[ATTENDED: November 6, 2019] Steve Page Trio
I saw the Steven Page Trio about a year ago in Philadelphia. When he announced that he was touring some more and coming to Bethlehem, I grabbed tickets for me and S. right away.
S. doesn’t really know his solo stuff at all, but she is a fan of BNL and has always said how much she liked his voice, so I thought it would be a fun, relaxing, seated event.
We were so close, we were literally right next to the stage. When you’re standing, its a coveted spot, but when you’re seated, it’s terrible! Luckily, they moved Dean Friedman’s giant monitor out of my way so I could actually see them all. But in hindsight, sitting a few seats back would have been far preferable.
The weirdest thing is every time he picked up or put down his water bottle I thought he was going to talk to me (he didn’t).
I love being up close, the angles were just all wrong. Any pictures I took were going to be of Steven’s crotch (!). Fortunately, the vocals sounded fine.
I have learned from past experiences that seeing an artist a few months apart often means the same or a similar setlist. And that’s what happened here. Although when I look at other recent shows I see that he seems to have a kind of rotating setlist of some of the songs. I saw that the night a few nights before us was amazing with “Alternative Girlfriend” (the song I really wanted to hear!) and “Someone Who’s Cool” an Odds cover! They also played “Manchild,” my favorite new song of his and “Break Your Heart” both of which I have heart before but, come on, they are awesome. Incidentally Odds opened for Steven Page in Canada. Once again I wish I was above thee border not for political reasons.
Like last time, Craig Northey and Kevin Fox came out on stage first. They started the music for “There’s a Melody.” Just before they started, the room grew very quiet. Someone shouted “bap!” and everyone briefly looked around. After the song, Steven admitted it was him–he said the room was too quiet, he needed to make a noise. I love this song and the way they sing the song with no discernible melody even though the music has a melody.
They followed that with “Jane” which has always been one of my favorite old BNL songs. Steven’s voice still sounds amazing. Up next was “A New Shore” which I can’t believe is nine years old already. The “Land Ho” coda is just fantastic.
Someone shouted out “WHEN YOU DREAM!” Steven laughed and said that is the angriest request he had ever heard. Then he “I wrote this sweet song for my kids, it’s a lullaby. It goes. WHEN YOU SLEEP WHAT DO YOU DREAM ABOUT!”
I really like Page’s new(ish) album Heal Thyself,Part 2, and “White Noise” is one of my favorite songs on it. It’s very political and he introduced it by saying that he now lives in upstate New York but that maybe he should have done more research before moving here.
Myself and the guy next to me were taking pictures and videos and right in the middle of this song an usher came over and said very loudly to the guy next to me–no videos! You can take stills but NO videos! (as if anyone can tell the difference from far away). He actually came back a few songs later to say he would kick the guy out if he didn’t stop. Now this clearly isn’t Steven Page policy because people film at all his shows. Is this a Musikfest policy? What a dick. Fortunately Steven didn’t seem distracted by it. But clearly I wasn’t going to take any more video.
Which is a shame because up next was “Tonight Is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel” a totally unexpected deep cut from the Maroon album.
At the Philly show people shouted out requests and he acquiesced somewhat. I posted a picture of Craig Northey on Instagram and said that I’d wanted to request an Odds song or at the theme from Corner Gas, but I didn’t want to be rude. He wrote back (!) and said it would have been alright, so I have his blessing if they ever come back.
But here people just shouted out weird things. Like the above “When you dream” thing and then somehow this guy in the back started shouted “Free Roger Stone inforwars dot com.”
Steven was totally taken aback, as were we all. He handled it quite well saying. “No. No. No. If you know anything about me you know I’m a bleeding heart liberal so no.” I have no idea if the guy stayed or was escorted out either way he was quiet for the rest of the show. Then Steven confessed that he and Roger Stone had one thing in common–he also had a tattoo of Nixon on his back
After a run through of “War on Drugs” he said that he knew a lot of people came to his shows to hear the most obscure, saddest BNL deep cuts. But you needed the sad to get to the happy. This led to Steven playing the Feelgood Strum. This is a major chord played in a jaunty way. When I saw them in Philly, I thought it was something they were making up. It’s a little less special knowing they do it every night. However, it’s always fun to see what songs they can incorporate into the feel good strum. Steven believes that you can fit any happy song into the feel good strum. I wish I could remember the songs they did. The only part I remember was Craig mocking the Roger Stone guy by saying “free Stephen Tyler” and playing a feelgood strum version of “Walk This Way.”
That song segues into “Linda Ronstadt in the 70s” a true feelgood song if there ever was. Then they played an excellent version of BNL’s “What a Good Boy.” Throughout the night I was really amazed (like last time) with how good the other two guys complement Steven’s voice. Their harmonies are terrific and their playing is always exceptional.
Then it was time for some more familiar BNL songs. First came “What a Good Boy” which was followed by a super crowd pleasing “It’s All Been Done.” S. pointed out that we had seen BNL in that very room in June of 2017 and they also played that song. So we’ve now heard it by all parties of the song only two years apart [BNL was supposed to be outside, but the weather was terrible so they moved them indoors].
Steven moved between piano and guitar a bunch. At one point he did an improv about the brown piano he was playing, which was really fun. It’s obvious why Steven and Ed were so well suited to work together in BNL because their improv skills are fantastic. Later he joked with Kevin saying that he couldn’t see him with the way they were situated n the stage.
Everyone was having a really having a good time up there. A few times Steven made himself laugh which got the other guys laughing too.
From the piano he played “Looking for the Light” and then another song from the newish album “Where Do You Stand?”
Last time, there was a cajon on stage and at this point in the show, Liam McKinnon played a few songs with them. He obviously wasn’t part of this tour, so no drums this time.
He said that he noticed that there were a few different types of people at one of his shows. Those who know him from BNL and wonder what he’s been up to. There are those who have really enjoyed the solo stuff and can’t wait to hear the new songs. And then there are those who didn’t realize he’d even left BNL. He welcomes all of these people. Except maybe the last one.
Somewhere around here he said to Craig I want to play something else. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I think they skipped “Bull in a China Shop” which was on the setlist but I don’t remember hearing.
While still at the piano he did an insane improv that started with him complaining about BOGO (what a scam–its not buy one get one free its like “BOGO 20.” Wow 20% off of two items? This turned into him singing about the Yankee Candle store. Earlier, they had complimented the venue on the very nice towels they had supplied. Steven said that at some places the towels are tiny washcloths. Other places give you a huge bath towel. He said we just want a nice hand towel. These were very soft and fluffy and smelled very nice. They then passed the towels around to each other so they could each smell the towels as one of them smelled more strong than the others. This is when it was stated that Craig does not like strong smells (not sure if that’s true) which of course led to the Yankee Candle store. He said he couldn’t believe he used the word BOGO in a song.
They followed up all of that with two more newish songs “Feelgood Summer” and “Gravity.” We clearly got the version of the setlist that includes more of his newer songs (we got 5, while last time I got 3). “Summer” is a poppy song with some great guitar work from Northey, while “Gravity” is a totally ripping song that is once again, political, but not as directly so as “White Noise.” I love it.
The end of the set is all about crowd pleasing. First was a super fun version of BNL’s “The Old Apartment” (which Steven sings but which BNL still plays live–which they did in 2017. Even though BNL’s version is fun, it’s great hearing Steven sing it (since he sang the original).
S. didn’t know if he’d do “Brian Wilson.” I guess I’d have been very surprised if he didn’t. Of course BNL always plays it. But it is squarely Steven’s song and he sings it wonderfully. (I was just saying that if BNL didn’t do “$1,000,000, I wouldn’t be too upset, so I was glad that Steven didn’t play it).
Everyone went crazy for “Brian Wilson” of course and then they took their bows and left.
The setlist was literally inches in front of me, so I knew they had an encore planned (I didn’t actually read it, so as not to give anything away).
They came back a few minutes later.
The setlist said they would play “Powder Blue” an old BNL B-side that I don’t know at all. For whatever reason they didn’t play it. Could they really have not played TWO songs on the setlist? The comparison below is a little unfair because the italicized songs were either snippets or done very quickly as a kind of goof. But still, it seems weird that he gave us fewer songs–maybe he was mad at the Roger Stone guy. Or maybe he was annoyed that I didn’t chat with him 🙂
The only encore they did was a wonderful “Call & Answer.” S later told me she loves this song and was really pleased they played it. And so the night ended very nicely with a prettty song and a quick drive home.
More artists in the Musikfest Cafe, please! Just no front row seats.
SETLISTS
| Bethlehem, 2019 | Philadelphia, 2018 |
| There’s a Melody II ¶1 | There’s a Melody II ¶1 |
| Jane Ø | Jane Ø |
| A New Shore ∏ | Manchild ¶1 |
| White Noise ¶2 | A New Shore ∏ |
| Tonight Is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel ϖ | Straw Hat and Old Dirty Hank ♠ |
| War on Drugs ∃ | White Noise ¶2 |
| The Feelgood Strum – | I Live With It Every Day ♠ |
| Linda Ronstadt in the 70s ¶1 | War on Drugs ∃ |
| What a Good Boy Θ | The Trouble with Tracy [] |
| It’s All Been Done ‰ | The Feelgood Strum – |
| Looking for the Light ¶2 | I’ll Be That Girl ‰ |
| Where Do You Stand? ¶2 | Linda Ronstadt in the 70s ¶1 |
| Bull in a China Shop ® [on setlist, but possibly not played] | It’s All Been Done ‰ |
| Improv: Yankee Candle – | Break Your Heart ♠ |
| Feelgood Summer ¶2 | Looking for the Light ¶2 |
| Gravity ¶2 | Tap That Box – |
| The Old Apartment ♠ | Gravity ¶2 |
| Brian Wilson Θ | I Can See My House From Here ¶1 |
| encore | What a Good Boy Θ |
| Call and Answer ‰ | The Old Apartment ♠ |
| Brian Wilson Θ | |
| encore | |
| Call and Answer ‰ | |
| Enid |
[] [BNL] Buck Naked demo (1988)
Θ [BNL] Gordon (1992)
Ø [BNL] Maybe You Should Drive (1994)
♠ [BNL] Born on a Pirate Ship (1996)
‰ [BNL] Stunt (1998)
ϖ [BNL] Maroon (2000)
∃ [BNL] Everything to Everyone (2003)
® [BNL] Barenaked Ladies Are Me (2006)
∏ Page 1 (2010)
¶1 Heal Thyself Part 1: Instinct (2016)
¶2 Heal Thyself Part 2: Discipline (2018)
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