TR review for The Pageant, St. Louis, June 3, 2004

I previously caught the 3rd show of the tour (HOB, Chicago, Easter night 4/11/04) and as the set list for that show has already been posted by Jeff Gauss, for posterity's sake I thought I'd post the set list for the St. Louis show I just saw, so the changes so far can be noted. I was able to take some notes this time and I'm pretty sure I've got it all right, but don't hold me to it and feel free to correct any errors. Additionally, a few comments on this show: the sound quality was the best I've heard at a Todd show in a very long time. The Pageant is an excellent venue in every respect, and since Todd relies on using the house P.A. system, I suspect that the Pageant had something to do with this, and for once everything was balanced and not stupidly loud, as opposed to Chicago and some of the other shows that I've read others complain about. Also, Todd was not nearly as chatty as he has been at many of the other shows I've seen over the years (including Chicago, where he thanked us for letting them rehearse at our expense), and I missed his usual 'tween song commentary. However, the prevailing feel of this album and tour is pretty much Todd preaching about his latest vision/rant, and it seems that this go-around he prefers to let the lyrics do the preachin' all on their own.

Todd and Religious Liars
1.)    Truth
2.)    Buffalo Grass
3.)    Mammon
4.)    Fascist Christ
5.)    I Hate My Frickin' ISP
6.)    While My Guitar Gently Weeps
7.)    God Said
8.)    Liar

Todd solo acoustic
9.)    Beloved Infidel
10.)  Lunatic Fringe

Liars sans Todd
11.)  Green Onions jam

Todd and Cool Liars
12.)  Soul Brother
13.)  Flaw
14.)  Sweet
15.)  Past
16.)  Born To Synthesize
17.)  Feel It
18.)  The Want Of A Nail

Encore
19.)  Hello It's Me
20.)  Just One Victory

4 songs dropped (since 1st show in Milwaukee):
Unloved Children (for me this was very disappointing, because it was not only really great in Chicago, but it also fits the theme of the tour and was one of my favorites on 'Nearly Human')
Temporary Sanity
Hit Me Like A Train
Love Science (I never cared much for this anyway)
Worldwide Epiphany (very distorted in Chicago, and to a degree ruined the traditional last song status of JOV.)

1 song added:
Flaw (fun, but not worth trading in Unloved Children for, IMHO.)

Afterthoughts and prejudices: Highlights for me were Feel It, Liar, hearing the band stretch out during Green Onions & Born to Synth (Jesse smokes!), and of course JOV. I could have done without ISP, Flaw was just ok, and as for the acoustic stuff I still would rather have heard Love of the Common Man and Cliché once again instead of Infidel and Lunatic. I think I understand given the theme of the tour why he chose Infidel and Lunatic, but LOTCM and Cliché would also have fit into the humanitarian theme just as well and they're both just much better songs. I've seen every Todd tour since '74 (Utopia w/ M Frog), and the musicianship in this band is top shelf, equaling the six-man Utopia w/ Powell and the large Nearly Human ensemble. Given this band's abilities, it would have been fun to hear them tackle some of the timeless early material like Last Ride, Black Maria, WTSHTF/Sunset Boulevard, Couldn't I Just Tell You, Don't You Ever Learn?, and maybe a couple of short musical nods to some of the Icon themes. But I understand that this was a tour to support 'Liars' and I'm just doing a little wishful thinking out loud. Maybe when Todd is finally inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame, he'll tour with a 'greatest hits' set list that reflects what I think is his best writing and performances, but at least after the very lame 'With A Twist' tour, this tour has reaffirmed for me that Todd has still got a lot of fire in him and can always find something important to say.