Pete Yorn at Workplay, Birmingham AL March 31, 2007

So, I'm usually up to date on my favorite artist's tours, but good ole Pete Yorn snuck one up on me. Luckily I was able to grab a few tickets to this standing room only venue. I've been to Workplay many times (The Black Keys, Ben Lee, Jay Clifford of Jump, Little Children) and these shows were in the Workplay Theatre, which probably could fit 300-500 people. But this show was in a magical place of Workplay that I've never seen before. Just a pretty big warehouse type deal, with a stage and that's about it. I figure it could fit about 2000 people in it, and that was probably the number of people that was there. My girl and I got there in plenty of time and checked out Minibar, which is a band that consists of Pete Yorn's band, and they have a cool album out called Desert After Rain that has a cool sound to it, a little indie, a little alt-country. One track called Biker Night was actually written in Birmingham, Alabama and there was an article about them in The Birmingham News on Friday. But anyways, we caught Minibar, and then Moses Mayfield which is a really cool local band that I think is really gonna hit it big soonSo, back to Pete. Back in November, me and my girl saw him perform in Mobile (scroll down to see my review of the Mobile show...http://mog.com/nik3787/list/posts/4 ) The concert wasn't as intimate as Mobile's show, probably due to the large number of people, and Workplay doesn't have that dirty feel to it that Pete seems to like (he mentioned during his set that he really like The Nick, which is this real gritty venue in Birmingham, he performed there this past summer). Here's the set list, which I was extremely happy about due to the fact that he started out with Vampyre: * Vampyre * Closet * Pass Me By * For Us * The Man * Undercover * Never My Love (The Association) * Strange Condition * Policies * Long Way Down * Black * Murray * Splendid Isolation (Warren Zevon) * Life on a Chain * Encore: Dead Flowers (The Rolling Stones) * Crystal Village * The Good Advice * I Feel Good Again (Junior Kimbrough) * For NancySo there were like three Unexpected Surprises of the Evening:1. During Minibar's set, Pete came on stage, introduced as an inexperienced drummer named Ribs McGee, who graciously showed up to give the guys some relief. He played drums for the song "Retrospect" which appears on Minibar's Road Movies album.2. Pete sang with Moses Mayfield during their set. What was funny about it was that the song was Oasis's Wonderwall... I think. Oasis songs have that inexplicable ability to mesh together into one gigantic song and I have a hard time differentiating them.3. Pete signed my CD. And I got to meet him. We had to wait around after the concert for this, and it was well worth the wait. We kinda hung around the back of the line so we could get some more Pete time. So here's our conversation pretty much verbatim.Pete: HiNik: (As I pull out my wallet) So Pete how much for an evening with you?Pete: (with a puzzled look on his face) Huh? (Then I think he kinda gets it)Candace: Hi, could you sign this?Then I proceed to tell him about the time we saw him on the street in Mobile and didn't want to bother himPete: Yeah, I was goin to the candy storeSome guy, maybe Pete's cousin that I met in Mobile: Hey I remember you!Nik: So, my name's Nik and this is CandacePete: (Talking to Candace) You don't talk much Nik: (This is where I start being a douche, but not on purpose, I was nervous as hell) Yeah, she doesn't talk much.Candace: Hi!Pete: Do you want me to make it out to you?Candace: Sure!Nik: (I notice the word Ask. written on his hand) Is that a tat?Pete: No, its just a reminderNik: Cool. (Then I see him chewing gum) Hey, whatcha chewin?Pete: Gum.And that's when I realize that we (by the word we, I mean I) were probably gettin on his nerves, so we told him how incredible we thought his music was and went on our way. I pretty much felt stupid, but hey, at least I got to talk to him. We didn't have a camera, but if we did, I would've taken a picture of us arm wrestling or something cool like that. I also wanted to tell him that we saw his performance on Conan, and that Candace has a celebrity crush on both of them, but I didn't get that far. Candace had just kinda frozen up, she said that she didn't really know what to say to him except that she really liked his music. So all in all, I got to make an ass outta myself again, but we did get to dance and rock out with one of our all-time favorite musicians.