Memphis-born Clarence Greenwood, a.k.a. , gave a tedious performance to the clearly undiscerning crowd at the on Thursday night. Clad in an oversized brown suede jacket and fastened to a blue and white Gibson, Greenwood stood stonily and sang in his token mealy-mouthed style, occasionally swiveling his head around like one of those mechanical banjo bears you might see at an amusement park.
Greenwood was backed, albeit weakly, by his four band members, save for the organist, John Ginty, who repeatedly laid down some funky tones. The crowd let out a collective cry when the hits “Bullet & a Target” and “Penitentiary” were played, no doubt slipping into some deep knowing about the songs respective themes of American jingoism and unjust incarceration.
The newer tracks from Citizen Cope’s latest album, “The Rainwater EP,” offered more subdued folk-tomes yet were met by the audience with an eagerness incongruent to their subject matter.
And thatap how the night went. Greenwood sang song after song about injustice and uprising and was met by the all-white, insular crowd with such voracious approval you would have thought they were a bus full of Peace Corp volunteers.
And thatap the problem.
Abstractifcation or, more simply, the act of living by ones thoughts, can be a pernicious thing. Embracing anti-establishment lyrics doesn’t make you a revolutionary any more than receiving tweets from Green Peace makes you an environmentalist. I found it annoying that bunches of boozy, bonged-out kids were so blatantly proselytizing about these complex socio-political issues. And over songs written by a man who spent much of his life in the suburbs of D.C. — with scant evidence of any strife beyond the scar on his eye!
What a farce.
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Kate Lacroix is a Denver-based writer and regular contributor to Reverb. Check out .
Lucia De Giovanni is an award-winning photographer and photojournalist. You can view more of her work on her and follow her Project 365, a Photo a Day, on her .
