As the Have Gun Will Travel tour winds down, Todd appeared in top form & on a mission to please, aided only by Benadryl & a 6 pack of water.
He got the broken string out of the way in the 1st 60 seconds of Lysistrata, 1 of a half dozen songs with references to life during wartime, the subject of much 'tween songs commentary. If there's a current trend in the entertainment biz to keep one's anti-Bush Admn. comments to themselves, this guy's bucking it. How 'bout a Rush vs. Runt debate on pay-per-view?
Now that he's using a different opening gag on Hello It's Me every show ("Hey Y'all" @ Mountain Stage," Hi Dave" on Letterman, "Yo Philly" here, he seems to actually enjoy performing the old nugget.
Jesse Gress, the Tiki bartender, who could walk home after this show, added a great touch to the mix, as always. The MP3 stops abruptly at the end of each WAT song now & unless OH doesn't feel he's gotten every penny back from the investment, could be donated to the Philly Hard Rock Cafe for karyoke night.
The piano segment was most effective and how often have we said that? I got chills during Compassion, which carried over into Free Male & 21.
There was a chorus of Be Nice to Me requests from a group near me. I can't think of 1 song from the 35 year output that doesn't stand up to the test of time. It's great to be hear the tip of the iceberg live on a regular basis & what other geezer can you say that about?
Our teenage daughter was so impressed with the show, (her 4th) that she wanted to buy a t-shirt, but realized that Have Gun Will Travel would probably violate her high school's security-sensitive dresscode.
Todd may not be blazing new trails thru the wilderness like last century, but nobody else is either. I'll settle for an affordable, wonderfully entertaining couple hours at a perfect venue, with Philly's unofficial favorite son.
