Rawlking! Indeed. First off, there was a huge line of folks with
general admission seating lined up out front (there were also reserved
seats which luckly I had and later traded). People were asking WHOSE at the Ark
tonight, I guess they had never seen such a crowd. It was good to see
some Todd diehards in this crowd tonight, as it was nice to meet some
new folks. I agree with Bill Boley's review. The crowd loved Todd and
he was grooving on the crowd. I think we got a couple of extra songs
tonight folks! His voice was robust, and there was a real seriousness
about his music. I wonder what those symbols were on his new black
socks? One more lei. It was too funny when TR sang "Yo Mich, it's
me". He kept saying he was going to run for governor, after all, he
still owns a loft in California and all you need is 65 signatures to get on the ballot...(recall election). He made
reference to how he has played Michigan 3 times in 3 months, and he has conquered Michigan. He was trying to
figure what is up with that, being here so much. When it came time to lei him, some guy handed him a Hawaiian butter knife, too funny. It had a hula dancer on the handle. Todd put it in his pocket, I looked over at him and said "oh Todd" and he said to the crowd "excuse me, I will be back shortly" and he came over to let me lei him. (Unlike Kalamazoo this was a safe flat stage"). I had given him a funny green weed lei and one with pink, green and white Madri Gras beads and pink flamingos on it. (After all, it *was* Ann Arbor home of the Hash Bash). He went back to his microphone and said "now I am in full Hawaiian attire". During Drum he sniffed the green weed lei and sung "I just wanna smoke all day"....Later he took the leis off when playing the piano and he said "pretty, very pretty" I guess he liked them.
I would like to thank L and L who graciously traded their front row seats so I could be in a better position for photos/lei'ing etc. Lovely ladies I just met! This show folks was llike having Todd in your living room! Very intimate indeed.... Todd gave it his all yet there is more. Wait until November to see what I mean. I am guessing new music since the CD is due out around September or so.........see you soon Todd!