Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker Played a While at the Croc Last Night

Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker are touring and taking pictures together.

You might think it funny that two bands Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker fronted by the same guy (David Lowery) both played at the Crocodile last night. You might think, "What a tremendous ego this man must have."

And you would be right.

During the middle of the Cracker set he stopped briefly and said, "This might sound rude, but…" He paused to collect money from his band mates and singled out an enthusiastic gentleman being enthusiastic in front of the stage. "I'll give you 60 bucks if you could shut up in between songs."

Ego aside, seeing the same skinny guy up on stage for two sets with his distinct self described valley-boy voice felt a little weird, but Camper Van and Cracker are two very different bands and in the end it worked.

This part of the review was written by Marcel:
Camper Van Beethoven started with an instrumental piece that sounded like a Mid-Eastern version of the Peter Gunn Theme. It had a smooth grooving baseline with some guitar and an amazing sliding violin sound that soared over the audience like some sort of Mid-Eastern bird. Their use of the violin as a lead instrument in a rock band rather than as back up filler is the main innovation Camper Van became (kind of) known for in the late 80s. The other is their humor with songs like "Where the Hell is Bill" and the college radio-famous "Take the Skinheads Bowling." Although they did play "Skinheads" at the show, Camper Van is focusing more on their sound rather than highlighting their wit. Only a few "wordy" songs made it into their set last night. The majority of them were very sophisticated instrumentals. The entire set was very tightly wound together. For a band that took 13 years off, they were very professional.

This portion of the review is written by Tom:
I have been waiting for 13 years to relive 1993 because high school was awesome! And what better way to relive 1993 than by going to see Cracker who has that really great song that goes "Being with you girl, is like being low. Hey! Hey! Hey! Like being stoned!" (Yes, hearing it live was worth the price of admission!) I didn’t know that Cracker is still playing together, and I really didn’t know that they are touring to support their new album Greenland. They played a few songs from the new album and they sounded pretty good. "Gimme One More Chance" got stuck in my head so I listened to it on their myspace. Anyway, this show made me remember how much of a rocking rock band Cracker is. They got guitar solos, they got guitar riffs, and they got great melodies, and they make me move my head (and I like to move my head). The lead guitarist is pretty cool too. He has a soul patch and plays guitar like Craig Kilborn tells jokes. He actually winked at the audience during a solo. This one guy said it was cocky and smug, but I thought it was pretty awesome. The highlight of the night was when the lead singer offered me 60 bucks to shut up. It was hilarious! Oh, and for the encore they got the violin player from the first band to play guitar and they played this four guitar wall of sound type of song that had a really awesome ending. Anyway, the show was pretty awesome.

Marcel and Tom are two different writing personas of the same author.