Dub Trio/Peeping Tom - Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio 08.08.06
Posted by Tim Johnson on 08.11.2006
Excuse me sir, is that your mojo rising?
On August 8, 2006 Dub Trio and Peeping Tom played to an intimate crowd at the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio. Start time was 9:00pm and Dub Trio opened the show shortly thereafter.
The Cleveland Agora is divided in two sections; the Agora Theater and the aforementioned Ballroom. I attended several shows in the theater from 1993-97, and found each experience quite enjoyable. I had only seen one concert in the ballroom before, and the atmosphere actually took away from the show. Much was the same last night.
The ballroom is about the size of your grandma’s living room. Now, picture your grandma’s living room filled with 500 beefy guys and shitty acoustics. That’s the Agora Ballroom.
When Dub Trio hit the stage, the place was a little better than half full. Many of the attendees were not paying a whole lot of attention when the band started. But they certainly were when the set ended.
The dubbers started the show with material from their current release, New Heavy. The audience was floored right away. The music actually sounded better than it does on the album. But the image of the band at work was the real treat.
I’ll say it now: Joe Tomino is the best drummer on Planet Earth. He was the centerpiece of the show and his timing was flawless. It was amazing to see that some of the effects on New Heavy weren’t really effects at all. Rather, they were changes in percussion on an actual drum set.
Stu Brooks and Dave Holmes were equally impressive on bass and guitar, respectively. The music was extremely tight, and as intricate as their albums are, that’s no small task. Dub Trio plays as part of Peeping Tom, but occasionally on the tour they’ve opened shows on their own. Luckily, that was the case in Cleveland as they were worth the price of admission alone.
After they left the stage, people started to cram together in anticipation of Peeping Tom. We anticipated them for an E-X-T-R-E-M-E-L-Y long time. And you know what happens when people in this part of the country have to wait? They drink!
Of course, the aftermath of the drinking is the desire to get as close to the next person as possible, just for the chance that Mike Patton may acknowledge you from the stage. So, before the show started, I already had some Buzz Osborne looking fella standing in the space normally occupied by my ass crack. That took away from the experience before it started.
Then, the mic checks came. I could tell immediately that they were mixed too low, but the techs apparently couldn’t. Dub Trio sounded great, but the only time they stepped to the microphone was when Tomino thanked the crowd at the end of their set.
Peeping Tom has three vocalists going at one time. Low end vocals do not do the music justice. That was the second detractor.
When the band took the stage, they started with a cover of “It’s a Desperate Situation” by Marvin Gaye. They followed it with “Mojo” and the crowd was into it right away.
Patton was in fine form, but again, the microphones were very muddy. So much so that it was hard to differentiate between Mike, Rahzel, and the lovely Imani Coppola. If the show would have been in the theater, it would have sounded vastly different.
They played the majority of their self titled CD as well as the B-side, “Pre-School.” About half way through the set, Patton began bickering with some guy in the front row, and his infamous hog nearly made an appearance while he was telling the guy to, “suck it.”
Hog averted, the band had some good interaction with the crowd, complete with Patton’s usual complaining that there’s nothing to do in Cleveland.
The show wrapped up with the performance of the night, “Not Alone,” followed by “Sucker” and the encore, “Anger Management” by Lovage. The crowd filed out satisfied shortly after midnight.
The 411: The Dub Trio/Peeping Tom experience in Cleveland was a very good one, despite the atmosphere. The acoustics in the Agora Ballroom were atrocious and the microphone levels were poorly mixed, but Peeping Tom overcame and delivered. Dub Trio was simply stunning, and the show as a whole would have been all the better in a deeper environment. With only eight performances remaining on this leg of the tour, it is highly recommended that you catch a show if you can.
