Wednesday, 17 March 2010

Album , Greenbelt

Over the Rhine: Live From Nowhere, Volume 4

I left home in 1990. I ended up at college in London and on a Saturday I'd walk from my halls in South Ken to Piccadilly Circus. Tucked in between the Trocadero and the Swiss Centre is a small alley which housed a quirky record shop called Dual Edge. In many ways the place was "Greenbelt in a shop".

Of all the bands I first came across there, the one that stuck most was Over the Rhine. I must have picked up their debut album in early 1991. It was the quietest record I owned, but rammed full of passion. I played it non-stop, but my friends just didn't understand.

Fast forward to the summer. The band were the most exciting booking on the Greenbelt line-up that year and when in Pip and Martin's show Karin closed her eyes and sang the haunting Cast Me Away I was transported.

But that was the closest Over the Rhine ever got to reproducing their album. I dragged friends along to the Mainstage show with promises of something beautiful and quiet; what they got was something more grungy and loud.

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Now finally a recording of one of those astonishing concerts has been made available, albeit one recreated ten years later. Live From Nowhere is Over the Rhine's series of annual live recordings and 2009's offering was a complete gig from the previous December when all four original band members got together to celebrate ten years of the band.

Memories of following the band in those student days come flooding back: a Mainstage set during a rainy sunset at Greenbelt and walking back home after a candle-lit showcase gig at The Borderline and being absolute highlights.

Posted by pab at 19:58 | Comments will be back later in the year. Please email me instead!