There are a few reasons I wanted to see Citizen Cope at the Orange Peel in Asheville this past Saturday night. The first one is Jared Bentley. He introduced me to Citizen Cope in Clear as we do one of the band’s songs ‘Sun’s Gonna Rise.’ Number two is Abbi Strickler. She loves the band and her enthusiasm made me more intrigued to find out why this artist appeals so much of Generation Y. Finally, Citizen Cope has a incredibly infectious sound and their vocalist/songwriter Clarence Greenwood “has a gift.” That was obvious in the sea of mesmorized fans that swayed with the music this weekend.
I’d wrestled several days as to whether or not to buy tickets to the show as weekends are rarely boring to me as it is. Sometimes, I just want to stay home and last weekend was a real whirlwind. But, as the weekend got closer, I couldn’t hardly stand the thought of missing the show. Besides, I love going to Asheville and the Orange Peel is an excellent place to see up-and-coming artists in an intimate setting for less than $20 a ticket.
It was one of those rainy April Saturdays. It rained most of the day, but we all met at Strickler HQ and boarded the Infiniti for a trip across Sams Gap. Danny, Tracy, Abbi and her boyfriend Eric were eager to go. Tracy had made a great pork roast and we all had dinner before leaving for the show around 6. We arrived a little early and met up with some of Eric’s friends in Asheville and parked in the public parking lot just outside of the Orange Peel.
The Orange Peel is one of the best regional venues to see live music. This was my third trip to the stage. There was Son Volt with Reagan and Tony, a sold-out show to Medeski Martin and Wood with Steve and now this one.
The place was stuffed with Gen Y when we arrived at the will-call window. It was blowing rain and people were dissembled into a matrix weaving into to two lines A-K and L-Z. I made my way up front and without much other than a nod this way and that, this is where I was to stay for most of the night. The two sisters, Christine and Sally were extraordinary company while waiting for the opening act – Alice Smith.
Clarence Greenwood came out on the stage in a green overcoat and signature dreadlocks-like bun and introduced Alice Smith who opened with a handful of original songs that were Ok, but I was a bit too critical of her performance. Earlier in the day, I had been listening to Billie Holiday most of the afternoon. That’s probably why I was a bit judgmental. Amy had a deep/edgy soul voice and plenty of range, but I felt the music was a bit disjointed and her timid, unpreparedness seemed to get in the way of my optimism. She knew how to use her voice though and sliding into several octaves while leading out a slow drive rock/soul beat – she was interesting, but that wasn’t our reason for Asheville.
When Alice was off stage, Christine asked me how I came to Asheville and to hear Citizen Cope. I explained that we were playing the music and Clear and she told me about her five-year-old and her husband who didn’t share her musical tastes. We had fun together in front of the stage trying to be patient with the occasional push/shove from others trying to get to the stage. What was interesting about this twosome was the fact that they both were from Mississippi and Christine lived in Washington.
Reading some of the notes from the Clarence Greenfeld website, Citizen Cope has released his third album and like the sisters, he got his started in Mississippi, moved to Texas, made another move to Washington and landed eventually in New York. Christine had heard about Citizen Cope while in DC when Greenfield was playing in several bands that performed a flavor or music called “gogo” – sort of a dance music where the slow downbeat is king and that’s where many of the songs were crafted. One of Greenfield’s songs “Sideways” was picked up by Santana too on the Shaman project. Since then he’s released plenty of music, but still hasn’t not gotten the radio airplay he deserves because he’s hard to classify, but the band supports their third album ‘Every Waking Moment’ with a rigorous tour.
I imagine one of the most gratifying sounds an artist can experience is the chorus of voices from a stage singing the lyrics to your music and the fans in Asheville knew every word from ‘Bullet to a Target,” “Sun’s Gonna Shine” and many others. The band itself was extremely understated with little solos. Greenfield is the only guitarist and they have two keyboardists on stage with a bass and drummer, but the real standout in the music of Citizen Cope is the voice and lyric of Greenfield’s voice. Some call it folk, some hip-hop, some rock, but that’s not as clear to the listener as the “soul-stirring” groove that the music layers on the audience. Most everyone was in some mild reggae trance for most of the evening as he played song after song of memorable melodies. One of the reviews describes the bands music in perfect form, because there is really not a lot going on. Greenfield is able to “paint a masterpiece with the lightest of brush strokes.
The guy is evidently pretty sexy. It was somewhere up front of the stage that I hear some 20something girl scream…”Goddamn he’s sexy!” Maybe so, but I do know that his lyrics are romantic and searching and that’s probably what turns her on the most.
On a small note though, Citizen Cope still lacks the presence of a cultured band. The songs were tight, but the stage presence and entertainment factor for this band sort of drags a bit. I’d almost like to hear them let go, but it’s a band that never really exceeds the speed limit, instead, they roll the top down and cruise along in their own rhythmic pace that is still hard to ignore.
I did notice many times during the night, the floor was elastic as the music became more driving. I decided to concede my territory up front for the last several songs and made my way back through the crowd of some 600 maybe that were in the audience. It wasn’t a sell-out, but there was little room for a bus load of people.
In the back Abbi and Eric were holding each other, swaying to the music and Danny and Tracy had found some chairs. They don’t like the pressure of the floor audience and I can’t say that I blame them after the U2 concert, but I did kid them about how they looked like chaperone’s. We did seem to attract a few interesting new friends in the back and although I thought it was strange that some enthusiastic young girl was dancing with Tracy..what was stranger was the fact that she brought me out into the middle of the floor to dance even though the band was well through their encore and the audience was filing out into the night. As we turned, she asked me if I made her nervous. In my mind…I was really too old for that.
There was a misty rain outside of the Orange Peel and close to 12.30am. We decided to head back over the mountain and listened to Cope tunes on the stereo as well as Kings of Leon. That will be our next concert at “The Peel” and I’m looking forward to this show even more. Kings of Leon are from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee and I’ve been a fan for a long time. Next time though, we’ll defiantly spend more time in Asheville and maybe even book a room for the weekend. Sure the drive was short, but it sure would be nice to hang out for a while.