Crooked Fingers / Azure Ray
Bottom of the Hill
December 6, 2003


Review by Jake Thomas

I missed David Dondero, again. One of these days I’m actually going to catch one of his shows. Instead, I got there right as Azure Ray were beginning their set. Having only heard a couple of songs online somewhere, I can’t say that I was a fan going in, but I certainly am now after having witnessed a great set by them. Beautiful harmonies from the two girls, all backed by the Crooked Fingers lads playing the music. It was a wonderful sight to behold. Seemed most of the crowd was there to see them, as they have certainly gotten their fair share of hype due to their relations
with the Omaha scene that’s so hot right now, but after this show I found that any praise or hype being thrown their way was well deserved. If any complaint could be levied at all, it would be that they might have played a little too long for an opening act, but that may just be my unfamiliarity with their material talking.

You never know exactly what kind of show you’re going to get with a
Crooked Fingers performance – sometimes mellow and subdued, sometimes upbeat and raucous, but always damned entertaining. This time around it involved Eric Bachman playing lots of piano, maybe two-thirds of the time or so; also, the Azure Ray girls assisted in a number of areas, from keyboards to bass to piano to trumpet (for all those songs from the newer album that have trumpet, just so you know). I guess you could call it the Crooked Azure Finger Ray Experience, or The Neutral Milk Pogues if you wanna talk about what it sounded like. Let it be said here and now that this was definitely one of the best shows of the year for me – Crooked Fingers shows always figure high on my list anyways, and this was one of the better if not the best I’ve seen them. Great selection of songs, including a few new ones and a cover of “Sunday Morning Coming Down” as appears on the Reservoir Songs EP; what’s more, he does a great job of revisiting some of his older material and switching it up, changing tempo or instrumentation to keep the songs new and fresh. But probably the most important part of the evening happened during the last song of the regular set – when Bachman revisited a classic Archer’s song, “chumming the Oceans”. I thought I would never get to hear this song again, after witnessing the final Archers of Loaf show some years back, and tears nearly leapt to my eyes from joy when he hit those first few notes – it was amazingly moving, and I know I wasn’t the only one there who felt so. After a quick break Eric came back and played 'A Little Bleeding’, a song that often fills the closer role and probably my favorite song of theirs. The end of the song featured the rest of the band, David Dondero, and some unknowns on the stage for the sing along part, and the audience joined in to help as well. It had a very homey feeling, one of sitting around the fire singing with your friends, and it was grand…if only more bands could replicate this feeling. But then again, it wouldn’t be so special if it happened all of the time, would it?

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Previous Crooked Fingers review:
February 26, 2003 @ Thee Parkside
February 19, 2003 @ Café du Nord


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