Love in Action When The Walls Came Down Black Maria Open My Eyes Lunatic Fringe I Saw The Light Mad Afraid Mercenary Gun Courage Weakness Strike Pissin Bardo Mountaintop Panic ManupThe opening act was "Freeman" and they were entertaining. Paul Freeman is the main guy and he had some 3 song EPs for sale for $5 and was signing them for buyers after his performance. A lot of people bought his EP. He's a big fan of Todd's FYI.Encores
Couldn't I Just Tell You Just One Victory
Cathy was there selling merch and she has a newer long sleeve shirt that has a Todd face drawing that Prairie did and it glows in the dark. She also had autographed LIARS CDs for sell and plenty of Arena CDs that appeared to be selling fairly well.
The Bijous is a nice theatre with great acoustics but unfortunately it is a place with permanent chairs so people had to sit through most of the show. I went to the balcony with CruiserMel and we got behind the rows that were full and proceeded to stand up through almost the entire show. It was a great spot for watching this fantastic group of musicians playing some great Todd tunes. It was a really good spot for watching Prairie bang on the drums and he was doing a terrific job at it as usual. During the encores we moved to the second row and then the first one and finally several of us stood up and approached the stage for the final encore. Although the theatre staff were camera nazis, they did not object to the standing up for the last song.
I've seen this Arena show a few times and the band was as tight as they can get in my opinion. The addition of Kasim is great but that's not the only reason the show was so fantastic. The entire band was on fire and Todd's voice was in great shape the entire show. They didn't have many technical issues other than a couple of guitar string issues that were resolved rapidly. The stage was pretty big and they had plenty of room to move around and they took advantage of it. The keyboards face the drums and were on the right side of the stage if you're looking at it. When Kasim played guitar he would turn forward and walk closer to the crowd. Todd mixed it up with Foamy and his new black guitar.
At one point in the show Todd started a little political talk and it got real quiet as he was thinking of something to add to his speech. CruiserMel proceeded to yell, "Todd for President" and the entire place could hear it including Todd. He looked up and said, "Do you want me to be miserable" and then said he wouldn't want that job right now and laughed.
Todd went outside after the show and about 20 fans were waiting to meet him and he hooked them up with photo opps and autographs, etc.
In closing, I have to add that I absolutely LOVE this Arena show and can't wait to see it again!
