Columbus fans get a real treat! TR, JJ and Ethel, Promowest Pavillion, Columbus Ohio 5/10/05

Could this show have been any more perfect! The weather this day was perfect, 80 degrees with a wonderful breeze. Then there was this great preshow gathering next door to the venue with around 20+ Tr fans, what great people all of them are. And now for my only possible complaint from this night, this is a 'rock' venue and unlike the theater venues at most stops on this tour the crowd noise from the back of the room was quite loud by Ethel's opening few songs, much of the crowd was still visiting with friends and purchasing their beverages. Ethel still managed to get the entire crowd's attention by the 3rd-4th song and held the crowd captive thru the rest of their set. Joe Jackson promptly appeared and put on a great show stating that this had to be the first time in his career he had hit Ohio 3 times in one tour, that's our Todd's influence there I do believe! Joe's set list was much like previous nights with the treat of "Girl" by The Beatles again making an appearence, he does this song with just enough of his own twist thrown in that John Lennon would be both intrigued and proud! Then out comes Todd, he seemed to be in high spirits as his fans cheered him on from moment one! The crowd was mostly well behaved especially in this 'rock' setting and this absolutely has to be the first Todd show I have ever been to that no-one once called out for "The Wheel" during the show so guess what... we got treated to "The Wheel" near the end of the set, now that proves it, don't call out requests and anything is possible! One interesting thing I observed this night is that even tho' Joe does not play or sing at all during "Pretending To Care" he stays at the piano and this night he was absolutley enjoying this song as much or more than any of us in the audience, this song to me is the highlight of this tour thus far. The encore with all the artists on stage is as good as any show gets, a stage full of very talented musicians blending genre's in a way never before attempted to my knowledge! Great, great show all of you! We decided to wait for a bit after the show, the tour bus area is fenced in so unless the artists went out of their way to come out past the fence we were not going to get a chance of any contact. Sure enough out comes Dorothy the cellist from Ethel this is the 2nd show I've been to where members from Ethel have come out to greet the fans, they seem eager to hear what we fans think, Dorthy was thrilled with the response this night and stayed to chat for quite a while telling us they were facing an all night road trip on to Minneapolis, what a kind, gentle soul she is. Then out strolls the 'other' Todd [Reynolds], one of the violinists from Ethel, again a great great guy, very talkative, very glad to see all of us! He did mention that there will be some new songs added to the shows as early as the Minneapolis show, he would not divulge any song info but he did say it will be a wondeful surprise so stay tuned. A few minutes later out walks OH, he was still smiling and just as warm and freindly as I have ever seen him! Signed a few autographs, answered a few questions, and actually came out from behind the fence to give a coupla fans a photo opportunity, once again Todd is all about his fans. Todd departed and the bus drove off on to the next destination, life on the road like that must be tough, how lucky we are that Todd and the other artists continue to tour it does not seem like an easy life, thank-you Todd for coming to our towns again and again these shows will be forever etched in our memories.