Citizen Cope at Royal Oak Theater April 20, 2010. (Photo courtesy of Christian Spencer & Nicole Cummings)
There is no confusing the on stage performance of Clarence Greenwood, a.k.a. Citizen Cope, with Iggy Pop. Clarence is, to say the least, laid back. He’s a lot gentle strumming, some shallow swaying and a bit of back and forth head tossing mixed with subtle vocals from a barely open mouth and rarely open eyes. For sure, there will be no Superbowl-esque fireworks at a Citizen Cope show. But who really expected there to be? Concerts are your chance to see an artist in the flesh and hearing their sound in person. And performing live, Citizen Cope sounds great. His raspy, torn and sometimes troubled voice sounded positively warm inside Royal Oak Music Theater.
Although the band played a pleasant mix of songs from the newly released The Rainwater LP as well as older favorites like “Bullet and a Target” and “Hurricane Waters,” it was clear that the new album hadn’t yet caught on with the crowd. They’ll be out touring for the remainder of spring and back in Detroit with O.A.R. this summer. Just don’t expect any jumping around.
(For more of Christian & Nicole’s photos of this show and others, check out www.flickr.com/photos/christian_nicole)
