Over the Rhine in Portland

Over the Rhine played in Portland on Saturday to a sold out show at the Doug Fir. Fortunately, I bought Wah-Wah and I tickets on line, so we hired a our babysitter to come over and watch the kids while we saw this amazing show. I wanted to get some pictures and maybe a few short clips, but my camera broke again earlier that afternoon on a hike (I think this is my third camera this year, hopefully it is repairable (for the record, I didn't do anything to it).

The Doug Fir is a small venue, but it draws a lot of first class acts. Every artist I've seen there digs the log cabin feel to the place has. The walls are panelled with fake logs making good acoustics. Over the Rhine referred to it as "Grizzly Adam's home."

Griffin House opened the show. Usually I get annoyed by opening acts, but Griffin House was a pleasant surprise. Griffin House is a solo artist, not a band. He came out and did some acoustic- lyrically clever and spiritual songs. I was pretty touched by his canter and honesty.

Over the Rhine took the stage about an hour later with "I Don't Wanna Waste Your Time" from their new album "The Trumpet Child." Linford Detweiler told most of the stories this evening referring back to his roots and inspirations in music. Most of the material they played came from "The Trumpet Child" with "Born" the only song from "Drunkard's Prayer." They also played a few covers like "Fever" and a Gillian Welsh song. They threw in a couple of songs from "Snow Angels" their X-mas album as a surprise. They ended the evening with "Latter Days" from "Good Dog, Bad Dog."

Despite not hearing a lot of my older favorites, the show was great. Over the Rhine is a band that enjoys their instruments and it shows when they go off into a 10 min keyboard or bass solo. Typically this also annoys me when some bands do that, but Over the Rhine did it with taste. Best part came with a 5 min drum solo that ended with the drummer knocking down the cymbals.