[liquidlife]

Does true music really have a plot? Ugh, I’m in So Cal so explanation is necessary. No, not in the sense of incidents that occur in a movie, but true navigation. The way a vessel moves forward based on the currents. It is these developments within dada's a time frame that has brought me to assembly with the band, no matter how far apart the meetings are to be.

The true measure of good music is how it is left. I can say that dada music is enthusiastically met again, when the latitude and longitude can converge due to good winds, and a willing sailor. At their peak in the early to mid 90’s, dada fans enjoyed the sounds that good vibes, and enthusiasm created with the songs on Puzzle.

At the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, we untied anchor with Dim, a song that helps to express; its okay to leave love, and feel miserable about it. If despair is any kind of emotion you want to linger to, the set list moved to Playboy in Outerspace, which does not allow for loneliness. As Dim says, “The trouble I was in” is amplified, when you find yourself outside of the world you put away because you chose indifference.

To step back from the present, Dada found me in a foreign country. I was on a deployment to Asia in 1993, when one of the only Cds I could purchase in the Post Exchange was dada. The sounds of Puzzle enclosed me with musical talent that a Stevie Ray Vaughn Fan knows how to appreciate. Musicians whose talent surpassed the ordinary, and let the music do the talking. During my time on small islands, I played the disc in my walkman until I had no batteries left to run, and the chords helped me to go when my battery was dry. To come back home some 10 years later and feel the same is unique.

In San Juan C, Surround was the third song. Surround is a song that you hum to, and in the moment, you get taken away by how open the band’s lyrics are. But just when you are self absorbed, they show you a different kind of openness. A trip with my dad was the fourth on the play list. It’s relayed as an experience between Phil Leavitt, the drummer and his father. I can’t say that I agree with the theme. I don’t know that I’ll mimic this chemical experience. However, as my own biological clock ticks, its an openness and bonding that I want to share with my father, with my future children, and I’m so much closer to the band.

Feet to the Sun played fifth, but its tragic case was overshadowed by the sixth song, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow. Do I allow the lyrics to speak to me because I want the bunnies, and everlasting socially allowable sins, or am I so tired, tired of waiting for you. So tired, tired of waiting for the magic fifth album that could come. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow is the song that shows how the bands music and chords can meld into a one off candy that your ear buds wish would last just a bit longer. So tired is an extra piece of sugar that you get when you see the band live. Is this a new song that is coming on the fifth album, or just a tease of the bands talent?

At this point I scanned the crowd to identify the new attendants, and the lyrically synced. Some mouthed the words, but most merged the body language of beat to Heaven and Nowhere. Do the fans have an identification with the best disc that dada produced? Do they know when they stopped hearing the music from the bands second disc, American Highway Flower, and when they found themselves in the liner? The 2003 San Juan Show was a bit different for me. Yes, Ask the Dust had the Eleanor Rigby guitar notes, but it also included sounds from the movie theme of 007, and another song that I am just going to call Agent Nowhere. Yes I'm self absorbed, and often I let the music put me somewhere, but the Elanor Rigby notes remind me of the mother I don't call often enough, and I think of what I'll say next time we talk. At the end of the song Ask the Dust Michael and Phil went offstage to watch the guitar solo of Joie. “Morning Sickness” is a song that was written by Joie during the bands hiatus. Simple as I am, I found my mind listing back to Heaven and Nowhere. Is it the known that becomes comfort? Does a chance meeting in heaven make a reality? If the events that bring you together are so impossible does the unthinkable become worth following? “Through the clouds it seems to be.” Dada is now into their twelfth year. Do we follow along no matter the haziness of course, and determine our ultimate destination?

I found some solution in the woman who sat across from me. She was older than I. Probably 50, but lithe. During the intermission between the setup to Joie’s solo, and Ask the Dust, I tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she was a dada fan. Though her words were short, her eyes shined the truth. I gave her Tim’s Norva Recording of August 2003. Her return smile was greater than a hug, and better than a compliment. To share a moment like her gratiuty of the disc, I know I have to stay for the next cd dada puts out. By the way, SilverBullet, do you know how much we all appreciate the Mega Show? Four more fans got the disc at the show, but it was the older woman who made me realize.

The new aquantinence and I got to participate in Feel Me Don’t You. I don’t think I got her name, but we sang louder than any other two people in the Coach House to the chorus of, “Feel me, Feel me, don’t you……” I was happy to have shared the music with another fan, but I was prouder still when I saw her mouth the words to Mary Sunshine Rain. I realized something. DaDa fans don’t quiz you on your knowledge of the bands upcoming, nor their relationships to somebody who knows someone in the band’s circle. We talk, admire the work, share our experience, and wonder if Moon will tell the guys to get the fifth CD out. (Uhh, have I made my point on that one yet?) Dada fans are such real people. Seeing a dada show is being invited to a block party where we'll make room for you.

When Moon closed, the 12th song up was posters, and again we saw the band highlight its talent. This time, Joie and Michael left the stage to let Phil intro the throbbing beat of Posters. The studio version is a steaming course that reminds me of the control the band has on crash and boom. The live version is like a hundred drums on stage coming at you with the bass of Joie setting up a musical roller coaster for thumping rhythms. It’s amazing, its talent, it’s the net of three playing as one. The segway to Dizz Knee Land pushed most of us off our feet if only for awhile. You see the Coach House is a venue where Orange County, CA fans sit for the show. As Orange County fans, we sought the emotional sanctuary of our seats. Shame on us, because when they played this song at the Galaxy theatre in Santa Ana, I jumped the whole way through. I’ll pass on the irony that the lyrics of President Bush still hold true today. I’m a card carrying Republican. Hey, I am in Orange County.

While I appreciate the solo that Phil played of the Butterfly Jones acoustic music, I am a dada fan. A creature of habit, and I want the whole dada. Not parts, the whole unbroken pieces. When Bob the Drummer came up, I thought back to the last time I saw the band at the Coach House. I think it was sometime in 1996. I sat across from a woman who had brought her daughter to the concert. She described to me her fascination for the music, the disc, and how the music put wind into the sail of her daughter mother relationship. We talked easily, and laughed alot. Meeting her and her daughter in 96 was a prelude to the dada fans that I meet today. “I felt kinda sick…” when I only remembered the minor details of our conversations before the band played. But the dada fans I have meet this year remember my name, and the fun that we have had at the concerts. I wonder if my enthusiasm lives up to theirs. “Oh how time flies.”

I know the night is coming to an end, I know that there is a new live disc recorded at the Galaxy theatre in Santa Ana, CA waiting for me when I exit, but I don’t want to go. The words of “Baby Really Loves Me” mixes reality with hopes. I don’t think I just enjoy the music. I enjoy the sounds, the energy, and the wait for what comes next.

From the three times I have seen them this year, it’s predictable. I know that Dorina ends the show. I’m not tapping my foot, I’m in bliss. The afterglow of sex that doesn’t need to be discussed. Really I should know better than to enjoy the end. Who likes the last bite of ice-cream? I do. I like the ring in my ears and the talks after the concert.
How many times have we found something only to have to let it go? When it’s good, it may never be enough. The Concert can only be so long, but instead of seeing the end, this time, were not letting go, but only tacking along until the next wind pushes our sail to full speed, when the plot will take us to the much awaited fifth album, the next tour, and the other fans we meet along the way.

Thanks Phil for the drumstick, thanks Joie for playing when you probably should be resting, thanks Michael for putting up with my shouting, thanks dada.

[Edited on 12/1/2003 by liquidlife]

[BlubabyDC]

That was some post... Love the Coach House, thanks for that -- and all the emoting. On this here Sunday I feel like I just got home from church.

Viva la church of dada!

[jrdada]

Thanks for the review, Ed.
It's funny that you mentioned the sitting situation at the Coach House. As much as I like the venue, one of the reasons I chose the Key Club show is so I wouldn't be restricted to a chair all night.

[english]

...ditto on the WOW Ed!
Having read your review I felt the same exhaustive high as having being there...almost! Thank you for sharing.

Dada...if you're listening, please PLEASE come and do your thang in the UK! I want to experience...

[silverbullet]

Quote

I found some solution in the woman who sat across from me.  She was older than I.  Probably 50, but lithe.  During the intermission between the setup to Joie’s solo, and Ask the Dust, I tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she was a dada fan.  Though her words were short, her eyes shined the truth.  I gave her Tim’s Norva Recording of August 2003.  Her return smile was greater than a hug, and better than a compliment.  To share a moment like her gratiuty of the disc, I know I have to stay for the next cd dada puts out.  By the way, SilverBullet, do you know how much we all appreciate the Mega Show?  Four more fans got the disc at the show, but it was the older woman who made me realize.

Thanks for sharing. You made my day. - Tim

[Leslie]

Ok, Ed, where were you?? Why couldn't I have been the lucky lady to have received your gift?!? Also, guess I won't bother to post too much about the show. You pretty much said it all. Except for the fact that I FROZE MY ASS OFF!! Here, I wear a short skirt (although being 5'9" makes everything short) because we were 400 miles from home and in sunny OC. Yeah, NOT! Even the guys, being as hot and on fire as usual, could not warm me up. But I digress. Show was awesome, finally meeting the guys after all these years, and getting a picture with Joie made the trip!