We went to see the Wallflowers concert on our 9th anniversary. When we arrived at the concert, we were amazed how good the opening band was and really connected with the music they played.
Then came the highly expected Wallflowers. From the start of the show there was a uniqueness in the air. However, when they started playing their sound was muffled. The first few songs were barely audible, and my wife and I glanced at one another many times questioning the sound engineer's proficiency.
We have never heard nor witnessed issues with audio quality at The Palladium in Carmel Indiana. The deficiencies with the sound seemed to set off a chain reaction of events moving forward. Jakob Dylan at one point was clearly put off by the crowd's dereliction of duty in not responding with resounding cheers and gala.
Not sure which was worse: the fact that he couldn't understand that we were having a hard time getting into the music because of the sound, or the fact that we couldn't let him know what the problem was...
At one point this led to Jakob Dylan stating, "Guess you don't get many rock bands in here?". Insinuating our reaction was due to our lack of experience with this genre of music. Later as the crowd was still reacting without much zest he added, "Begging isn't my strong point." This seemed to resonate with the crowd. At this point forward the sound was miraculously much better, and the crowd rose to its feet. Collectively there seemed to be some tension that was relieved.
Further adding to the unconventional nature of the show there was a tremendous amount of chatter between lead singer and the throng. At one point Jakob was discussing the difference between making a baby with him versus making a baby to his music. It seems an audience member was chatting about the virtues of his music inspiring a transaction in the bedroom with him versus to his music. Next was a little diatribe regarding when to play the hits and when to hold back as certain front row types must have been clamoring for Three Marlenas.
Finally, the most intriguing part of the show to me was a certain rant about an Indiana legend. Jakob asked the crowd if John Mellencamp was from around here. Of course, there were applause and few onlookers replying he was from Bloomington Indiana. With this information Jacob then said, "He's a f$$cking a##hole." Then adding a prick as well. "But not anyone in his band was bad."
After it was all said and done, I pondered this show for the next 24 hours and have asked myself many times what I just witnessed. A comedy show, a musical theater presentation, it was all a bit surreal especially coming from a guy that has photographed 1000's of musical acts and has seen 1000's of shows. Nevertheless, we did enjoy the music in between the conversation and did appreciate the music mastery shown by the band members and Jakob himself.
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