Club Caprice

November 8, 1998

by Ron Hromoko one of the drawbacks of attending the first few shows of a tour is that things can, and often do, go wrong. on the plus side, todd's voice and overall condition is usually stronger than at the end of a tour. tonight proved last night was just a warm up. the second night at club caprice was some schweet schtuff.

after the election of our stenographer du jour, peter-i, the introductory ten minute illucidation includes todd stealing The Horns off our center- piece pumpkin and wearing them for the TRTV modem connecting sequence. seeing TR photo-posing for kurt while wearing The Horns, round reading glasses, and a mobile mic around his ear & mouth, lifting up his unbuttoned gray shirt is not an image i'll soon forget.

an opening set fills the clear, dark room:

these two songs sound real good. todd's voice is booming and the black takamine sounds like a deep ovation from the late eighties. during these two songs, i recognize something for the first time: TR can orchestrate this group of technical activities and explanations to *open* a show, have a stranger typing freely on his laptop computer six feet behind him, have no one else on the stage to assist him musically or technically; then, pick up the guitar and put himself and the whole audience in a musically peaceful place. that's cool.

after a status check on peter-i, todd is feeling confident with his voice and tries 'something stupid'.

testing his voice through the first verse, he hits all notes. the chorus is killer as todd hits the top of his range. after this first chorus, he abruptly stops, citing that it's better to get out one good verse and chorus than one good one, one mediocre one, and one crappy one. club caprice heartily agrees.

todd has the crowd's full attention for

another extended tuning session precedes jesse coming out taking the QTVR pictures while todd plays jesse taking QTVR pictures during this song would seem to be another distracting element to the performer, or the audience; but no one seems to mind.

the LA crowd is silent and the takamine is just barely in tune for

Incorrect Media follows. and, due to a technicality, a submission is excluded of a guy playing the piano to one of his toons with new lyrics. TR can do that easily enough himself. instead, we get "tonight, we love" from the incorrect music hour on WFMU in hoboken, NJ.

the idea behind Incorrect Media is you've got to 'think you're doing the right thing', then let yourself be exposed to the masses, ngkay?

todd retires to "satan's coffin" for

'too far gone' sounds good for the first verse then falls apart in the chorus. if todd were our waiter, he'd tell us too far gone is too far gone today. he would recommend the during compassion, todd stops and decides to check on the uploaded toon, then plays another Incorrect Media submission. this time, a video of Roadkill to Fall Back On is played on the monitor. the crowd goes wild!

back to the coffin for

golden lyre award is next. todd is presented with a heavy trophy of a lyre by a well spoken small man in a suit. the award is graciously accepted and given instant credibility by it's other recipients: ravi shenkar, tito puente, etc. only in LA.

jesse returns for some smooooth bossa nova. while getting ready, jesse starts a lin sprague-ish version of

todd joins on the piano playing the verse while jesse is already at the bridge. the fun stops there, unfortunately.

last night's jesse opener was indeed 'believe in me'. i checked.

jesse teases us while TR checks on peter-i with the opening strains of

the boy's got cojones.

todd tosses kurt a few shakers to share with ahvigdor for

all sound great as todd sits on a stool WaT-style with the banana. 'dream' is especially spiritual, as the "here in my dream"s remind me of jaxx last year, when todd couldn't miss a note at the end.

i thought i'd get through a whole show without seeing the p-project. no such luck, as the encore raged with

todd forgets the words in the usually spot [the bridge coming out of the solo]. "clapping on the offbeat isn't helping..." BHH! is funny when todd repeatedly hits an effect with his foot that doesn't take toward the end as todd is running out of steam. what does "bank" mean?

tonight's show was better than last night's all around. or, maybe all the gear just worked as expected. or, maybe todd was in a more relaxed mood. or, maybe i had a better seat. things just clicked.

we decided to miss the eggs files premier tonight to attend this second night at caprice... and what a good decision it was.

i'm just petrified about the five questions
romo