Val Air Ballroom, 6/1/2000

What a great show! Todd has always had an unusually large following in Des Moines, and the fans turned out for this one. I have good memories of the Utopia show at the Civic Center in 1980. The sound at the Val Air Ballroom was good, and the band did not have any of the technical problems reported earlier in the tour, other than Todd's complaints about not enough back lighting - he couldn't see what he was doing in the shadows. The set list was the same as reported earlier in the tour - a great selection of songs, full of surprises, especially Open My Eyes, #1 Lowest Common Denomonator, Black and White, excerpts from The Ikon, and an encore of Worldwide Epiphany. Almost two hours of music, we really got our money's worth. I may head south to Kansas City tonight.