Citizen Cope Brings Love And Light To Charlotte
Reviewed by Kris Engelhart on
May 7, 2023
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All The Songs You Want To Hear Tour Stops at…
All The Songs You Want To Hear Tour Stops at…
Rating: 0
Citizen Cope Brings Love And Light To Charlotte
All The Songs You Want To Hear Tour Stops at Neighborhood Theatre
Clarence Greenwood, known by his stage name Citizen Cope, is truly one of the most prolific songwriters of our time. His lyrics are poetry in its purest form touching on real-world topics that make a statement yet are completely unpretentious and easily relatable. Combined with his unique musical blends of folk, soul, blues, and rock, Cope’s music is an art form unto itself. He is currently out performing as a solo, acoustic act on the All The Songs You Want To Hear Tour, and last night he made a stop here in the Queen City at the iconic Neighborhood Theatre.
When I arrived at the venue, fans were already lined up waiting to get inside and while my face was buried in my phone, I saw Clarence shaking hands with the line of fans and posing for a few selfies before heading into his tour bus. That simple act definitely made the evening special for those lucky fans and they chatted about it non-stop as we waited for doors to open. Once inside, the merch lines were steady and people gathered at the barricade in front of the stage to save their spots. For this tour run, there is no opening act so everyone was eagerly anticipating a full night of Citizen Cope at his finest.
The show was running a little behind but finally, the music that was being across the venue came to a stop. The lights dimmed and the background stage lights came on as it was almost time for Cope to take the stage. Once he made his way to the center microphone, the audience erupted in pleasure with shouts of “Cope! Cope!” reverberating around the theatre. Cope greeted the audience and asked for a moment of quiet to reflect on the music and all of us gathered here this evening. It was then that someone up front shouted “It’s her birthday!” I don’t usually comment on fan behavior, but please don’t do this. There was plenty of time during the show for shoutouts, but this wasn’t it. Let that moment just be and please don’t ruin it for everyone else.
The show got started with the spoken word piece “Duck Confit” from 2019’s Heroin and Helicopters album. Immediately, I got chills as I felt somehow transported to a different time and place. This is the kind of piece that puts Citizen Cope in a category all his own reminding me of the greatest poet-songwriter of all time, Bob Dylan. When it was over, I could imagine someone saying “That was deep man,” because it was and it was a perfect way to start off the evening. There was a lot of chatter coming from the sidebar area and Clarence respectfully asked them to keep it down as we were trying to have a show here and a fan shouted out “Shut the f*ck up!” to the bar and everyone agreed. After that, the show went off without any more interruptions, and what a show it was.
“Where crimes of humanity are concealed and condoned
By self preservation and biblical prophecy
Cause it ain’t cool to be you over here
Or over yonder
If the truth sets you free
There’s a mute with the key
And the goose that laid the golden egg
Got cooked for the grease
Duck Confit“
Because of the nature of the show, Cope explained that there was no setlist and things would flow as the night went on. He told us that it was our show as much as his show and the audience definitely let him know it by shouting out all the songs they wanted to hear. Clarence joked that yes he would play “Sideways” and that he didn’t think any of us would let him leave the building if he didn’t, which was probably true. But before that, we were treated to exquisite performances of all of Cope’s best songs and a few new ones including “Ms. Prado” from this upcoming album The Victory March.
I was happy that early into the set I got to hear one of my absolute favorite “Bullet and a Target” as well as “D’Artagnan’s Theme.” The crowd was dancing, swaying, and completely vibing as one as they soaked up the love and music. Clarence commented that everyone thanks him for the music and the shows but that music is a relationship between the artist and the fans and he wanted to thank all of us for coming out to participate. In a fun moment, a fan shouted out that he named his dog after him which Cope joked about for a minute before the fan shouted out that it was a good dog and we all laughed.
The All The Songs You Want To Hear Tour was an experience like no other and one you won’t want to miss. Take an evening to immerse yourself in the music and embrace the love with Citizen Cope. The tour runs through the end of May so be sure and grab your tickets when it rolls to a city near you.
If you happened to capture any shots of the night, feel free to tag us on social media at Shutter 16 Magazine and throw in #Shutter16 and #TwitFromThePit for the world to see.
*Outside photography was not permitted for this performance. All photos were taken on an iPhone.
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