Vigilantes of Love /Over the Rhine 
Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis, MN 
Monday, October 21, 1996 
 

"It's 'No Request Monday' at the Fine Line," joked Vigilantes of Love bassist Chris Bland in response to a shout from the audience. New material was the order of the evening, as the group played three of the four new songs from their recently released compilation, V.O.L. (Warner/Resound), and NINE unreleased tunes during their 85 minute, 16 song headlining set. A new album, currently in the mixing stage, should be out in March. 

Clad in a Son Volt T-shirt and brandishing his recently-acquired gold Les Paul (with THREE pickups -- dubbed "The Dog Scalder" by its previous owner), lead singer and songwriter Bill Mallonee drove the new songs in a style reminiscent of Neil Young/Crazy Horse's Ragged Glory. Tom Crea provided some tom-tom work on "Taking on Water" and "Black Crow" that gave those songs an earthy feel, and Chris' high harmonies added a new dimension to VoL's sound. Furthermore, Chris' deadpan stage patter allowed Bill time to switch guitars or adjust his stomp boxes. Not that Bill needed it -- in baseball parlance, he'd be known as a "quick worker," not wasting a lot of time between pitches. As the show wore on, however, he relaxed and spent some time bantering with Chris on topics covering the polite audience, the thin, undulating blue neon light running along the facade of the balcony, Minnesota winters, and the Plexiglas sheet shielding Tom from potential death threats. 

The set got off to a rockin' start with "Raw," "Taking On Water," and the title track from Blister Soul. "Reasonable Facsimile" slowed the pace for a bit but was followed by another trio of new rockers. 

The forthcoming album should supply 'net folks with plenty of great Mallonee quotes for .sig files, with lines like, "Got a big hole in this small heart," "It's amazing what you'll sell when you're not doing that well," and "Can cost your life trying to find your voice," to name just a few.  

Ric Hordinski of Over the Rhine joined the band for the encore, "Hang on Every Word," and contributed a flashy guitar solo. It's a mid-tempo tune with a catchy melody descending into the chorus and is driven by Bill's acoustic guitar. It has 'single' written all over it. 

The three-piece lineup really seems to have gelled, most notably with Chris' (and even Tom's) backing vocals becoming more prominent. This was the third time I've seen VoL, and it was easily the best of the three performances. For different reasons, the first two had both been short sets, but this one was long and satisfying. 

VoL set list 
Raw (new) 
Taking on Water (new) 
Blister Soul (Blister Soul) 
Reasonable Facsimile (new) 
The Blue Sky (?) (new) 
Version of the Truth (new) 
Black Crow (new) 
Double Cure (V.O.L.) 
When I'm Broken (See What Happens) (V.O.L.) 
Hopeless Is as Hopeless Does (V.O.L.) 
Skin (Blister Soul)  
Tokyo Rose (new / My Year in Review - fan club tape) 
Willingly (new) 
Love Cocoon (Jugular) 
Undertow (Killing Floor) 
Hang on Every Word (new) 

Over the Rhine (Karin Bergquist, Linford Detweiler, Brian Kelley, Ric Hordinski) opened the show with a 55 minute set of fine, moody folk/rock. They started off with a handful of songs from their new album, Good Dog Bad Dog - The Home Recordings, and added a few tunes from Till We Have Faces and Patience. 

Despite an excellent mix by their own sound engineer, I found it very difficult to decipher exactly what Karin was singing about. I had a similar experience at Cornerstone and thought it was just my being worn out at 1 a.m., until a big OtR fan mentioned the next day that Karin had been swallowing her lyrics. She looked less comfortable onstage tonight than she did at Cornerstone, though the band's van being broken into earlier in the day may have contributed to her mood. The rest of the band seemed to be fine, especially Linford's beatific smiling from behind the keyboard. 

I'm not overly familiar with Over the Rhine--I own Eve (the one album they didn't do a song from) and Circle of Quiet (which they did perform) got a bit of airplay on our local Adult Album Alternative station--but the beauty of their music might be best appreciated with the lyric sheet in hand. 

By Dave Draeger