Wow! What a Show!

As I mentioned recently, we went to Achern last weekend to see Dan Bern perform.

We were quite happy to find the venue small and intimate, seating only about 50 people. We not only held ticket numbers 1 and 2, but we got seats in the front row and center, since we were the first to arrive.

The venue was a small former chapel, and the acoustics were great.



It was an incredible show. He played several new songs (at least one he wrote just that morning thanks to jet lag) and he even spoke to the audience in decent German. He was very entertaining, and even told a couple jokes. (Humor in a foreign language can be difficult!)



We really liked his short explanations of several of the songs. Of course, if you listen to the lyrics and think about it, everything he said in his explanations was already there - but it was interesting to hear his thought process when it came to the words he chose.



At the end of the night, we were quite happy. After the encore, he had retreated to the upper floor of the chapel, but the crowd still wanted more. He popped his head over the balcony railing and sang us one more song, unpluggd and a cappella, that he said was too complicated to play on the guitar. It was a wonderful new song about how he saw Branford Marsalis in a small club in Prague.

We wanted to talk to him after the show, but it was obvious he was tired, so we left, content with the show. Of course we wanted more, but in the end, it was excellent and well worth the mere 8 Euro ticket price, rental car fee and fuel cost.



So, if you see a poster like this one, check the date and get thee to the stated venue. You won't be disappointed.

And, to paraphrase his final song:

I did not see the Romans in the coliseum 
I did not see Lenny Bruce in Paris 
I did not see Babe Ruth at Yankee Stadium 
But I saw Dan Bern at a chapel in Achern 
At a chapel in Achern I saw Dan Bern
So--there