It was hotter than the 5th level of hell!!! At about 9pm it was still oh.... 96 degrees!!!!! Mix in some major humidity and you are a sneeze away from dehydration. You know it's hot when a man that grew up in Shreveport and lives in New Orleans says that it was cooler in New Orleans that it was in Baltimore. I found out that I had sweat glands in places that I never knew I had. Not trying to give too much info - just trying to paint a picture of the atmosphere Friday night.

Despite the heat, the boys played one helluva show. They were moving all over the stage and actually were jumping up and down a bit. Jumping. In 96 degree heat laced with major humidity. They crazy.

Englishdave took notes. He should be able to give an accurate setlist and memories - if his notes aren't blurry from all the sweat.

My favorite, humidity filled moment - KG was trying to think of a band from Baltimore. After a moment he came up with Jimmies Chicken Shack. The band that has a bass player that has a big... bass. Tom commented that his bass was bigger!!

Best comment of the night from a fan - Josie saw some cord hanging form the scaffolding on the Tom side of the stage. She said it was Tom's "Oh S*%T handle" It was good to see you Josie!!!

P.S. Oopss... didn't see Josie's post in Road Trip Forum.

So sad that Becky and I could not split ourselves in 2 so we could be at 2 shows!!! We were at DBM in DC!!! I have not idea how either band can play in the 5th level of hell heat either!! I am glad to hear that the show was great. I can not wait until they tour this fall!!! I totally agree with finding new sweat glads that you never knew you had!!!

See you all soon!!!

Yay! It was good to see you and Michelle too!

I hope English Dave comes by with a review and notes soon!

Pictures please! My camera died.

It was a tremendous show. The guys cracked up the entire audience with numerous off the cuff jokes. Here's the setlist and my full review:

Good
Misunderstood
A Lifetime
Breathless
Absolutely Still
Extra Ordinary w/ snippet of "Airplanes" (by B.o.B. ft. Hayley Williams??)
King of New Orleans
Sincerely Me
Black Light
Laid (James cover)
Miss You (Rolling Stones cover) into Juicy w/ snippet of "Poker Face" by Lady GaGa
Desperately Wanting

Encore

Mary Jane's Last Dance (Tom Petty cover)
In the Blood w/ snippets of "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love" (by Van Halen) and "Song 2" (by Blur)

Welcome to Balt-Amore!

How hot was it in Baltimore's Inner Harbor Friday? According to the weather channel it hit 98 degrees, but I'm sure the heat index was way higher. It was brutally hot. Or to quote Private Eugene Jerome in Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" -

"Man it's hot. It's like Africa hot. Tarzan couldn't take this kind of hot"

Heat notwithstanding, Baltimore was due for a good rock show. Last year's show had been rained out and the guys ended up doing an impromptu acoustic set in a local bar "Luckie's." Tom and Michael made note of this during the soundcheck and you could tell they still felt they owed the city something in return and they surely did deliver.

It always makes for a good show when there's a decent opening act. Local band "Cinder Road" put on a spirited set in the heat and got attendees worked up a bit. Although, I thought bringing out the lead guitar players 4 year old on stage was way over the top. OK, he's a cute kid, did he really need to be out there for the entire last song? It seemed a bit exploitative, Thank God he at least had ear plugs! Anyway, I think the guys feed off the crowd response to good openers and definitely try to make the point that they are the headliner for a reason.

After a quick set up, the men of BTE hit the stage. They seemed genuinely happy to be there despite the heat and Kevin quipped that "he had heard that the locals often referred to the city as Balt-Amore (presumably because it's full of love). After this, the guys launched right into "Good." And, as he usually does, he added the "take it to the bridge, Balt-Amore!" Michael did particularly well on the tune. On interesting thing he would do was to hit a cymbal and then grab it to shorten the effect. A nice touch indeed that made for a crisp rendition of the tune. Kevin ended the song with a guitar flourish in true classic rock style.
Tom noted that he had been in New Orleans that morning and that, unlikely as it may sound, it was actually way less hot than Baltimore. With Jim Payne on keys, the band then delivered "Misunderstood." It was a very rocking version of the tune and concluded with a spirited battle of the yeah-yeahs between Kevin and Tom. Tom nailed it and won easily.

Kevin then told the crowd that they had been paid "gobs of money" by the elders of Baltimore to entertain the crowd. "They live in a subterranean bubble under the harbor and haven't surfaced for 47 years!" He also noted that BTE weren't the only band playing that night - "Steven Adler's Appetite is playing over there" Kevin said. "You know Tom, I know Steven Adler. Back in the day we partied together once. Of course, he doesn't remember me. You saw ‘Celebrity Rehab' it's all very tragic but totally rock ‘n' roll." The crowd definitely got the reference.

Tom then mentioned that Baltimore has a NFL team (The Ravens). He said he thought it would be a blast if there was a Ravens-Saints Super Bowl next year. Kevin didn't say anything to this, but the joke was to come later. "A Lifetime" followed and Kevin instructed the crowd to sing-along and he seemed truly impressed as the crowd sang right back to him. "Nice job Balt-Amore!" he noted.

I was a little surprised to hear "Breathless" come next. If it weren't for BTE Fan Taylor Swift this song may never have re-appeared in the setlist and it's a great song. As they ended, Kevin noted that Swift had covered it on the Hope for Haiti Telethon. Poking fun at Swift's huge success KG asked (rhetorically) "Has anyone ever heard of her?"

"Absolutely Still" was the next offering of the night. The guys rocked it nicely, although I was a little distracted by a "Front row infraction" as a young lady tried to interject herself between my friend Sonja and myself. It was a nice try, but after standing so long in the heat there was no way I was going to given up even a square inch of front row for a latecomer.

Switching to the acoustic guitar, the band then performed "Extra Ordinary." As much as I love this song, I would really like for them to mix it up and play it electric like they did before "Closer" was released. Although, this was a cool version as KG did an extended chat with the audience in the middle of the song. "Tom every time we play Baltimore there are so many hot girls in the audience." And he then explained how people "musically in the know" had told him that - even though it seemed like an easy song to play - "you really should have a least 7 fingers to play it." He interjected this observation when the song started up again in a falsetto voice along with "God speed you Ravens!" He also did a small snippet of a song - "Airplanes" by B.o.B. with Hayley Williams? Can anyone help me out on identifying the tune?

Then KG then sprang the football joke on Tom. Tom remarked again that a Ravens-Saints Super Bowl would be "awesome." Kevin gave him a quizzical look and said "didn't you say the Giants and Saints last night?" The crowd began to boo in jest and Kevin said "my bad, you said the Redskins!"

Moving on, Kevin noted the band is from New Orleans and that the next song - "King of New Orleans" was about the city. The same city, he continued, that was about to get hit by a Tropical Storm loaded with crude oil. Thankfully this hasn't come to pass, but Kevin did make the mistake of messing up the lyrics to the song. OK, he does that often, but very rarely with KONO. Tom, Jim, and Michael just started cracking up when he did this and Kevin gave them that boyish "oops" expression he reserves for such occasions.

"Sincerely Me" came next and was obviously a last minute choice as the rest of the band switched gears to follow KG's lead which was obviously intended to keep the show in high-gear. Tom and Michael managed to pull off the customary "drum huddle" too. As the song ended Kevin praised the work of the local light man "you're doing a great job, but didn't anyone tell you that you aren't supposed to ever ut a spotlight on the other members of the band?" Everyone found this exaggerated "frontman" ego schtick pretty funny.

Harkening back to his Steven Adler joke from earlier, KG said that the next song of the night was called "Paradise City" or "Sweet Child of Axl." In reality, it was "Black Light." One thing I noticed was that at some point Kevin tapped his guitar loudly (twice) and it added nicely to the song. As the band switched over to their cover of "Laid" by James, Kevin asked the audience if they were all sufficiently hydrated. Michael got add a nice drum solo to this ever-rocking tune.

The Rolling Stones "Miss You" began and preceded "Juicy." Kevin did a uncharacteristic dance move during the tune that seemed like it was borrowed from the "Hip Hop Abs" infomercial. He also threw in a snippet of Lady GaGa's "Poker Face" for good measure.

After the exertion of the moment, Tom noted how everyone was sweating profusely. Kevin corrected him and said that Tom was actually "glowing." In fact, he was covered in what is actually known as the "rock glow" or "soul glow." He then demanded that MJ provided a sound effect for Tom's glowing. MJ hit the drums, but KG made him redo a cymbal sound because "it's got to have a sort of tinkerbell sound."

"Desperately Wanting" concluded the main set. Kevin changed up the lyrics a little and sang "say you always glow" just for Tom. During a breakdown portion of the song, he also quoted the Vampire TV show "True Blood" by proclaiming "I am your maker, come to me Sookie!" He then told the crowd that the show is actually based on a BTE song. He didn't say which one and subsequently said this wasn't true. However, he noted that her, Jim and their tour manager were all from Monroe, Louisiana which is the hometown of the author.

He then said that if someone were to tap you on the back in the crowd you should spin around and give them a vicious vampire sneer which he demonstrated to the crowd's delight. He then went off the deep end - "Here's an idea if you are a guy and you go home tonight and you are going to have sex, do that sneer when you drop your pants!" He then proceeded to mimic dropping and raising his pants in time with the sneering sound. It was hilarious. But then he apologized "I'm sorry folks, I shouldn't have gone there - ‘down below' that is - you know, sometimes you swing for the bleachers with a joke, but they can't all be home runs. Sometimes they are foul balls!" He then concluded the song with Jim Payne channeling Barry White as if he were a vampire from Bon Temps (the fictional setting of True Blood).

The band left the stage to thunderous applause and soon re-appeared for a brief encore. A cover of Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance" was first up and the guys performed it very well as they did at Jazzfest this year. KG even threw in a dance move simulating a "party dress" if you can picture it (or maybe not). Jim did some very nice harmonica work on the tune.

At this point I glanced skyward and saw a beautiful full moon and a clear summer night sky over the Inner Harbor. Sadly, the show was coming to an end, but Kevin wasn't done yet. "Can anyone tell me a famous Baltimore band? - Styx? Kix? Oh wait, Jimmie's Chicken Shack. I know that because we used to tour with them a long time ago. And there bass player was famous for the size of his...er....bass" Yes, he went "down below" again!

"In the Blood" was the last song of the evening, but it sure was eventful. The crew came out to throw in a little "Song 2" by Blur as they often do. He also let Tom take the vocals at one point with know advance warning to Mr. Drummond who laughed as much as he sang.

Kevin also did a little breakdown and introduced another new dance move entitled "Raindancer Valley." He said that any audience member who could successful do it at any bar after the show would get a free shot courtesy of BTE. Not sure if anyone could pull off this feat, by they would certainly entertain the other bar patrons trying to do so! Kevin explained the dance move was a tribute to Native Americans - "Don't think we are making fun" he said "I'm 1/17th Native American, Tom is...er.... None! Jim Payne is 68% Chickasaw, and Michael Jerome is all kinds of stuff. Give MJ any attitude and he will definitely kick your ass!"

As the band left the stage after a great show, they noted a friend of theirs had opened a moveable bar called "-5 degrees" that is actually made of ice. Kevin joked that "that's minus 5 degrees fahrenheit Tom..." Check it out here: http://www.minus5experience.com/about/

And after all was said and done the organizer of the event came out on stage and said simply "Anyone who tells you that wasn't one hell of a rock ‘n' roll show is a liar." And he was right.

Cheers,

English Dave

Ya, it was 'Airplanes' - B.O.B. featuring Hayley Williams from Paramore. What a mouthful!

Tom said something like "Much smaller than mine!" regarding the Jimmie's Chicken Shack bassist comment. It was hilarious. The 'party dress' dance move was also hilarious. Please tell me someone got a pic! (Michelle! )

And gods, the obnoxious girls trying to get front row space were annoying.. the one that eventually got up front to your right was grousing about how tall you were..

Dave you are quite tall, but I could still see past you

Pretty fun show despite how sweaty and gross I was after the show! My ONLY complain was about the crowd. The guy and girl behind you Josie were all about taking pictures of themselves and didn't seem to mind the fact they were literally putting their hands in my face half the time.

Looking forward to the fall tour shows leading up to Mardi Gras - I could always use a BTE show in my life

Dave,

Great review! It's almost like being there! Sounds like it was a blast and the boys were especially humorous!

I'd definitely reiterate the positive review from Dave. Considering the heat, it was a great show.

One note that was slightly disappointing to find out after the show...my fiance managed to grab a set list. Between Black Light and Laid, the set list had Allison Foley (spelled "Folley" on the set list). Haven't heard that song live since they added it by request at the Croc Rock Allentown show a few years ago.

That being said, they were awesome. It was my second time seeing Michael on drums, and wow he is fun to watch. He has really added a new, different dimension to a few songs. And his overall sound is huge.

Also, one of my favorite moments on the Jazzfest boot is the "stage banter II" with "HIT ME!" They ended the Baltimore show...Kevin took it all the way up to 6 times. Funny stuff all night long.

Oh, I had wondered whether that was you behind me! Haha. Sorry I didn't say hi!

That girl was annoying the hell out of me. She kept screaming in my ears and, at the last minute, tried to shove herself in front of me to take pictures.

Hopefully they come back to the eastern seaboard and play Virginia Beach or Richmond or DC or -something-! I can't wait!

Of course it was me I don't miss any BTE show within 4 hours!

Due to the heat, I only attempted to take a couple of pics.



Cinder Road guitarist w/ his adorable, future rock legend son




BTE Cool Beverage Toast