Columbus Review, 7/26/03, Palace Theatre

Review by Tianne Isenhower (Switch to
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7/28/2003

We flew in on the day of the concert and while we were in Chicago's Midway Airport, walking to our gate, I notice a fella with a guitar slung on his back up in front of us. Half joking, I say "Los Lobos". Steve laughed and said, "Yeah, right". "Ok, fine. Don't believe me", I teased. When we get to our gate, there's about 6 guys with guitars and I see the "La Bamba" guy that I remember from videos. Pretty cool. I approached one guy, who I now since know is a drummer and told him that we were going to be seeing them at the Palace. I asked how long they would be playing and he said a full set, about an hour and a half and that Todd was on first. I brighten a bit, hoping that Todd's set is going to be longer than the 60-minutes that I was expecting.

Deb/debmisto is a Columbus native and when she read that I was coming in from St. Louis for the show, the two of us decided to meet up before the concert, get to know each other a little better and talk some Todd.

Steve and I met Deb and her friend Jenny at Planks Beer Garden before the show. Deb picked the place, and I have to say that it's got one of the best pizza's that we've encountered. We have encountered many pizzas.

What was supposed to be a 60-minute set, lapsed into an hour and 20-minutes with one encore. This was a co-header with Los Lobos, and Todd took the stage first. There's no doubt that it was a Los Lobos crowd. The T-Shirt hawker in the lobby was replenishing his 5 stacks of Lobos sT's while 2 stacks of Todd remained pretty much at original level. This was surprising to me since Todd's last appearance in this city as the Headliner sold out this past April. Deb had mentioned that she had talked to some others who had been at the April show and didn't want to shell out the money again just 3 short months later for basically the same exact tour.

Todd started out a little rough, not being able to hit the high notes...this got better as the night went on. As I said earlier, it was a Los Lobos crowd, but he picked up more applause as he continued. The show was pretty much the same as St. Louis, but with a few deletions. It was a lengthier set than I was expecting, so I was thrilled. On one of the piano songs, he dropped out a lyric which caused him to screw up the melody and the whole thing bungled. He laughed, we laughed, he apologized and picked it back up and went on. During one of the MP3 songs, his hand motions completely knocked the microphone off the stand with a loud crash. Laughter again. Tough night. Must have been tougher though in Dayton. Several references were made to Dayton, one in regards to American Eagle. The reviews for Dayton all seem pretty good. I guess there must have been some problems behind the scenes. He said a couple of times about how bad Dayton was, "You have no idea" and "that his number must have been up in Dayton". Wish we all knew the rest of the story...

Beloved Infidel doesn't do much for me. Lots up people up and down during this one. Ditto I Want You, which just seemed "off" to me.

I've got to say, the guy is just extremely entertaining. Even my husband who is not a Todd fan was pleasantly surprised. He's not asking to borrow my CD's mind you, but it wasn't painful for him. During "I Saw The Light" he leans over and says to me "I didn't know he did this..."

After-Show passes got us backstage after what seemed to be an eternity. Security was having problems with the Los Lobos crowd. Deb and I were hoping that Todd wasn't leaving right away as we had been told he might. Luckily, he stuck around and we got backstage to meet him for photo ops and autographs. Todd must have just had a healthy helping of onions on something. Just Another Onionhead is right! lol. He got hugs from two gals so I jumped at the chance to go with the same flow. What the hell. He mentioned that on his next trip to Columbus he would be playing new material. He didn't offer any hints about when it would be in stores. I can't wait!!! I asked him if he got a glass bead necklace in St. Louis and he said he did and thanked me for it. I didn't get to see him personally that night to give it to him and had sent it back to him blindly, not knowing that I'd be going to any of his other stops. I told him that we were going to be in Ann Arbor too and that we were bringing the 10-year old along on that trip...he laughed and said he'd better "clean up his act". Hubby Steve took a picture but couldn't figure my camera out which is why we each have only half a head. Ha-ha!

Los Lobos came on next and we sat and watched a few songs. I don't get the whole Los Lobos thing and so we decided to cut out...said goodbye to Deb and Jenny. Out in the lobby I hear them start to play a Beatles tune, Rain...then I tell Steve that I think it's Todd singing. We went back in and sure enough, Todd's up there doing lead vocals and playing guitar. We hurried back to our seats and watched the end of it. As Todd left the stage, one of the Lobos dudes said what an honor it was to share the stage with a legend.

Seeing Todd perform again was great. Meeting up with Deb was super! Great gal - we had a blast!

We've got tickets for Ann Arbor on 7/28 and are taking the 10-year old along on that trip. She's not a Todd fan either. Yet. Ha-Ha. I wish I didn't have to work so hard trying to convert people.

As much as I can remember, here's the set list:

Lysistrata
Love Of The Common Man
Black and White
Cliché
Lunatic Fringe
Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference
Song of The Viking
Compassion
Male, Free and 21
Too Far Gone
Bang On The Drum
Beloved Infidel
Hide Your Love Away (Beatles)
I've Just Seen A Face (Beatles)
I Want You  (Marvin Gaye)
Can We Still Be Friends
Influenza
I Saw The Light
Too Far Gone
One World
Hello It's Me (Yo! What's Up!)
Rain (Beatles - w/Los Lobos)
The Palace is a pretty swanky place. Older hall, Baroque style. Very nice. The acoustic guitar seemed to get lost here though.

Was sad that Gary Jules wasn't here with Todd. Gary is very entertaining and I'm looking forward to seeing him again in Ann Arbor.


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7/26/2003 - Palace Theater - Columbus, OH

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