child:
Thanks to the listeners of 89.7 fm, WNKU, for voting The Trumpet Child their 1 CD of 2007. See WNKU'S website (wnku.org) for the complete 2007 countdown.
“this album amounts to a shout of joy…inspired by cabaret singers from a bygone era, the desperate good-time mythology of New Orleans' spirit, and a suave decadent intelligence"
-All Music Guide, Aug 2007
“These eleven songs are swanky, jazzy, and generally calibrated to conjure a pre-1950s late night, cocktail-swilling feel, without sacrificing nuances of lyric. It's a paean to enduring American songcraft.”
- No Depression, Sep/Oct 2007
"Over the Rhine has always had a deep affinity for all American musical styles and with The Trumpet Child's expansive, simple and exquisite arrangements and top-of-their-game songwriting, they prove that they are not merely interpreters of the great American songbook but a fascinating chapter unto themselves."
- CityBeat, Aug 2007
“The band interweaves seemingly incongruous stylistic threads, evoking its many influences. From the Stephen Foster-style overtones of “I Don't Wanna Waste Your Time” to the spare, Tom Waits-ish plunk of “Nothing Is Innocent. A wonderfully concise American music sampler. (Four Stars)”
- PASTE, Sep 2007
“11 new originals that earmark some of the most interesting eras of the American songbook -- Over the Rhine blends them into a sound all their own.”
- Mother Jones, Sep/Oct 2007
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Rock the Vote engages youth in the political process by incorporating the entertainment community and youth culture into its activities. From actors to musicians, comedians to athletes, Rock the Vote mobilizes young people to create positive social and political change in their lives and communities. The goal of Rock the Vote's media campaigns and street team activities is to increase youth voter turnout. Rock the Vote coordinates voter registration drives, get-out-the-vote events, and voter education efforts, all with the intention of ensuring that young people take advantage of their right to vote.
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For more information - and all things OTR - visit OvertheRhine.com