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1997, The Morning Of

posted by Chris Hassen at 8:46 pm.

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Despite all the shows I have attended at Canopy Club, I recently experienced a first at the well-know Urbana venue: a show that started early.

Admittedly, there are lots of things I wish would occur before their scheduled time – the dentist calling me ten minutes prior to my appointment instead of after I’ve been waiting half an hour. Or a flight arriving at an airport. Or a teacher ending class after forty minutes.

However, as it turns out, a concert starting early is not a good thing.

On this particular night, I arrived at Canopy about 30 minutes after the announced start time of 8:00 – hoping to come in as the crew was tearing down the stage from the opening act and setting up for the bands I really wanted to see. Unfortunately, as I walked up to the door I could hear live music playing and instantly knew I was missing the set I had hoped to watch.

As I paid my $7 cover, a quick glance at the printed scheduled confirmed this fact. For some unknown reason, the opening band went on at half-an-hour before 8 and I was therefore arriving just in time to catch the final half of The Morning Of, a powerpop act from New York.

In addition to this first unexpected occurrence, I was also surprised to see that the group was playing in the Void Room. As if reading my mind, co-vocalist Justin Wiley explained that the band was forced to play acoustic because their drummer left his cymbals at the venue from the night before. An auspicious start, considering he must have been the replacement for their second drummer, who parted ways with the group in late June. Perhaps they should change their name to Spinal Tap. (It should also be noted that the sparse crowd probably had a lot to do with the decision to hold the concert on the small stage.)

Regardless of the actual determining factor, as it turned out the more intimate locale was a perfect setting for The Morning Of’s stripped-down performance. Anchored by Wiley and Jessica Leplon’s intermingling boy/girl vocals – which fluctuated between hushed whispers and belted out notes – The Morning Of showed off the softer side of songs from their debut full-length The World As We Know It.

While “Violins and Trees (Unforgettable)” came across a little too syrupy sweet to live up to its parenthetical proclamation, other offerings (such as “The New Is In” and the album’s title track) left the impression that although drums and electric guitars would have made the songs louder, they certainly wouldn’t have been any more powerful. Closing with their first single “Let Your Spirit Soar,” the group seemed poised to take off along with the subject of the song.

Although The Morning Of had now exited their soapbox, I’m about to get on mine.

After the set had ended, guitarist Chris Petrosino began to work his way through the crowd – chatting up the small groups of people in attendance and soliciting them to purchase his band’s CD. This approach seems to be becoming much more commonplace at shows I’ve been attending and I’m not sure how to react to the trend. One the one hand, I can understand musicians wanting to drum up (no pun intended, in this case) sales for their albums by personally asking people to purchase them.

However, for the most part I feel like this tactic is just a way to swindle money from people who simply can’t say “No” when put on the spot. Case in point is a scene I witnessed at the Jet Lag Gemini show I wrote about previously, when the lead singer made a similar pitch to two girls who, after telling him they did not have enough money, began digging through their pockets in order to pull out enough dollar bills to purchase the disc after he persisted.

Personally, I believe that bands should let their performance do the talking and allow people to make the decision to buy a CD or t-shirt on their own. After all, the merch tables set up in the Canopy lobby could not have been further than 20 feet from anyone at the show.

As the band member-turned-salesman began to make his way toward my direction (incidentally, he actually turned out to be a nice dude — offering to play any songs I really wanted to hear outside on the sidewalk when he learned I had missed half their set), 1997 took to the stage. Taking a cue from its direct support, the six-piece Chicago-based band also decided to perform acoustically. With tambourines and acoustic guitars, the group transformed the harder-edged indie rock-leaning tracks from their second album, On The Run, into folksier, alt-country renditions without losing anything in translation.

Although most of the songs played were taken from this recently released sophomore effort (such as the harmonica-infused “Tennessee Song Pt. 2,” the rambling “Dancing With the Devil” and the gently strummed “On The Run”), highlights for me included the audience-requested “Water’s Edge” and show closer “Garden of Evil” – both from their first album …A Better View of the Rising Moon. Strangely, guitarist Caleb Pepp took the lead on vocals for every song except these older two, leaving singer Kevin Thomas with nothing more to do than sit on a chair and shake a tambourine every so often.

As it happened, the show turned out to be one of the group’s last in their current incarnation, as about a week later it was revealed that vocalist/keyboardist Alida Marroni had been asked to leave the band, a move that prompted her boyfriend (bassist Alan Goffinski) to depart as well. Ironically, both had been serving as replacements for two of the group’s original members.

However, none of this inner turmoil was apparent throughout the set – a generally feel-good affair that featured the band conversing with the crowd about college life and asking for suggestions on what they wanted to hear.

Despite the initial shock of walking in on the show already underway, the night turned out alright in the end. I always go to concerts hoping to see a different side of a band then can be found on their recordings, and, in this respect at least, the show pleasantly surprised me.

Chris Hassen: I goes to shows.