Info> | Setlist | Review

Info
Wade in the Open Road

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Setlist
Clear Channel
Indie Rockin'
Union Dues
More Complex Than It Sounds
Karma Chameleon
Plan Ahead
Heaven Help Me
Belfast
The Crowd and I
First Time
Everything Under The Sun
Not my Birthday
The One I Left Behind
Burgandy
NW Day
God Will

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Review
Concert gets up close and personal

By Mike Osegueda
The Fresno Bee

The best concert in Fresno last week wasn't put on by Hilary Duff or Prince.

It was put on by a band you've probably never heard of -- Common Rotation.

The best concert in Fresno last week didn't take place at a casino or the Save Mart Center. It took place a few blocks away from the center, actually, in the living room of Elizabeth Kus, 26.

Exactly 22 people -- 26 if you count the three guys in the band and the dude holding the camera -- gathered at a house built for a Fresno State professor in 1976, complete with an atrium and a "conversation pit," pretty much a couch built into the ground.

Common Rotation, a Long Island-bred pop/folk band that now lives in Hollywood, embarked on a living- room tour in protest of music giant Clear Channel Entertainment, among other evils of corporate concerts. So the band sent out e-mail to its fans, asking who would be willing to offer up living rooms where the band could play. Enough people responded for the band to tour the country and head to England in October.

Last week, Common Rotation played in Vacaville, Concord, Fremont and Oakland before visiting Fresno and then heading to Las Vegas and San Diego -- playing to somewhere between five and 50 people at different houses.

"It's our fantasy of cutting out everything we don't like about tours," says lively-toned singer Adam Busch, who bounced around Kus' living room with a Robin Williams-like charm.

The things the band doesn't like? Soundmen. Club owners. Drink minimums. Ticket prices. Other bands. Bouncers. And so on.

"And you always have to give money to Clear Channel," Busch says, hanging out in the one bedroom at Kus' house.

The idea began when Common Rotation was opening shows for They Might Be Giants. The band would play living-room shows for its fans the day after the bigger corporate shows. You know, to bring balance to The Force.

So here was Common Rotation. No microphones. No fancy lighting, unless you count the living room lamps. And no video screen, unless you count the turned-off TV behind Busch and bandmates Eric Kufs and Jordan Katz.

Just three guys singing along with two acoustic guitars and picking up the occasional bass guitar, harmonica, accordion and trumpet

Here, a front-row seat meant being close enough to clip one of the guys' toenails and being able to hear the band members chatter and laugh between songs.

They couldn't get away with lip-synching -- the audience was close enough to see their tonsils.

"We really appreciate you listening to us and not the president," Busch said during the band's one-hour set, when many people were watching the Republican National Convention.

The onlookers donated $10 apiece to come watch the show, helping the band meet its goal of breaking even financially.

The fans, most of whom were women in their 20s and a couple of whom had hosted the band earlier in the week, came from Sacramento, Vacaville, Concord, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara and Visalia.

"As long as you people keep supporting independent music in odd places, we'll keep doing it," Busch said before the band finished its set and retreated to its dressing room (the aforementioned bedroom).

Sometimes it's better to be a part of an event, rather than watching it from afar.

Sometimes you don't need million-dollar stages, over-rehearsed stage shows, commercials, high-dollar ticket prices and corporate sponsors to have a great concert.

And sometimes you find the best things in the oddest places.

The columnist can be reached at mosegueda@fresnobee.com