weds: highlights- todd kissing the band on the mouth (except ferenzik who ducked it) and dedicating the philly medley to them...performance was uninspired on the bossa set but tr had a cold..sound weds nite sucked..way too much bass on the bossa set actually leaving tr's voc mic buried most of the set... america drinks featured "you came on strong with your fast car and your cockring..." all of the standup which peaked on thurs was unscripted..tr looked a bit drunk..knocked over his drink all over kaz who moved away from him.. set 1 was w/o train...pretty good but tech probs w/ sound and guitar rig of tr plagued the pace...
thurs nite.. i could tell tr was going to leave it on the floor for the final show when he walked out..he was probably disapointed w/ the weds nite show and had a determined look on everyone's face as they came out and creamed.. train was in the set...approx 55 min long ---tr's vocs which had been noticably hoarse the nite before were nearly perfection the whole night...the playing was precise (not sloppy as had been a prob weds) and very daring as far as tr's leads... bossa set ran 80 mins w/ a 25 minute syth which included (as a part of syth) america drinks in the middle of it...this one went as far out as possible..with a tiki patron even scat singing at one point...tr stood up on his chair during IWHMAD and caused a feedback with his asshole on the mic while doing the ricky martin thang- he then fell backwards off of the chair and could have really caused serious injury (he fell at least 7 feet onto his back on PPs drum riser) he got up and rocked on... espresso came into the picture again...and the crowd went nuts although not many knew the song...(when will management come to me to represent todd to get him a deal with starbucks???? i got the concept for the commercial all worked out....i am serious here)
the playing was inspired, the vocs superb, the house sound was corrected and very nice..it was hard to believe that this was the same unit as the night before...
i am an oldtimer and i walked out of the club ten feet off the ground..the happy demeanor of the band and tr and his humor which i could write a book on the jokes both nites (approaching lou reed "take no prisoners" quantity-wise) for me, made this one of the most enjoyable and rewarding shows i have had the pleasure of seeing..truly a great show for the ages on 7/1...too bad you folks missed it cause it was as close to perfect as i have witnessed for many a year..
before he kissed the guys on weds nite and told him he loved them, he said they had been thru hell together...
well......thursday nite the band climbed out of that hell and soared like we haven't seen in a long time with the confidence of days past.. a lack of which was evident to me in yankee lake..i thought it was cause larry the soundman was not on this tour...whatever it was, it was killed and buried on thursday..redemption in the nick of time... i may have seen one of the lesser shows on wedsnesday but even though i did not see most of the others..it would be hard to imagine a show better than 7/1 thursday..it really was "all that" and i promise you i am not exaggerating one speck............. with faith restored and blazing bright blue.. btw, he is still the coolest mf on earth....mr rogers
