I would first like to say that as a music venue, the Crockodile (Crok-O-Shit) Rock Café sucks...and blows. I have seen Todd about 40 times since 1973 and this, by far, was the worst venue I have ever seen Todd play. You can get better acoustics playing in an oil drum. To make things worse, the room had average 10' cielings, but the large bar at the left of the stage had an open second floor "atrium" above it. This wonderful feature served only to amplify the crowd of obnoxious loudmouths in the bar area. To make it worse, there was another matching bar in the back of the room - stereo assholes!!
Eric Lund's previous review pretty much covered the events. I was truly embarassed to be in attendance and was saddened to watch the events of the evening unfold - and I know I'm not alone. I don't blame Todd for leaving the stage one bit. And I must say, he gave fair warning several times before walking off. Most of you out there reading this are true fans - can you imagine Todd sitting at a baby grand playing Compassion, and the crowd noise is so loud that you can hardly hear him? Todd couldn't hear himself! This happened after he asked the crowd several times for a little consideration. No compassion in this house.
One incident that Eric missed was during The Wheel, another asshole who was standing up front decided to blow their cigarette smoke toward Todd's face. At this point Todd grabbed a guitar pick off the mike stand and threw it point blank at the idiot and without missing a beat, said "let us off this f***ing wheel of karma". I would have left for good after that episode.
As for the show - Todd's voice is as strong as ever and Jesse's guitar stylings are the best.
The man deserves much better than this. Jesse deserves better than this. As for me - it's theatres-only from now on!
PS: I have some nice pictures of Todd's son that I took at a Utica game this summer. I was going to give them to him, but it just wasn't the night. If anyone reading this can get them to him, let me know (ronbic@aol.com).
