The Del Amitri Concert, April 5, 1996
by David Sills

Subject: LIVE AT THE RIVIERA THEATER, CHICAGO (Friday April 5, 1996)

Hey Delfans!

Well, last night's show was, of course, splendid. Good sound, great playing, and a fun atmosphere.

The day started off well as Justin, Iain and Andy dropped by WXRT to chat and play a couple tunes. They said that for some reason, Chicago is the hottest town for them in the States, and always has been. I think it's because we've got a radio station that has always supported them and lots of people with good taste in music.

"Andy NEVER goes out," Iain and Justin laughed simultaneously, when asked about their plans for the days they were here. Justin said that they had a favorite little bar where they liked to hang out (most likely the Green Mill).

The reason they're still touring behind Twisted (this is their third stop in Chicago, a total of 6 shows and one acoustic in-store)? "We've run out of ideas," quipped Justin. "And we're stuck in a bus," added Iain.

They played "Tell Her This" after which the DJ noted that the single has a live version recorded in Chicago. "It's garbage," said Justin, "the record company likes to have you put live versions of songs you've already recorded on b-sides."

Then they decided to do an edited version of "Drowned On Dry Land" because as Justin said, "The middle eight is just too complicated." It sounded great though, but I guess it was not so great for them, since someone cracked that they needed to play that after the show to practice.

Several hours later, I arrived at the Riviera Theater. Unfortunately, the people I was with had left their tickets in their office downtown, so I skipped dinner and sacrificed standing up by the stage to go early and get them seats in the balcony (they did buy me a shirt for that though!).

Josh Clayton-Felt was the opener, and was very impressive. I was always a fan of School Of Fish, but never got to see them live. Josh's band was very tight and energetic. They opened with "Dead American" and ripped through a bunch of stuff from Josh's first solo album Inarticulate Nature Boy. Songs included "Window", "Matchbox Head", "Paint The Tree Green", "Soon Enough", a brief slowed down piece of SOF's "3 Strange Days" and several others. It was the first good opening band of the tour (both Melissa Ferrick and the Caulfields stunk in my humble opinion). Plus, Josh gets big bonus points for using the same guitar amp that I do (a Demeter TGA3, like you care!).

After a brief clearing of the stage, an XRT "radio personality" (as they call them in "the biz" - am I using too many "quotes"?) came out to rile up the crowd and introduce the band. He plugged the fact that on Regis & Loni they mentioned Chicago as being their favorite place to play in the States. Of course the crowd went nuts, and then, just before the band came on they played Frank Sinatra's version of "My Kind Of Town (Chicago Is)" and much of the audience sang right along.

They opened with "The Ones That You Love Lead You Nowhere" and then went right into "Just Like A Man". I'm not sure of the running order of the rest of the tunes (as I was unable to snag a setlist, being in the balcony and all) but here's what they played.

1. The Ones That You Love Lead You Nowhere
2. Just Like A Man
3. When I Want You
4. Always The Last To Know
5. Driving With The Brakes On
6. Stone Cold Sober
7. Roll To Me
8. Crashing Down
9. Hatful Of Rain
10. Medicine
11. Here & Now
12. Tell Her This
13. Start With Me/Lust For Life
14. Being Somebody Else
15. Kiss This Thing Goodbye
16. Gone Ded Train
17. the first verses of Spit In The Rain & Whiskey Remorse
18. Be My Downfall/It's Never Too Late To Be Alone (through first chorus)/discussion of folk music (see below)

Of course, they sounded brilliant. Ashley's turned out to be a dead solid drummer. Jon (or John?) was great, he did some ripping solos, and he's a good singer as well. Andy... well what can you say about Andy... the secret weapon, adding flourishes here and there, and occasionally getting to lay down a wonderfully nasty solo as he did on "Hatful Of Rain". Iain, in addition to wearing what looked like a red mylar shirt, sounded great and was really in a hair whipping string flinging frenzy. Justin was, as ever, his charming self, strutting around the stage when not singing.

Early on, people were yelling out requests. Justin said, "we'll do requests later, right now it's still our show and we'll play what WE want to. Later on we'll see if we can get you what you need."

Justin annouced that he felt it was "time to boogie, some American boogie" and said that they were going to play the Crazy Horse tune, "Gone Ded Train". He added that the band was unsure whether it was about male impotence, drugs or possibly male impotence caused by drugs. During the first two verses, where Iain and Jon sing, he climbed up on Ashley's drum riser and then ontop of Ashley's monitor (basically his feet were at the same level as Ashley's head!). He then looked around trying to figure out how to get down, since he had to sing soon. Then he booted Ashley's bongo's right off the riser, to give him more room to move! He did make it down in time though.

He mentioned that they had played the Easter weekend in Chicago exactly a year ago at the Double Door and said that they were going to play here every year at this time. He also apologized, in advance, to the people of Milwaukee at one point. "Every time we play in Milwaukee," he said, "we've just been in Chicago for a few days and by the time we get up there... we're fucked! And every year five more people turn up at Shank Hall to check out this crappy band that just played Chicago."

Later in the show, Justin said that there were some people in the front row, who had been holding up a sign the whole time, so he was going to play one verse of all their requests. He then began to play "Whiskey Remorse" and as soon as he got through, "There is a girl I used to know, she had a hundred ways of hurting you and so, I packed my bags and left her as she watched some TV show, there is a girl I used to know" he stopped and said, "Okay, that's enough of that one..." and then took the capo off his guitar, joking that "for all the musicians out there this next song is the exact same as the last one, just down a few frets" at which point he did a verse of "Spit In The Rain".

As the last song of the night, "Be My Downfall" usually ends up mutating into other songs such as "Drowned On Dry Land", "Kiss This Thing Goodbye" or "Like A Virgin"! But since they had been scared off by their performance of the former song early in the day and they had already played "KTTG" (and I guessmaybe Justin wasn't feeling virginal) they turned it into "It's Never Too Late To Be Alone". Justin got through the first chorus and leaned over to Andy. After much discussion Justin said, "We're obviously making this up as we go on, please bear with us."

This then turned into a discussion between Andy & Justin about the difference between Bavarian, German and Polish folk music. Justin figured that because Chicago has lots of ethnic areas, it would be good for Andy to play some Bavarian folk music. Then they decided that might not be a good idea, and went back into "Downfall". Iain had to run back on stage to sing, because they went back into it so quickly. That was the last song of the night and they left the stage.

All in all a great performance, and I'm looking forward to being closer for tonight's show!