Lovely show review from Warren Tribune Chronicle in 1996!!

TRIBUNE CHRONICLE WARREN, OH
WEDNESDAY MAY 29 1996

Be Ready For Anything When Barenaked Ladies Play

BY ANDY GRAY

Tribune Chronicle

CLEVELAND--

With its infectious pop hooks, the wit and humor of its lyrics and an obvious crowd-pleasing mentality, Barenaked Ladies is a band that defies easy categorization.

But after watching the band's show Tuesday before 3,000 folks at Nautica Stage, its spiritual soulmate may be the Grateful Dead.

Dead fans flocked to the band's concerts because there was a sense of mystery, the chance for something miraculous to materialize out of the musicians' extended free form jams.

A Barenaked Ladies show never will feature a 10-minute drum solo or be mistaken for a Dead show, but the Canadian quintet has the same knack for creating an anything-can-happen atmosphere that breeds a fanatical, cultish following.

That anything-can-happen moment came early Tuesday. As anyone who's ever seen a show at Nautica Stage knows sometimes the bands on stage have to compete for the audience's attention with the giant freighters that move along the Cuyahoga River, which flows behind the concert venue on the west bank of The Flats.

As a giant freighter called "Wolverine" moved past, the band launched into an impromptu version of the theme from =B3The Love Boat=B2 and Steven Page and Ed Robertson improvised the lyrics to make the song about the X-Men comic book character Wolverine.

It was one of those bizarre, hilarious moments that never could have been planned and wouldn't have been half as funny if it had been.

Page's and Robertson's ability to find humor and inspiration in the crowd, their surroundings and their everyday lives (Robertson's eye infection inspired cracks and one-liners throughout the night) makes each Barenaked Ladies show a unique experience. That's why many of the people at Tuesday's show also paid to see the band six weeks ago when it played Lakewood Civic Auditorium.

The humor makes the band unique, but its songs are what attracted the fans in the first place. Barenaked Ladies played about 22 songs in just under two hours, playing more than half of its new disc, "Born On A Pirate Ship", as well as songs from its first two releases.

The band effortlessly shifted from slower, more introspective songs like "When I Fall" to uptempo crowd pleasers like "Alternative Girlfriend." In addition to "When I Fall," "This Is Where It Ends" and "Shoe Box" stood out among the new tunes.

The Ladies--Page, Robertson, Tyler Stewart, Jim Creeggan and Kevin Hearn -- also included snippets of everything from LL Cool J's "Going Back to Call" to fellow Canadian Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know." A more faithful and full-length cover song was a stunning acoustic rendition of Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers in a Danger Time."

"Brian Wilson," from the band's debut disc "Gordon," seems to get more achingly beautiful every time I hear it, and "Enid," "Jane" and "Be My Yoko Ono" remain solid crowd pleasers.