with Mike Johson and Pete Krebs

reviews for all 3 NW shows by Jen

Nov. 18, WOW Hall, Eugene, OR—

"I’m usually more talkative than this, but… I just don’t feel like it tonight," apologized opener Pete Krebs partway into his solo set. I had seen him perform at this year’s Bumbershoot festival in Seattle and had enjoyed him, but I thought he sounded much better at these shows. There seemed to be more heart and energy in the songs this time around. I was thrilled to hear him play my two favorites that I remembered from the Bumbershoot show, though I still don’t even know their names. It was a pleasant change to see a show where I actually wanted to hear the opening acts, rather than just enduring them and looking at my watch while waiting for the main event. I could have listened to either of the openers on this tour perform for hours, especially ex-Dinosaur Jr. member Mike Johnson.

Mike Johnson was uncharacteristically dressed down, no suit jacket or tie, undershirt visible at his unbuttoned collar. He played guitar and sang, accompanied by Dave Krueger on violin. This was my first time to see Mike play live and I quickly fell in love with his dark offerings and the deep tones of his voice. Dave’s accompaniment added sweetness and melancholy to the melodies and the effect was mesmerizing. If misery loves company, these guys should be the house band. This tour made me a fan and I quickly set about acquiring his CD’s for my collection.

WOW Hall is a community center, a small wooden-floored auditorium. The small crowd there, which grew as the night progressed, remained low key, many audience members remaining seated on the floor or in the small back risers of seats throughout the set. No one crowded to the front of the stage, until our group took a direct stand there during the encore. The acoustics were good and the atmosphere comfortable, but audience energy and involvement seemed lacking. This was certainly no fault of the bands’. Granted, this is music that benefits from thoughtful listening, but it was not without its climactic, full-rocking moments during Mark Lanegan and company’s headlining set.

Mark was accompanied on this tour by Mike Johnson and Marc Olsen on guitars, Ben Shepherd on bass, and Mark Boquist on drums, and they didn’t sound at all like a band simply put together to back Mr. Lanegan up on his songs, they sounded like a unit, like they had been playing together like-mindedly for years. Of course, we were seeing the end of the tour, and I don’t know that this was true earlier on, say, at the European shows, but for us, they were seamless. The songs were arranged in such a way that the mood went from the brooding impending doom of Ugly Sunday into the quiet introspection of such songs as River Rise, Last One in the World, and Bell Black Ocean (listed as Lullabye), and built to a high catharsis in Winding Sheet and Borracho that set the band rocking hard and getting into it both physically and emotionally as they swept us up into those beautiful expressions of pain finding joy in its release. The rocking mood carried over into the encore with the brooding surf/country stylings of Hospital Roll Call (listed as "16") [my husband describes this music as "the Ventures in Nashville on heroin"].

Before playing Carnival the band paused and Mark Lanegan squinted across the hall. "Is Dave still here?" He was. "Well, get your fiddle, boy!" So he joined them onstage to play Carnival much to our delight. From then on Dave would become a regular participant in Mark’s set, playing not only on Carnival, but also on House a Home. Because of This brought the energy to a zenith that left us breathless, but wanting more. Alas, there was no more. The final encore outlined on the setlist was not played. Ben remarked to us after the show that he hates playing Sworn and Broken because it’s a Screaming Trees song and he believes it should only be performed by them. Still, it would have been nice to hear the other two entries, but alas, we never would. That final encore was not performed at any of these last three shows.

Nov. 19, Showbox, Seattle, WA—

"I’m not really from Seattle, I’m from Portland," Pete Krebs, self-proclaimed "country grunge" player introduced himself this night. He was his more talkative self, declaring one song which drew great audience response to be a "pop song" and setting up the "country part of the show". I have no setlists from his performances and don’t yet have his albums, so I don’t know any of the song titles, but his show seemed to be basically, if not entirely, the same each night, and by the end of these shows several had become favorites that I looked forward to and now miss hearing.

Mike Johnson was dressed in his typical dark, stylish suit and tie with white shirt, a combination that nicely sets off his close-cropped blonde hair. As he once remarked in a 120 Minutes interview, "Looking good is its own reward," and look good he did! His deadpan sarcastic humor set up certain songs. "This one’s a real toe tapper," or "This next one’s a dance number, so I want to see all of you busting some serious moves." He would then go into a particularly depressing offering. Though Mark Lanegan’s touring is over for now, Mike Johnson continues to play shows, so if you get a chance to see him, you should.

For Mark Lanegan and band, this was the most energetic show of the three, and the full house at the Showbox, an eclectic group to say the least, appreciated that energy, becoming much more involved and lively than their counterparts the previous night. Our group took up its previous position, right at the stage in front of Ben Shepherd, our elbows on the backs of the monitors where every vibration went right through us, body and soul, and when an impassioned Ben began stamping his feet it was like shockwaves. What might have looked to those further back in the audience during the middle of the set like strange, balletic dance moves by Ben were actually the result of his trying, without interrupting his playing, to free himself of a cord that had looped itself over the toe of his boot, but the band’s energy did find much physical expression later on, as that familiar climax built. Marc Olsen was playing his solos right over our heads with abandon and Mike Johnson’s frenzy was a surprising contrast to his own sedate, seated work earlier. It was a strange and wonderful sight indeed to see Ben energetically jamming with a violinist and Carnival reached a fever pitch at this show. Again, the show ended with a rousing rendition of Because of This.

Nov. 20, Berbati’s Pan, Portland, OR—

This small bar attached to a Greek restaurant featured a semicircular stage about the size of my living room, with a carpet in some sort of foliage pattern you might expect to see in a parlor. There were strings of Christmas lights draped along the ceiling and a large, light-up snowman on the back of the stage. (As Mark Lanegan seems particularly fond of singing in the dark, he asked that even these festive lights be turned off for his set). "It’s so nice to be playing the Microsoft Christmas party," Pete Krebs joked. "Mike Johnson is up next, and then it will be the Mark Lanegan Orchestra."

Mike, in a suit sans tie, delivered his wonderfully engrossing set, toward the end of which the emcee handed him a seriously over-filled glass of whiskey, which splashed all over the stage and his setlist as he took it. This did not deter me in the least from wanting that setlist and I was happy to acquire it. To me, the whiskey stains add character and remind me of the mood of the music, which tends to make me want to wallow in a glass of whiskey anyway. Though the setlist lists Eclipse as the last number, it was replaced with Disease, listed but not played earlier, which he dedicated to Pete Krebs and said he hadn’t played in probably eight or ten years. Our group was in its customary place, our hands resting on the carpet, so close to the musicians I worried at times if we would be stepped on by a wild Ben or have Dave’s bow poke us in the eye.

The emotional energy of Mark’s band ran high and the playing rivaled that at the Showbox the night before, but the set was shortened. Carnival was dropped in addition to the second encore listing, a disappointment. Because of This left me feeling anguished because I knew this was likely the end, which it proved to be, not only of the show, but of the tour, and the wonderful experiences I had had at these shows with my dear friends.

In closing, I want to thank the bands not only for the wonderful music they gave us and the skill and emotion with which they presented it, but for befriending our little group. We got to meet all the musicians and talk to them, some at length, and that added a great deal of pleasure and excitement to our experiences. I would particularly like to thank Ben Shepherd and Mark Boquist for making us feel more like friends than fans and for going out of their way to make sure we had an enjoyable time.