What a Venue! What a Show!

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Yesterday was what you would call a "whirlwind" day. Nashville to Cincinnati, then home...dragging in about 1 AM (then I got up and went to work!). All worth it, of course, to put my 11th concert and second of three Robbie Fulks shows under my belt. Last night he played at a gorgeous refurbished theater. You know, one of those late 19th century/early 20th century venues that are ornately decorated and have acoustics so perfect that you could almost hear Noam Pikelny's picks striking the strings of his banjo an instant before you heard the strings. The venue is located in Cincinnati's "Over the Rhine" region, a part of town you may have heard of because the band Over the Rhine took their name from it! To prove the fabulous quality of the acoustics, Robbie and the band stepped away from their microphones for the final verses of "Fare Thee Well, Carolina Gals" and let the building do the amplification. It was stunning. Robbie's voice never sounded clearer on "That's Where I'm From" than last night, seemingly because the room made his vocal so much prettier. There's something to be said about a great room like that. And the show was pretty good, too! There were a few variations from the Tuesday night show ("No John Cowan tonight," Robbie quipped after thanking me for posting the video of him and Cowan's songs the night before), including "Tears Only Run One Way" (a song that now makes me laugh every time I hear it because of something Chris Scruggs said about Fulks' pronunciation of the words new direction in the song), and the bluegrass standard (translation of that: Bill Monroe song ) "Little Cabin Home on the Hill." That wasn't the only Monroe song, either. Pikelny tore down the house with "Wheel Hoss" from his tribute album to Kenny Baker's tribute album to Monroe. Unlike Tuesday night, last night Noam had a microphone to talk into so he didn't have to get down on his knees to talk into his banjo mic. The venue was gorgeous. The show was superb.