The Innocence Mission

Amy and I went to see The Innocence Mission at Schuba's last weekend. This trio is simply fantastic. The music is simple and honest and Karen's lyrics are masterful snapshots taken from very real experiences. David Dondero opened the show. I'd never heard of him before, but he had an intriguing performance method of appearing extremely nervous. While I was never sure if his jitters were sincere or just a different kind of Kaufman-esque stage persona, they were rather endearing. As a musician with a good amount of stage fright, I was sympathetic regardless of the sincerity factor. He played a number of songs that were very solidly in a traditional anti-culture folk vein. Simple chords and harmonic progressions were underpinned by brutally honest and often expository lyrics such as "This isn't like Playstation at all." from a song entitled, "Pre-Invasion Jitters," about a kid who enlists in the military to get money for school but ends up getting sent to war. Also on DD's set list was a narrative song titled, "Double Murder Ballad Suicide". To explain the song would be a spoiler; however, at one point during the song, Dondero stops to discuss the true color of the Golden Gate bridge, orange vermillion. I'm not sure if the small crowd, pumped for the Innocence Mission, was entirely ready for a performance like Dondero's, but he showed no sign of wavering even when his opening query to audience ("Who likes the good state of Florida?") met with an odd silence. I was surprised that there were no wisecrackers who let out a solitary sarcastic whoop of approval.

After Dondero's performance, The Innocence Mission took the stage to much applause, opening with "Sweep Down Early" if memory serves me correctly. They continued to play through a good portion of the new album before tackling some of their older material. They did not, however, go much further back than "Glow." Songs from "Umbrella" and their self-titled debut were all but absent from the set list. At one point, Mike Bitts' bass amp (I couldn't quite see what he was fiddling with) refused to function and there was some good-natured exchange between Don Peris and the house audio crew, but Mike was back up quickly and the show continued. The audience was also treated to a rare performance of "Small Planes." Before the song, Karen admitted that they hadn't played the song prior to this tour since it had been recorded. All being said, I was incredibly satisfied with the show. The band played two out of the three songs that I most hoped they would play including "July" and, surprisingly, "Our Harry" during the encore. After one encore the band left the stage and did not return despite our fervent applause begging a return. We'll just have to wait until their next Chicago visit.

Currently listening to: Beck, Sunday Sun