It was actually a Slim's announcer with the restroom directions and the eta of the show. Todd wasn't in the house until about 5 min. before they all came on stage.
The "Rock out Hour" first set was just what we all needed. Especially since the last couple times OH played around town it was strictly solo "let's see if I can remember this song" kind of stuff. Which is always fun, but never left me completely satisfied. It was also nice to hear "The Surf Talks" and Hit Me Like a Train" live for the first time.
Prarie was just on fire for the whole set and Jesse wailed all the way through.
The highlight of the WAT set for me was the "cool" 3/4 jazz version of "Born to Synthesize". First heard this version on the WAT tour amd was stunned. Last night it was even better. Jesse went nuts with his long guitar jam, with Todd even yelling out "not too much blues (laughing)" about 2 min. into it, But Jesse just jammed on. John was equally "verbose" on his Roland jam. I think they didn't want to stop jamming and I would have been happy with another 15 min. myself. Kasim's smile was ear to ear during the whole thing.
I'll be there again tonight and would not be dissappointed, but would be surprised if there weren't some changes in the first set. The SF shows when these tours start always seem to be a chance to try alot of material and see what works best.
I did hear a few comments such as "hope he doesn't play too much of that Tiki stuff" but I think the balance was perfect. Go see it at a show near you.
Ray
