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On the heels of their DVD release 11 Live, Jars of Clay has once again loaded up their tour buses and taken to the road on the second leg of The Eleventh Hour tour. Except this time through Chicago, the band brought a lot less than they did on their trip to the area at the beginning of summer. A scaled back production and subdued stage presence were on the cutback list, while sluggish ticket sales forced the show to be moved from the somewhat spacious Rivera Theatre to the much smaller Park West club. The fact just over 500 people showed up at the Thursday night show was obviously frustrating for Jars of Clay, especially since their Friday night Odeum appearance in May yielded a crowd of just under 5,000. But an impeding school and work day for many concertgoers, along with the lack of a major mainstream single at the moment, were certainly factors for the significantly thinner audience size.

From the initial stripped down arrangement of “Liquid” through the droned accordion sounds spewing from “Unforgetful You,” it was clear having only a half-full crowd adversely affected Jars of Clay. And let’s face it, even at full capacity, the band has never been known for a particularly engaging stage show. Nonetheless, the core foursome with an additional session guitarist and drummer prodded through other past hits and new cuts, including a somewhat lackluster version of “Crazy Times,” a jingly acoustic based stab at “Like a Child” and one of The Eleventh Hour’s most hearty offerings “I Need You.” They followed suit with the slightly banal ballad “Something Beautiful,” which was proceeded by the evening’s major cover curveball- Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” Strangely enough, the band scaled back one of the most jovial songs of the 80s, turning it into a down trodden sarcastic lament that only a windy city crowd lacking gusto could warrant. Hats off to the band for trying an arrangement that’s never been done before, although if they wanted to pay a tribute to the retro pop queen, “Time After Time” would have fit that tone much better. (For those seeking to sing loud and proud to the “Girls” anthem before the autumn’s up, look for it on John Mayer’s current trek, or better yet, from the mouth of Ms. Lauper herself as she opens for Cher).

The remaining hour was filled with equal amounts of pluses and minuses, with a spirited rendition of new cut “Fly” and a less pretentious than last tour version of “Worlds Apart” falling in the first category, while “Flood” and “Love Song For a Savior” (both of which band members were visibly sick of playing) lingered in the latter. Based on Jars’ latest show in Chicago, I’d be hesitant to recommend buying tickets for any future dates of this jaunt. Instead, I’d suggest staying in for the night and watching the similarly sequenced, slickly edited DVD version culled from the first leg of the tour. At least band members looked a bit more lively playing to the first few rows of planted pretty faces while the cameras rolled in that setting.