Jones Beach

I thought this might be an extraordinary evening as it began being accosted by a hari krishna in the parking lot as my lady and I were about to change into warmer clothing (after all, this IS New York)

Although Todd's show at Jones Beach was entertaining throughout, he seemed a little out of sync with the band at times. After going solo with Love of the Common Man and Cliche (both great), his supporting band members joined him. Todd said it was a ROCK and soul tour, and it was time to ROCK. They then went into a decent rendition of Hit Me Like A Train, but that's not a ROCK song to me. I would have preferred Love in Action or Black and White. Lyrics were sometimes a bit off, but the rest of his set:

Looking At You (But Talking to Myself)
Buffalo Grass
Parallel Lines
Hello Its Me
Love is the Answer (especially well done)
Rock Love

was good overall, but seemed to need more polish. Maybe they were feeding off the (lack of) response from the crowd. At one point early on, Todd said, "Don't hit me with all your kudos at once." Todd's voice was right on (the day off must've helped), but there was not enough guitar work (can there ever be enough?) for this fan.

After an annoying radio station-plugged intermission, Hall and Oates came out. Their perfomance is best described as enigmatic. For the most part, their work was enjoyable (for Their fans) as they played all their staples, except that they would devolve into almost Greatful Dead-like diversions that eventually had me checking my watch. About 2/3 of the way through the set one guy shouted out, "Are you guys gonna play something that doesn't SUCK?" (After all, this IS New York). Unfortunately, for this Todd fan for 27 years, the answer was NO.

For the encore, Todd came back out with everyone. Maybe it was the Philly theme, but Todd's eyes looked so swollen, I was hearing Rocky say, "Cut me, Mick!" during the songs. They went back and forth between H&O songs and two more Todd songs, Can We Still be Friends and I Saw the Light, with Todd and Darryl alternated singing lead during each of the songs. It seemed to lead to just a little confusion as to who would sing what, when.

They encored with "Hot Fun in the Summertime"

My Evening's entertainment wasn't through until, in the bathroom, some guy was falsetto-singing H&O's "Your Kiss is on My List". After all, this IS New York.

All in all, an enjoyable evening, but I would have scripted more Todd, more Rock.