pacificlectic : concert reviews & eclectic music news

FYI… PHOTOS of the SHOW at the BOTTOM

Before I begin… any tapers at the PDX show? If so, email me.

OK, well, I try to see Jude Christodal every time he comes by. Trouble is… the last time I saw him was at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN, around Memorial Day in 1999. That was, in fact, the first time I saw him, too. He was opening up for Ben Folds Five… and he blew me away (just as BFF did), and I went to Best Buy and bought his Maverick debut, No One Is Really Beautiful, the very next day.

Anyway, he’s now pretty much 100% independent in the U.S. (and on Naïve Records in France). Being from L.A. and on a French record label, he seems to either only tour the West Coast or France. He also writes for TV shows and whatnot… you, all, and everybody may have heard his song on LOST (the… um… pretty bad “poppy rock song” by the hobbit’s band) and his song on the City of Angels soundtrack (“I Do”)…

“You All Everybody” ain’t his normal fare, mind you. His normal fare is oft-dramatic, oft-comedic, oft-falsetto, oft-witty, oft-poetic singer-songwriter extraordinaire. He’s on the short list* of acoustic singer-songwriters who’ve broken through this metal heart… in short, Jude rocks. If you haven’t heard him, you’re doing yourself an injustice, IMO.

*-others on the singer-songwriter shortlist: Elliott Smith, Peter Mulvey, Glen Phillips, Sufjan Stevens,… and some Cincinnati locals like Ash, Ryan, Jason, Kim, Kelly…

Living in the Midwest up until last fall, I didn’t get a chance to see him again… until last night. I made the ~2 hour drive up to Portland from Eugene last night to the lovely Aladdin Theater (SE side of PDX). It’s a quaint old movie or play house… old, but still cute… not in total disrepair like many of these types of venues I’ve witnessed. Great concessions, too… goat cheese, mushroom & sundried tomato pizza and Fat Tire Amber, Deschutes Mirror Pond & Pyramid heff on tap (score!).

The opener, Ryan Andrew (from Castella), was good. He didn’t get warmed up himself until about the third song. Good voice and interesting songs. He played about 30 minutes, which consisted of:

• I Ain’t Comin’ Home Tonight
• It Hurts Like Hell
• The Only One (fav of set)
• When She’s Gone (guessing on name)
• Wonderwall (great version of Oasis tune… another fav of the set)
• The First Time

JUDE came on just after 9pm, and played with basically no break until about 11:15 and then came back out for a 4 song encore, wrapping up around 11:30… two and a half hours of quality Jude…

One of the funniest things (and there were many) was a girl named Molly brought up a sequined duck to the stage as a gift for Jude. “The prettiest thing a stripper ever owned,” gasped Jude. Then he quickly back-peddled, as to not seem unappreciative. “I mean at some point the dresses don’t fit anymore… I’m gonna sequin ducks.” He even serenaded it with a song later in the night (see pics below).

The crowd was very lively / rowdy / talkative / chatty / request-y. Jude fulfilled most of the requests. Some, though, he just couldn’t remember (his own “Charlie” and the chords to Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy“). He played over 30 songs, 2.5 hours, great concert all around. He also had many crowd interactive sing-a-longs. The best was the “drunk singing choir” for “Everything’s Alright.” It was hilarious… because it was true.

“The Minnesota people” were a bit too loud, but eh… it was all fun.

Oh, and Jude mentioned that the long-promised Cuba CD is on its way. Finally!! Apparently, it’s already done, in the can, what have you…

Here’s what he played:

• Out of L.A.
• I’m Sorry Now
  
• Mayfair Market
• Indian Lover (here’s where the duck was gifted)
• Break Up Song
• Run to My Room
• Rick James
• I Know (one of the best songs of the long night)
• In Between
• I Do
• Distance contest: Eastern Washington was the winner after a few disqualifications… namely Detroit (Oregon) and Minnesota (moved here from, not travel for show)
  
• Gay Cowboy (he wrote this before Brokeback Mountain… but check out this unofficial video)
  
• Prophet
• toying with “Crazy“
• Brad and Suzy
• Everything’s Alright (I Think It’s Time)
  
• Black Superman
• The Asshole Song
• Baby Ruth in Atlanta
• You Mama You
• Madonna (another one of the best songs of the long night)
• Love Letters / Ain’t No Sunshine (or maybe Love, Love, Love / Ain’t No Sunshine… or maybe all 3 songs…)
• Calling All Friends
• End of My Rainbow
• Cuba
• Fallen Angel (aka Fly Again)
• Money
• Your Eyes
• Encore: On the Dance Floor
• I Want a Duck (improv)
• Paper Towel
• Taking More and Giving Less
  

Note: I’ve got some pics from the show at the bottom of this blog post. Some of them are “artistic” (meaning: fuzzy).

Go check out his music on iTunes, Amazon… or CDBaby (you can sample songs there, too). My fav albums of his (though all are good) are Sarah (4th album, blue cover) and No One Is Really Beautiful (2nd album, greenish cover).

The appropriate linkage:

• http://www.judemusic.com/
  
• http://www.myspace.com/judechristodal
• http://cdbaby.com/cd/jude2
  
• http://www.naive.fr/
• http://www.myspace.com/ryanandrewsmusic
• http://www.officialcastellaband.com/
  
• http://www.aladdin-theater.com/
  

I’m going to the Bill Frisell & Eyvind Kang show tonight in Eugene (I’m stoked)… that’s all for now…

professional teller machine user,
~Dan

np: Various Artists – You Gan’t Boar Like an Eabla When You Work With Turkrys

JUDE CONCERT PHOTOS
all pictures (cc) 2008 Daniel Temmesfeld,
you may use freely under a creative commons attribution

(click for larger on photos below)

OK, judefuzz04 isn’t my photo… ::blush::