Todd opened with Hammer in My Heart. I can't remember if I've ever seen him do this solo. It made me sad because I remember how good it sounded with Utopia. I wanted to go home and fetch my drums and my bass player. He played and sang great but I wanted more.
Cliche and Love of The Common Man were great despite a tuning problem with his 12 string. No one seemed to notice that much but Todd winced a couple of times.
I can't remember all the songs but as far as highlights go things were really coming together when Jesse came out for the bossa nova stuff. Todd was singing his ass off. That was some good shit. Jesse was showing off a bit and Todd was playfully annoyed. He screamed "you're fired" at one point.
I Dont Want To Tie You Down was a nice suprise. Compassion was killer. One World was so very fucking good. Everyone was clapping along and Todd was really into it. He left the stage but we weren't having any of that. He came back for an encore. I was smashed by then. He did A Dream Goes on Forever and The Wheel after about the millionth time some jackass screamed for it. He left the stage again but had to come back out for another encore. Hawking. Thanks for that one. He screwed up the piano and yelled at the sound guy to cut the delay or whatever heavy handed effect he was using. It kind of broke the mood but he got right back into it. By the chorus I had forgotten all about it. Really good show.
It was great to see Todd especially since he decided not to tour any more. I think he was having second thoughts after this show. New York loves Todd. There are loads of fans here and I think he was happy to see them after playing shows in crappy casino venues and festival tents. Todd could have played a much larger venue in NYC. BB Kings was a sold out show. Todd should play Irving Plaza or The Beacon or the Bowery Ballroom. Todd is a legend and to see him playing places like Mohegan Sun Casino or The Cape Cod Melody Tent is a god damn shame. Please Todd, put together a band that knows how to rock and take us higher.
